Miguel Sicart Ph.D. Student Center for Computer Game Research
IT University of Copenhagen - miguel@itu.dk - www.miguelsicart.com
«Computer games can have embedded ethical values...»

In this paper I will propose a tentative definition of what an ethically good computer game is. The theoretical framework of this paper will be constructivist ethics, with a special focus in Virtue Ethics.

To define what a good computer game is, I will first describe computer games as ergodic (Aarseth: 1998) interactive systems of rules, goals and strategies that create a world with a ludic structure (Juul: 2004; Salen & Zimmerman: 2004). These systems have been designed with a set of intentions in mind by a group of developers in specific cultural and economical environments. Like most technology and/or systems as such designed, computer games can have embedded ethical values in their design (Winner: 1986; Latour: 1992). Following the lines of the disclosive method of Brey (Brey: 2000), I will suggest that understanding the ethics of computer games requires an ethical interpretation of the system of the game and its possible embedded values.

A good game is also made so by its players. Games are experiences of play in designated, designed environments (Huizinga: 2006). In this paper I will try to understand the ethical position of players and the relations between the ethics of the game and the ethics of the player. I will argue that the player is a subject conditioned by the game system, and by the culture and tradition of playing and games. A player knows what is fair and not, what constitutes fairplay and what is a spoilsport. Players do create their own value systems related, but not determined, by that of the game. Playing a game from an ethical perspective is the experience of the game by a moral subject that interprets, evaluates and accepts or modifies the values of the game system.

In this paper I will use the online game World of Warcraft (Blizzard: 2005) as an example for the importance of the player community in the overall interpretation of what a good game must be. The hypothesis about what a good game is: for a computer game to be considered morally good it has to present “design transparency” (Michael: 2006), the ethical affordances that might be present in the design have to be visible for anyone who describes, or plays the game. The design must be conscious about the embedded values that inform it.

A good game has to encourage good players, it has to reward sportsmanship and discourage cheating or other deviant play styles that can disturb the experience of the game.

Finally, a good game has to be flexible and open to assume the ethical values that inform the player community, which might not be similar to those of the game system. A game must adapt to the values of the players as much as possible – if not by changing itself, at least by having a flexible enough set of rules, goals and strategies that allows for players to import their own values into the game.

With this paper I intend to cast some light to the issues of the ethics of computer games, providing arguments that can place these ethical questions in the larger theoretical discussion about computer ethics. This paper will also intend to provide insights that can inform and benefit game developers, especially those engaged in the production of educational titles and serious games.