Ethics of Computer and Video Games

I choose ethics of computer and video games as the subject is sheer because that I ever encountered an addictive period during which I was an undergraduate and indulged myself in the playing single-player or online computer games. I shudder to recollect those days when I totally became another one who deserted studies to gratify my one desire and played day and night.

At times, I ask myself what if I had disciplined myself or the games had been designed to prevent players from being too addictive. I would have spent more time on social experience or skill cultivation to be well prepared for prospective career development.

This thesis sets out to discuss ethics of computer and video games which I once loved by hating. It starts with a sensational case reported from a Gamespot Online Article.

Study Case: Couple's online gaming causes infant's death

In a story out of Korea, a couple in Incheon, South Korea, were arrested when their 4-month-old daughter died after being left alone by the couple for hours. The mother and father reportedly had gone to a nearby Internet cafe, lost themselves in playing Blizzard's massively multiplayer online PC game World of Warcraft, and returned to their home only to find the infant dead from suffocation. "We booked the pair on criminal charges, judging that when you consider the situation, they were responsible for their daughter's death," a policeman told the newspaper. The couple reportedly told police, "We were thinking of playing for just an hour or two and returning home like usual, but the game took longer that day." The infant was the couple's only child.

Another picture, An Internet-Addicted Mother, is also widespread on the Internet. A Chinese mother is playing World of Warcraft in an Internet bar so avidly that she feeds her baby on her arms at the same time. I am quite curious of the amount of addiction that even caused the female player forgot about the noisy and stale environment is impeding the baby's growth.

Both cases trigger the thinking of the ethical challenge brought by computer games. I divided those ethical challenges into 3 groups, Game Addiction, Violence and Questionable Content, and will detailed each step by step. Among the 3 topics, Game Addiction will be the emphasis to demonstrate from effect point of view and Violence is analyzed from content perspective, both of which are main focus of ethical challenge. In the end, I will just catch a glimpse of Questionable content.

Game Addiction

Death of a Game Addict

Kim Hyun Soo, chairman of the U.S. Net Addiction Treatment Center, complains that "young people are losing their ability to relate to each other, except through games" (Quinn, p.122). It's because of the addictive nature, and those that facilitate it, which causes a person to live life through the game and forget about school, work, family and friends. These problems in game have grown so big that people have died from playing for too long. People like Shawn Woolley, a 21 year old from Hudson, WI, have committed suicide because they lose power in the game, lost items in the game, or something happened to them which ultimately drove them to kill themselves ("Death of a Game...," para. 18). In the case of Shawn, he had just finished playing Everquest before he shot himself to death with a handgun. Some people believe that he killed himself due to a coworker betraying his friendship in the game, and stealing Shawn's in-game money. His mother states "He sacrificed everything so he could play for hours, ignoring his family, quitting his job, and losing himself in a 3-D world where 400,000 people worldwide adventure in a never-ending fantasy" ("Death of a Game...," para. 2). In another incident, a couple was arrested in South Korea for leaving their 4 month old daughter alone to suffocate to death. The couple had left to go to an internet café to play World of Warcraft, where they lost track of time. They said "We were thinking of just playing for an hour or two like usual, but the game took longer that day" (Gamespot, 2005). It's cases like these which give online games a bad name, and many start to demand that something be done. However, David Walsh, the chairman of the National Institute on Media and the Family, has said that "online games aren't inherently bad," and made a comparison to alcohol, "both can be harmful if abused" ("Death of a Game...," para. 6). It should be noted that some of these games try to put a disclaimer, or a word of advice to their players such as in the case of Final Fantasy XI:

"A word to our players: Exploring Vana'diel is a thrilling experience. During your time here, you will be able to talk, join, and adventure with many other individuals in an experience that is unique to online games.

That being said, we have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence. Don't forget your family, your friends, your school, or your work" - (Final Fantasy XI).

This notice is displayed every time a player attempts to log into the game servers. Obviously there are ethical considerations to make about online games and their addictive nature. So in consideration we need to decide whether it is moral to have convenience factors which facilitate game play, and consider if these invite game addiction, or fight it. However this will be analyzed in detail further in the paper.

How are Games Addictive?

As we plunge into the world of gaming, it makes sense to explain how games can be addictive. I consider addictive games those which hook people into playing. This may result in consistently returning to play, and can be played for undetermined periods of time. While playing too long once in a while isn't necessarily the sign of addiction, it may be the start of a bad trend which would lead to addiction. For the purposes of this paper we'll emphasize on the game being inherently addictive, and not on problems a person may have which invoke addiction. This is quite similar to calling a book a "page-turner" compared to an addictive game, where abuse can come from not using time spent playing the game wisely, and not entirely due to the game itself (i.e. problems in the home, workplace, etc). Consistency and the time spent playing games are factors which relate to addiction and will be explained further on in this paper.

Facilitators of Game Addiction

There are however, other factors which account for why people become addicted to online games. Many in-game features such as the ability to send other players