This week, a session we’ve been using in our online classes about the ethics of video games. It’s inspired by case number five, “The Tears of the Koroks” from the Ethics Cup case set, but adapted here for a wider audience.
Warm-up Question
Share in pairs examples of things you have done in a video game that you would never do in real life. Then share some as a whole class.
Stimulus: Cooking Koroks
The video game The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, has a huge and open world where players can use the things they find in new and creative ways, and do things the game creators have not imagined.
Among the inhabitants of this world are cute, immortal little critters called Koroks. As side-quests to the main game, you can use your magical powers to help these fairy-like creatures reunite with their friends.
Or, as some players have discovered, you can…
…fire them into the sky with rockets.
…drag them behind horses.
…or roast them over an open fire.
Some players think this is all just a fun way to experiment with what the game can do. Other people find it disturbing and think it says something bad about the people who want to do it.
- Is it wrong to be cruel to a character that only exists in a video game? Why, why not?
- Is it different if the character is controlled by another human player? When, when not?
- Is it different if the character you’re being cruel to is a villain?
- What about if the character you are playing is a villain?
- Should the game creators make this sort of cruel behaviour impossible, for the good of the players?
Further Stimulus: Cruel World, Cruel Playground
Imagine you’re a parent. Your children (boy and girl twins who are the same age you are now in real life) keep pestering you to buy them one of the latest video games from Cruel Inc, a game producer that specializes in cartoon-like games that involve doing things that in the real world would be considered very bad in the real world.
Cruel World invites players to drop pianos onto passers-by from skyscrapers, or to release hungry piranhas into swimming pools and so on. There is a leaderboard for the player who collects the largest number of “screams”.
Cruel Playground meanwhile allows players to become a pupil at St Spresurvus School for the Horrible. The winner of the game is the one who succeeds in collecting the largest number of “tears” from the other pupils in the game, non-player characters who they must bully relentlessly.
If you were pestered so much that for your own sanity, you decide you will have to buy one game or the other, which would you rather your children were playing. Why?
A Bit of Background
“Moral panics” that video games are creating violent tendencies have been around since 1976. The best summary of the academic research is that video games neither encourage real-world violence, nor do they “purge” people of violent impulses and make them less violent.
The enquiries I’ve had around theses question have been very engaged with a range of views. Some have a strong sense that games are completely separate from ordinary life, with others saying that where the play in a game causes real-world distress to someone that’s very different, and others being concerned that players might get desensitised to violence. Others have thought that in-game violence that is extreme is fine as it’s obviously not going be imitated, whereas the smaller-scale nastiness of Cruel Playground is something they wouldn’t want their imaginary children playing out.
It’s an enquiry that some teachers may find a challenge to facilitate with neutrality, but it’s certainly an interesting insight into a significant part of many children’s worlds and their interpretation of their own experience.
Finally, a Sticky Question that feels relevant for this week’s bulletin..
What’s new in the Philosoverse?
It’s been half-term in the UK, so we’ve been balancing a few days off with working hard behind the scenes on new resources, and enjoying some great conversations with teachers planning on inviting us in during the coming weeks. We’ll continue normal service next week with news of our latest minibook and its recent launch at The Great Oracy Exhibition.
Best wishes,
Tom and Jason