In light of the “Do you fake online players?” topic (and, where that’s going), I was curious about how other members of the community approach game development from an ethical perspective.
The way I was taught was composed of three basic tenets:
The developer is responsible for providing their audience with a game that they enjoy.
The game will not prevent the player from living their lives.
The game will be clear about its rules, state, and conditions, that the player may better enjoy it.
In short, the ethical framework I learned boils down to, “We make games to enrich our audience’s lives.” The only reason I don’t boil it down, is because each part is important - games are at their best when they cause positive emotions, and not negative ones. Games should be humane in how they treat the player, as games are recreation. Finally, in order to do any of those first two things, we need to be honest with the player about what’s going on with the game.
What was your understanding of the ethics of game development?
Mine are exactly the same: I am here to take care of the audience’s request for entertainment. I want to fill their spare time with something great. There’s no way they can respect what I’ve worked so hard on if I do not respect them first.
I have a different set of ethics entirely. Like, on a whole different level of importance. I’ve not put it into words ever, so don’t think this is some kind of set in stone policy:
Don’t create a game as a tool of subversion (IE: brainwashing)
Provide the maximum enjoyment (regardless of if it violates some silly rule like faking players online or showing all the math behind attack power)
Don’t harm the player physically, emotionally, or socially. (In part, see #1)
So basically my ethics revolve around the mental and physical well being of the player. As long as you don’t harm them and still are providing them great entertainment, everything else is fair game.
I find these to be very broad rules and very easy to get around. So while “faking players online” might seem to increase the enjoyment for others, it is most often used to subvert the players, make them believe something that is not true. Being honest about it and making it part of the game does increase the enjoyment…but if I find out after playing a game for a few days that I was lied to, then my enjoyment sinks drastically. Not only that, but I will make sure everyone knows.
I would love to see rules that are more refined…although I am not sure what they might be. A few that come from my past experience with games might include:
Provide an environment that is safe. This means set up the means to protect players from other players or from content that might be disturbing. This could be done by warnings so if you are including a scene with a horrific rape or portray discrimination, make sure it is necessary to the story and warn the players before purchase. If your game is multiplayer, make sure you have a system where players can report harassment.
Create the game for the players, not to fulfill some fantasy of yours. This means do not use the game to humiliate or punish the player. You would be surprised how often this comes up, especially with newcomers to the game creation industry.
Surprises should be in-game, such as the unexpected villain or a discovered cave full of dragons. They should not be something you use to fool players into playing your game…such as bots that act like players, or a trailer that fakes features that are not in the game just to sell more copies. Players are more than just little consumers, they are people. Never forget that.
Guide the player but do not use punishment to force a player to play the way you want them to play. If you want them to use the bridge rather than swim across the water, make swimming slow. Do not make them drown. Honestly, some do this.
And this sort of ties all the others together…Respect your players. Not only is this ethical, but an angry player who feels cheated or ignored could really hurt your game’s image. No amount of money spent on advertising can undo what a spew of angry players can do to your game.
I think there is only one rule “don’t lie”.
I mean games are art and art is up to the artist and it is up to you what you do with it just don’t try to make other like your art with lies or false promises the rest is up to the player
So, it’s OK to create a nested series of skinner boxes to get your players to endlessly play your game to the exclusion of their real lives? We do wield psychological tools in this trade, y’know. Also, deception isn’t necessarily a bad thing - read that design dissection of Chrono Trigger, to see how it’s not.
Asvarduil, I am pretty sure he did not mean deception as a means to game play. Much of the deception in game development comes from before the sale, not after. That is where it can straddle that ethical line.
Deception in game play can be interesting…but if you use it to make people play your game in the first place, then it could be an issue. Of course, with Steam’s refund policies, many of those games will not survive.
I had a friend at school who wrote a football management game. He did the interface (text) and all the buying and selling of players and training etc, be he didn’t know how to create a football game simulation so he made it entirely random. No player choices made any difference, you just won or lost at random and got a random score. Everyone loved it, people saw patterns where there are none, and were discussing strategies in the playground.
You can do so and it is ok no one forces some one to play a game they only do it when they like it i mean wow is in my opinion a series of skinner boxes sure there people who get addicted to it but it is not cause wow is a bad game it is cause some player have problems that have nothing to do with the game…
There is aktually only one thing that can force a player to play your game and that is a good story but this is also with movies books and what ever can get your mind some where else.
I mean you should realy not limit your self do what you want there 3 things that can happen.
1.no one play your game
live with it not every one share your dream.
2.they play your game and after some time they say “great experince but i am done here”
well done people like what you create.
3.people cant stop to play your game
well done people like what you create.
Sure i am sorry for those without self control but is this the fault of the game ?
And no one realised that even for example a one star team have the same win ratio like a ten star team ?
In any case if he showed numbers/bars or indicators for team strength and did just a if(rnd > 0.5) it is a lie.
Normaly players realise things like this fast and stop playing the game and tell other to dont buy it…
Sorry if my tone came off as…harsh. Stuff’s going on elsewhere that has me a bit on-edge.
I was trying to refute the simplicity of just having a rule, “Don’t lie.” While you appear to be understanding it to refer to advertising more than the game, there’s plenty of other things that are just as bad or harmful as deception at its worst, that aren’t themselves lies at all. Only having the rule “Don’t lie” doesn’t mean it’s unacceptable to do those things to the player.
Mine are hard to verbalise as I try to do them without thinking (& thinking about it afterwards may cause me to realise I stuffed up) but basically they’re the old religious/nagging parent ones of:
Treat others how you want to be treated
Try your best not to cause harm to people (this is overt harm, you can’t do much to limit self inflicted harm where players may have addiction issues & you have tried to limit harmful addictive things like gambling/iap’s etc)
If I make a game that interests me & is one I’d want to play & others then want to play it then I have indirectly met the first.
