Video Game Ethics

When we think of an action and adventurous video game, GTA comes to our minds, a game we’ve been part of its development over several years, as kids and until teenage years. In September 2016, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto V whose development was led by Rockstar North’s core team collaborating with several other international Rockstar Games studios. The sensational game targets three criminals roaming in the state of San Andreas getting involved in many missions related to shooting, steeling, and driving gameplay, while they escape the government (Rockstar games, n.d). The game is admired by many and is considered one of the most successful video games of all time (Klappenbach, 2017). This positive review is linked to the boundlessness GTA 5 gives to the surrounding. The players sense they are in a venue or an open environment rather than a game, and this is what creates the engagement. The exploration element implemented in the game through side missions like joining gangs or breaking-in new places adds a thrill especially with the new edition. With all the refreshed elements implemented in the city to match the new technologies, architecture and trends, a tempting experience is created to us as players urging us to come again. However, there were plenty of controversy about the game’s depiction of women, race and violence (Hoggins, 2013). Anti-torture groups and parents have a crucial role in the critic’s review as they feel responsible for whatever harm might be caused due to the implicit ideologies in the game. Having a mission that gives players the complete freedom to use torture equipment in a criminal act is something to be concerned about. For example, the hero Trevor Philips questions Mr. K, to extract information threating the FIB referred to in the game for FBI. He uses electricity tools which players have the option to extract from a table. After the man gives out the information, the FBI orders the player to kill the person (Sliva, 2013). As many viewed the intended violence as crossing the line by forcing people to act violent, others saw that the comment on torture required torture scenes. In addition, women are also undermined in the game and portrayed as sexual objects, allowing players to interfere in the strippers’ bodies, nude from the waist up (Makush, 2014). For those reasons, Australia, UK, and Japan banned the game. However, it is hard to deny the impact GTA5 has had on the culture. To enforce thoughts of violence, nudity, race, and sexism has constantly pushed acceptable social and moral boundaries of the real life we live in.

Freedom of speech is an essential human right that cherishes self-determination (Greenawalt, 2005). It is of course the right of the producer to decide the entertaining content he/she wish to produce. However, it is crucial to notice at what point this freedom crosses the line and becomes justifying for the media’s bias, discrimination, and hate speech. We have seen many movies or Tv shows that incite hate, violence, pornography, criminal acts, propaganda and many other sensitive topics that have extended and became part of our reality. But the question here is rather what distinguishes harm from free speech and on what bases is censorship applied? To tackle this, it is important to understand that censorship in each country varies with the variation of the social and moral beliefs of its citizens. For example, entertainment media in the US is only censored if the reasons behind doing so is to serve a greater compelling purpose and the harm is intended (Packyard, 2013). However, in Lebanon the restrictions are tighter targeting religious, emotional, racial, national, and sexual contention.

Many game developers face the dilemma, like many other artists and entertainment producers, in which they must find a balance between their right to freedom of speech and creativity and the consequences their choices of content might have on users and consumers. (Takahashi, 2014). The responsibility starts when the producers realize they are distributing a video game to international and numerous amounts of consumers. As a result, a rating system is taken into consideration to rate the content of the game. (Mathews, 2015). In GTA the rating is “M”, referring for mature consumers above 17 years old. This rating strategy is a shield manufacturers take advantage of to protect and censor themselves from critics attacking their content especially parents of children playing the game. It dictates before-hand what kind of gaming experience users are about to dive into. Why is that important? While reviewing the cases correlating the behavioral acts of kids to the kind of video games they play, an interesting case appears where two young boys addicted to such games killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves in Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado; or the case of the 14-year-old Canadian boy who walked into the WR Myers High School in Taber, Alberta killed one and seriously injured another (Freedman, n.d). These are some real-life examples highlighting how violent video games or the virtual reality we live in might take over our real one and thus cause and aggressive unhealthy environment for us and our kids. However, the issue doesn’t pause here, the problem is not the violence itself but the goal of this violence. As children experience days playing harsh games, the emotional impact of this harshness is lost, thus they become desensitized to violence and are more prone to engage in violent acts; here lies the real issue.

It seems that to many people passively watching violence in movies and on television causes aggression, actively participating in violence in video games should have an even greater effect. Surely, so the argument goes, you are the controller of the character in your game spending hours torturing various creatures and human beings and watching them die, break apart, scream in pain, with blood all over, and so on must have a harmful effect on those who play — it teaches them that violence is acceptable, that it is a way to deal with problems, perhaps make them insensitive to real violence, and thus cause them to be more aggressive and violent. At the end, the game designer regardless of how much ethics he puts into his decision, will eventually care for the profit gained. In this case the responsibility also lies on the user playing the game as much as it is the gamer’s responsibility because out of the options he has, his choice represents an agreement to the terms and conditions.

To conclude, decisions taken by those in charge whether choosing to ban a video game or deliberately opening space for limitless freedom of speech are two extreme positions that need a thorough study. But as an opinion and after reviewing the game on many aspects, it is implicitly trying to convey to the upcoming generations that it is justifiable to kill, steal, or act inappropriately to satisfy and accomplish your goal. And if we project this purpose on reality then the social and moral principles of our society would be threatened and thus the freedom we strived to at first becomes a sword with two sharp edges, as once the harm extends and the values shake freedom then is not guaranteed.

References

Ethics in Game Design. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from http://work.chron.com/ethics-game-design-22838.html

Freedman. (n.d). Evaluating the Research on Violent Video Games. Retrieved from https://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/sites/culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/files/freedman.pdf

Harding, A. (n.d.). Violent video games linked to child aggression. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/03/healthmag.violent.video.kids/index.html

Makuch, E. (2014, December 03). GTA 5 “Violence Against Women” Criticisms Spurs Ban by Australian Retailer. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-violence-against-women-criticisms-spurs-ban-/1100-6423950/?comment_page=15

Sliva, M. (2013, October 14). NYCC: How GTA 5’s Trevor Views the Controversial Torture Scene. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/14/nycc-how-gta-5s-trevor-views-the-controversial-torture-scene-

Suellentrop, C. (2013, September 16). Grand Theft Auto V Is a Return to the Comedy of Violence. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/arts/video-games/grand-theft-auto-v-is-a-return-to-the-comedy-of-violence.html

Mathews, R. (n.d.). Ethical Responsibility of Video Game Manufacturers. Demand Media.

Retrieved from https://www.chron.com/

Packard, A. (n.d.). Digital Media Law / Edition 2. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/digital-media-law-packard/1101187385