Hypothetical Moral Behaviors

Last week I concluded a series of posts on moral choice in games, the first three posts looking at the idea of making specific choices at specific moments and the last about the choices we make that result in our constant play behavior throughout. I identified two ways behavior acts as a moral attribute. Either the behavior reflects a moral being in the player character or it allows the player to choose a path based on a play style that reflects a moral standing on an issue, usually violence. | more

Values and the Meaning of Moral Behavior in Video Games

The unintended trilogy about morality in video games became an unintended quadrilogy, this time looking not at choice, but at behavior. Given my narrow focus in looking at this subject, I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, but this is not about whether the actions available in a game are moral or good or whatever. This is about games that give choices based on morals and how they reflect or more often fail to reflect in those video games. | more

Choice and Consequence in ‘Papers, Please’

And with this PopMatters post I finish up an unexpected trilogy about morality in video games. The original post about The Wolf Among Us was supposed to be a one off and then I would go and tackle ideas about other games that had been building up during my inadvertent time off. But then I got those comments that ignored the main thrust of what I was trying to say by highlighting a single choice from that game and so I expanded. That happened with this post as well. It’s is just a hair under 3000 words. | more