Virtual Morality Gives Pause For Thought

Thanks to Globeandmail.com for their article discussing deeper storylines and more complex moral choices for a maturing videogame audience. They cite a forum post from a KOTOR player lamenting: "Being evil is addictive and I find myself in situations where my conscience kicks in and it's difficult for me to do the bad thing", and the article claims this "...represents a new generation of sophisticated electronic games, created for a maturing and rapidly expanding audience, that are transforming gaming consoles from an adolescent diversion into a mainstream entertainment medium with artistic integrity and a social conscience." Is it justified to feel guilty about being evil within a videogame?

Comments

Re:Forget guilt -- it's fantasy

[jazzmodeus]

Videogames are about role-playing, playing a role. Good and evil are just that, roles to be played. In games we play the roles that will reward us with the most enjoyable experience. Real life often imposes a necessary morality to function within society, allowing little opportunity to experience life at the extremes. Games allow, if only for a moment, if only vicariously, the player the chance to experience a life at the extremes. J

Re:Guilt is not a question of damage, but characte

[bluephone]

"But if one choses to eat ewoks alive, killing the character and booting the user permanently from the server, one should rightfully feel guilty. If one chose to sell out the Mudokans to their fate in order to save their own hide, one should feel guilty."

I disagree with these examples. That is your GOAL in the game in that context (being an 'evildoer' as our braintrust of a President calls it). Does that player feel worse for having been eaten knowing it was a person being the bad guy, versus a bot/scripted game event? I doubt it. Do you feel guilty when playing Quake 3 and you frag the point leader in an elimination round?

eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it justified to feel guilty about being evil within a videogame?

Is it justified to feel aroused when looking at a picture of a naked woman? Is it justified to feel hungry when thinking about a hamburger? Is it justified to feel angry about something that happened in a movie?

Yes of course it is! The REASON that movies (and video games, etc) are popular is because they let you "drop your guard" for a little bit. they let you feel emotions or experiences that you don't usually. If you didn't feel emotions like this, you wouldn't be human.. the same part of your brain is involved either way.

Of course it's a problem when somebody confuses "fantasy" with "reality" but I'll admit those are pretty fuzzy lines. We all live in a sort of fantasy world anyway, or more precisely, a subset of reality.

If this fellow feels bad about being evil in a game, then he has two choices: 1) don't be evil in the game, or 2) explore your feelings and self-understanding through being evil in the game. It could be frightening, exciting, and perhaps enlightening. You don't get those changes in the real world.

Re:Guilt is not a question of damage, but characte

[cgenman]

That is where morality comes into play. Your goal isn't specifically to eat ewoks or sell out the Mudokans... your goal is your choice. A person in a MMPORPG will feel bad when PKed because he has lost experience, gold, and a sum of his time towards his goal, whatever that may be.

I agree that nobody should feel guilty for fragging a point leader. But one should feel guilty if one DDOSes the point leader in order to win. There are certain roads that are immoral to take in the achieving of one's goals. Just because videogames change both the goals and the morality of the situation doesn't mean that the morality has been moved. The closer the videogame attempts to ape the situations found in life, the closer the resulting morality template will be. Characters in stories can act immorally even though they are characters. As a player in the role of a character you too should feel emotional ramifications of your decisions.

Evil does not think it is evil

[wowbagger]

True evil exists in this world, but rarely does true evil believe itself to be evil - rarely do you see an evil person sitting down and saying "What terrible thing shall I do today, MUWHAHAHAHA!"

Consider Saddam and Sons - the things they've done are, by most people's judgement, evil - putting people into a shredder feet first, raping women, killing their opposition. Yet, do you think that Saddam thought to himself, "I'm so EEEVIL - I love being me!". I doubt it - he almost certainly rationalized what he did - "Yes, putting this guy feet-first into this shredder is terrible (although kind of cool), but the pure horror of it will prevent anybody else from doing what he did, and thus will keep order in my country."

Or, consider Anakin/Vader - as we are seeing over the course of the first three movies, his descent into evil was not caused by a desire to do evil, but natural and otherwise good impulses ("These raiders are bad people - they hurt an innocent (my mother). I will remove the threat - I will destroy them.")

Now, consider the game - you say you are having problems "doing evil". Good. Don't "do evil" - roleplay. Say to yourself "I am going to do whatever it takes for my character to advance. Everybody else is going to do whatever they can do do advance, I must do it to them before they do it to me." Get yourself in that mindset, and the evil will come naturally.

Then, after the game, please MEDITATE UPON YOUR ACTIONS, and realize why that sort of attitude should be strictly confined to situations where the harm done is fictional!