After many false starts, a platform change and some technical hiccups I finally have a recorded live stream to show for my digital Artefact! I even had a few people tune in toward the end to ask questions about what I was trying to do which was probably the most fun part of the experience!
For my digital artefact, I wanted to run an experiment: Can I play my favourite game in a way that would be seen as “morally correct”. I chose to do this using a livestream and the above analytical framework. The overall project was inspired by my reading of The Gamer’s Dilemma (Luck 2019), Virtual Killing (Mildenburger 2017) and the counter arguments raised by Resolving the Gamer’s Dilemma (Bartel 2012).
I wanted to examine how game design can influence the choices we make in a game, especially when there is now reward for acting in the morally correct way. The problem I have found with “morality systems” in games is that they often present a choice between one extreme or the other, often leading to the violent, easy way out or a long way around to do the right thing. I wondered if it was possible for games without a hard coded morality system to be as rewarding for players if they did opt to play in a way that would not compromise their morals.
This line of thinking then led me to look at interactivity and if the design of the game would allow for an alternative style of play. In my reading of Computer games as a participatory media culture (Raessens 2005) I learned about the different ways video game audiences interact with games. In particular, the concept of reconfiguration seemed to fit well with what I was trying to acheive. Bloodborne’s community is quite dedicated to finding new ways to interact with the game, creating new challenges including speedruns and “no-hit” runs that I breifly mention in my stream. I saw my experiment as another way to interact with the game, to try and push the limits of the design and see what was possible. The Bloodborne reddit was extremely helpful in designing my script and talking points.
Overall, my experiment was a failure… at least for someone of my skill level. Unfortunately there are points in the game that force you into confrontation that would have fallen outside the rules that had been previously determined by myself and the Bloodborne community. The odds were also stacked against me as the tactics I would typically use to get through the game were no longer options – I could no longer grind for kills to level up my character or get the best weapons. I could also not summon another player for help as this would be practically hiring someone else to do the dirty work for me.
While it is true that you can play some games in a way that would be considered morally correct, it is often not easy to do. Choosing to interact with a game in this way is not considered normal as games have been designed in a way that leads players to undertake immoral acts in order to progress. I wonder if games and gaming would continue to be as popular as they are if we had to treat NPCs as we would treat another person in the real world?
References:
Bartel, C 2012, ‘Resolving the Gamer’s Dilemma‘, Ethics and Information Technology, vol.14, no.1, pp.11-16
FromSoftware 2015, ‘Bloodborne’, Sony Computer Entertainment directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki
Luck, M 2009, ‘The Gamer’s Dilemma: An Analysis of the Arguments for the Moral Distinction between Virtual Murder and Virtual Paedophilia‘, Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 31-36
Mildenberger, C 2017, ‘Virtual killing‘, Philosophical Studies, vol. 174, no. 1, pp. 185-203.
Raessens, J 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, J. Raessens & J. Goldstein (eds), Handbook of computer game studies, MIT Press, MA, pp. 373-388.
According to Jason 