KoopaTroopa's Gaming Blog: Ethics of computer games

Ethics

Excess playing time - Game players become so attached to the games they play, they spend all their available time in the game. Excess gaming time can lead to depression and anxiety. Many games suggest taking breaks to minimize risk to health, and have repeat warnings in the loading screens of games.

Social isolation - Particularly people who are shy or have insecurities separate themselves from other people in their social lives, preferring to socialise with people through games. These people spend all their time on the internet rather than playing with friends in a real social life.

Separation from reality - Players that spend large amounts of time in virtual gaming worlds can become so attached to that game, that they begin to lose their grip on reality. These people believe reality doesn't matter, and only the virtual worlds are the ones that do. These people separate themselves from friends and colleagues, and only interact with those in the virtual world.

Education benefits (Hand-eye coordination, brain training) - Some games have been designed to help enhance the functions of the brain by creating games full of puzzles to make the user think, improving memory and reaction times. These games are often used by elderly people and dementia patients to slow the decay of brain cells.

Thinking and strategy skills - Games that require players to think about their actions and consequences can increase the quick decision making and strategical thinking of the player, because they can apply things they learn from games into real life situations.

Future Impact -With so many social media websites available, developers are beginning to inter grate their games with social networking. With "1.28 billion active Facebook users, and 255 million active twitter users[1]", there is lots of potential for social media to be used in gaming industry, whether by sharing activity, or allow to post screenshots to social media.

Impact on 'mainstream' application development -Game developers are constantly looking at new and original hardware to use on their latest projects. Nintendo Wii was successful because of a sensor tracking movement of the controller, and was used by all age groups, with the older generations using fitness games for exercise. PlayStation and Xbox created a similar product, Move and Kinect, which instead of a controller, the user was the controller. The idea used by Nintendo spread to other companies, which adapted and improved the hardware.

Use of sound - Sound in games can be annoying, or legendary. For example: Anyone can identify the sound when sonic collects a gold ring. In the horror game Amnesia, you can hear character breathing. Creepy? Or genius? Just by hearing something as simple as this makes the experience far more realistic and scary, as players repeat the gulps and hyperventilation of the character, particular through an especially eerie part of the game.

High score listings - When games score performance with points which count towards a leader board, players may feel obliged to keep retrying to improve their scores to move up the leader board standings. Players can become obsessive about the leader board, and begin to spend hours on end improving the scores to move up the standings.

Competitive games - Games which pitch players against each other, such as racing and first-person-shooter games. These games bring out the competitiveness in people, who will then spend hours playing the game improving, so when they play again, they are a better player than last time, meaning players have a better chance of winning.

Peer pressure - Peer pressure surrounds our lives. People may be pressured into buying/playing games they would usually avoid to stop them being left out. These people may only play these games to so they can continue to play games with their friends.

Educational value - Many games on the market can be considered 'educational' because games that are aimed at the younger generation have platforms, namely 'LeapFrog' which teach children to read and count using an interactive book.

Levelling - Games which incorporate unlocks via levels put some competitive players in danger of becoming obsessive about their levels, and who spend hours every day levelling up in their games. This may start out as a competition between friends that evolves into a major problem, as people stop attending school/college/work, eating or drinking in order to increase the time they can spend in games to level up.