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Recently, I read a blog post that spoke about how some games have had the ability to create and maintain an immersive world. It was an article by the game designer, Anna Anthropy. The readings then went on to discuss about how this immersion is important for children in order for them to learn critical thinking skills and empathy. Though I agree with these ideas and believe that both of these ideas could be true, what struck me was the following sentence: “Only when you cause harm in our simulation can we ensure that it ends”.
This really affects me, as a gamer. This statement, when read as a game developer, will make you think that it is okay to allow a gamer to abuse and take advantage of another player. This is not what I want for my games. I want to create games that have deep stories and deep morality in them. In the end of the day we are video game designers, right? We are not allowed to create games where player can abuse others or cause harm in others’ minds. We can’t do this because our craft is one that allows us to create immersive and realistic worlds and stories. We cannot just create environments which include very intense harm-based material with no connection between the environment and the story itself.
Video games have always had an ability to create immersive and realistic environments. This type of realism is what draws people in, but with all this realism come the problems. Many video games allow the player to do harm to other players, to kill or maim other players. Why should we be so upset about this? Many countries ban this type of content from being shown in public or from being sold in stores because of the amount of harm it could cause and these countries have good reasons for banning it as well. There are many countries all across the world that have created laws which prohibit violence in video games and other media. Countries such as Australia, Russia, Poland, and Germany have banned violent games and are forcing developers to either remove this content entirely or even include it in a special area where it is not available to players who wish to access it. The problem is that they are still selling those games. There are so many titles like Bulletstorm, which feature very graphic violence, but no one has been prosecuted for their actions. Many people believe that this is due to technical limitations on the part of these governments as well as the fact that no one has been prosecuted for their actions yet. The reality is that they are not being prosecuted because of technical limitations, they are being prosecuted because of the moral implications of what they are doing.
What happens when a player chooses to ignore these moral implications and chooses to kill another player? What is the connection between these two players? In the end it is still a game. But there is a moral implication involved which poses some problems for developers. There has been a lot of back and forth between developers and our governments about whether or not violent games should be banned in our countries as well. As game developers we are the ones to blame for creating video games like Bulletstorm, which feature a lot of violence, but this is not all bad. Many games like Call of Duty and Battlefield also feature violence, but at least they create a story that gives some sort of context to the violence present in the plot. Games like these may also cause harm to people, even if it is not physical harm. I’ve witnessed a friend become very cynical after playing games like this for long periods of time. He would refuse to accept any form of criticism and would blame other people for his mistakes. He would not accept praise for anything and would sneer at anyone who praised his work. This is another problem that many people have with violent games. They believe that they cause harm to people and can create a very cynical view of society, which is not true.
Let’s take a look at the actual text in the Anna Anthropy blog post, since this was the first point of contention:
The problem with sex and violence, though, is that they break immersion. Only when you cause harm in our simulation can we ensure that it ends. There’s no way for us to create a safe space that won’t break, or else we’re just creating a safe space for the privileged and those who have money. So that means that they need to be used in moderation, and only in extreme cases.
I think this blog post is very well thought out, but I disagree with the final sentence. The reason why I disagree with it is because it goes against my stance as a game developer here at Code&Play. Since I was child I have wanted to make games where players could interact with each other without suffering harm themselves. My first experience with this was when I played Super Mario Brothers on the NES console back in 1991 when it first came out. This game was not a violent game, though it had violence present in the game, but it did not contain any sexual content. This game was my first experience of the ability to create an immersive environment where I could be fully immersed and participate in a story. Many people are completely unaware of this, but the original Super Mario Brothers is considered one of the best and most innovative video games ever made due to its ability to create and maintain an immersive world for players.
The thing that many people do not understand about the nature of video games is that video games are more than just entertainment. They are an art form and they are a new medium of expression unlike anything we have ever seen before. There is no other art form which can compare to what we can do with a 3D graphics engine like the one found in our current generation of consoles. Video games have grown to be so much more than a medium of entertainment and they have also become an important medium for social interaction to happen. This is why I believe that developers must keep in mind their moral implications when creating games. It is important to consider the impact that your work will have on the people who play your games.
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Conclusion
I think that it is very important for developers to consider their moral implications when creating video games. We are no longer the innocent creators of entertainment that we were in the early 90s, where all we cared about was the gameplay and how fun our games were. There is a lot more to consider when developing a game nowadays and I think it’s our job as developers to make sure to keep this in mind at all times. I believe that Anna Anthropy was right in her blog post with regard to keeping violent content, such as sex and violence, out of all video games and that it is important for developers to be aware of this as well.