Ethical Issues In Game Design

The definition of ethics is, "Ethics are Being in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of a profession. To address questions about morality; like good and bad, right and wrong".

Ethical consideration is a decision made with the morals and social values of a given person or group in mind. An action may be legal but unethical, however some acts are both illegal and unethical. The decision usually involves avoiding acts or procedures that may compromise the moral values of the group of people or individual person being considered.

Game developers in general have to account for several ethical considerations:

Violent and Sexual Content
Ratings
Freedom of speech
Medical implications on players
Product Placement
Women's portrayal in video games
Sexuality in games. Like homosexual relationships in games
Censorship in games

Examples of this topic affecting Game Development

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

The first example is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's highly controversial mission 'No Russian', in which you gun down innocent civilians in a public airport. In November 2009 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released. The Call of Duty franchise has a history of violence and but Modern Warfare 2's PEGI 18 rating came as a surprise because all previous games had been PEGI 16, within a few weeks of the games release it received a lot of controversy and bad press.

The controversy came as a result of a mission within the game called 'No Russian'. The player is warned prior to starting the mission of the 'disturbing content', and can choose to skip the mission at no penalty.The mission 'No Russian' involves you playing as an undercover CIA agent in a group of Russian ultra-nationalist terrorists enacting an airport massacre. The mission starts with you and three terrorists entering an airport with heavy machine guns and gunning down a large group of civilians. Although the player is technically allied with the terrorists, they are not forced to kill any of the civilians themselves to fulfill the mission's objectives. No Russian

In no way can killing innocent civilians like that be reasoned as Ethical. Although the majority of players had no issue with the level, the game was given a PEGI 18 rating, the first time a Call of Duty game had received that rating, and subsequently censored in several countries including Russia and Germany.

Resident Evil 5

At E3 2007 a trailer was released for Resident Evil 5, the trailer was criticized as being racist for its depiction of a white protagonist killing black enemies in a small African village. Although the trailer was on a preview of the final game, many people still ridiculed the game for its racist undertone.

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The second trailer for the game was released on May 31, 2008 and revealed a more racially diverse group of enemies as well as a native African operative, called Sheva Alomar, to assist the protagonist.The designer, Jun Takeuchi, denied that the complaints about racism had any affect in altering the design Resident Evil 5. In an interview Takeuchi commented that the game's producers were surprised by the controversy, he went on to explain that Capcom's staff is racially diverse, and acknowledged that various cultures may have had different opinions on the trailer.

In Eurogamer's February 2009 preview of Resident Evil 5, Dan Whitehead boldly stated that 'it plays so blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous 'dark continent' and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s" and 'there are even more outrageous and outdated images to be found later in the game, stuff that I was honestly surprised to see in 2009'. The article also states that the addition of the 'light-skinned' Sheva 'compounds the problem rather than easing it.'

Reflection

Game developers face more moral and ethical issues than in any other medium. They have to find the right balance between their rights to free expression, what consumers want and be concerned about the effects their content has on their audience. Because video games are a newer medium, than TV and film for example, game designers are still trying to define the line on what kind of ethics code they should adopt.Because everyone's definition of ethics is different, it can be difficult to draw the line on whats right or wrong.

It could be said that games, like movies and television, are a form of entertainment and that they shouldn't need to pay attention to ethics any more than movies do. With recent movies such as '12 Years A Slave', it shows just how fine the line is for the consideration of ethics. The film won best picture at the Oscars and was critically acclaimed as a piece of art, the film goes to show that even racism and slavery can be depicted in the 'right way' and that if movies can portray moral and ethical issues in such detail, why shouldn't games developers have the same privilege?

In conclusion, i believe that if game developers are given the same rights to express moral and ethical issues as film makers are, within the next 3-5 years we will see a lot more 'ambitious' games than will attempt to detail certain moral or ethical issues like slavery for example in a more serious and educational way.