There are so many ethical issues in games it’s
surprising but sometimes these are not all bad for the game’s publisher, they
get the media’s attention which really is all they want. (Seen as their main
goal is to sell as many as possible) Some of the ethical issues that are in
today’s games include an attempt to modify player’s actions and behaviours to
sometimes make them do the unethical for temporary rewards. Male and female perception
is a big problem, along with their race. More and more issues come up every
day, now for more detail.
Is modifying a player’s actions/choices/behaviours
right? Should games reward them for this style of play or should they punish
them. I have three examples for this matter. Firstly Bioshock’s little sisters,
basically you have an option to save or harvest. (save or kill in easier terms)
Saving the little sisters gives you half the reward of harvesting them but
after saving 5 little sisters you get a bonus, the difference overall is only
about 40 ADAM difference. So the game is rewarding you with double the currency
for killing a little sister, the urge of gaining more weapons and upgrades
faster sways our choice to doing the unethical.
In some games
when you are unethical for example killing the public or citizens in assassin’s
creed it would De-sync you out of the game and tell you that it is wrong –
making you start from the last checkpoint. The final example is Call Of Duty in
which one mission you are undercover with a group of terrorists and you don’t
get rewarded or punished no matter how much you obey to their commands, the
ending is fixed – not much fun at all.
Male and female perception in games is a big problem.
Generally we treat male characters as the big, strong main character that has
to save the pathetic (usually skimpily dressed) female character that can’t
fight for herself and is useless. Is that right? If they made it so that they
were both able to perform equally would it attract more of the female audience
because I’m sure they get bored of playing the male character and having to
save their gender.
Racial issues play a big part in the current problems with
games. White male protagonists are usually the main character and that was a
big problem in Resident Evil 5 because the main character was a tall, strong
white American that shot at hordes of African zombies, not a single white or Asian
zombie. This caused massive heated debates on many reviewing sites and even
IGN.