If I ever manage to make one that has an income stream then I will have done my best to ensure that I have maximised the income while minimising the risk of causing financial harm to the player (can you implement a player imposed cap for iap’s similar to what some gambling places do where gamblers set a limit before they start & once they reach it they are blocked from more?). If possible any ads would exclude ones to online gambling apps or pseudo poker machine apps that normalise gambling in children.
As to violence, if I made a bullet storm game it would be so over the top that it couldn’t be seen as normalising violence. If it was a story driven game then the violence would need to be in line with the story & not gratuitous. Rape would be a difficult issue as it does happen in real life but it wouldn’t be one I would be comfortable showing & I hope I can avoid using it in a game.
I don’t have a problem with violence or characters which aren’t politically correct. I don’t think PC will ever be a part of my games. That’s not important. What’s important is I don’t single out any particular group. If I do it to everyone alike in the same manner, then it’s just celebrating human stupidity. If I cross a line, then I do.
But this isn’t anything to do with lying to anyone.
Players will know that going into your game. The problem is when they do not know…and it has an big impact on someone who has suffered trauma. That is why it is on my list. It is something we can avoid, quite easily, without taking anything out of our games. Ethically, we should disclose such traumatic issues to our players.
I had once written a very long code of game design ethics, and posted it on an online forum (Which will remain anonymous). I asked if people would support a company which actually followed those, rather than just paying lip service. The overwhelming consensus was “I don’t care about ethics / morals. I don’t support companies, I support products.”
That’s the reason why skinner boxes are still so common, the average gamer doesn’t give a damn. You see this constantly with companies like Activision. They can use whatever shady practice that they want, and people will buy the game anyway, complain about the shady practices, and then 6 months later buy the next Activision title.
While I think it great to have a dialogue on ethics in game development, only a very small minority will care enough that it makes or breaks the decision to purchase the game.
JC Penny took an “Ethical” approach some years back. Their profits plummeted as a result. People want things to be overpriced, so when they get it on a sale they can feel good about paying the price that they would’ve paid anyway under the “Ethical” approach. They don’t want to buy a $40 pair of pants for $40, they want to buy a “$50” pair of pants for $40, even though it’s the exact same pair. They WANT somebody to lie to them and pretend like the pants are worth more so that they can get the satisfaction out of the illusionary deal.
Ethics are great, and one of the reasons I love game development so much is that you can make a profit without exploiting people in third world countries. You’re not harming people to make money. Yes there is still an environmental impact, but it is very minimal compared to other businesses.
At the end of the day though, the gamers simply don’t care. If they did, people wouldn’t still be paying for horse armor DLC, color palate swaps for their favorite characters, or to reduce the timer in their freemium game.
I’m glad that there are people on this forum as least who care as I do. Though ultimately it is just wasted energy as the customers just don’t care.
We are not JCPenney or Activision. We don’t have shareholders. We can follow a set of ethics even if it impacts our sales. I think you might be surprised though…some gamers do care.
The common “kill everything in sight and then kill everything else in sight” might not care. But there are plenty who do. Gamers come in all shapes, colors, and mentalities…we are mom’s, grandmothers, dads, kids, brothers, etc. We play FPS games, but also puzzle and card games.
As a mom, I often have discussions with other mom’s about the games they buy for their kids or the ones they allow them to play. They care and they have an impact on the market.
It is not a wasted energy. We don’t do this because the player’s care. It should be something so common that the players don’t even know that we are doing things to protect them from trauma, or disclosing information to help them make an informed decision, or that we are playing fair with them with regard to their wallet.
Everyone says ethics don’t matter…but a world where everyone feels that it is a waste of time would be a very hard world. I am not ready to go there yet, sorry.
Gerald, I see why you thought that but I meant simply a reporting system within a multiplayer game so one can protect others from harassment. Harassment is a truly nasty thing that can ruin the enjoyment of the game. We are not discussing using proper words in order not not offend, we are discussing our own person ethical views when it comes to creating games.
Having been harassed in games and having watched my teen daughter go through the same thing, from perfect strangers, who I guess felt it was okay to verbally attack another player character who happens to look female (the words were very obviously pointed in that direction), I believe even more strongly that every game that is not a single player game must have some sort of way to deal with these situations.
As for disturbing content, if you use the rating systems in your country (if you have them), then you are already revealing the content for rating purposes. It is pure kindness and common sense to make sure others know if you have something in the game that is super disturbing, and I don’t mean run of the mill violence. I can’t see why someone wouldn’t want to reveal unless they feel it would hurt sales, which is silly because in this day and age it would probably help sales. Hopefully, the majority of us would also reveal if something has flashing lights that could trigger an autism seizure.
The dictionary is our friend. Before we use words like ethical we should know what they mean. Same with any other words that might change the topic and turn it into some controversy. Ethics is subjective, each person’s view of what is right or wrong…and it should not be controversial. Nothing said so far are things one MUST do (well other than the ratings in some countries).
I would love to see us respect each other’s personal views rather than feel the need to tell them they are wrong.
“Gerald, I see why you thought that but I meant simply a reporting system within a multiplayer game so one can protect others from harassment.”
That’s my mistake then. I thought you meant protect people from offensive content within the game’s story / plot.
“I believe even more strongly that every game that is not a single player game must have some sort of way to deal with these situations.”
Slightly disagree. In M rated competitive shooters, talking trash to other people is part of the fun. Beyond that though, yeah people really should tone themselves down.
“As for disturbing content, if you use the rating systems in your country (if you have them), then you are already revealing the content for rating purposes”
Well yes…but it really isn’t that well done. It’ll just say like M for blood, violence, adult situations. Something along those lines. It doesn’t give any specifics such as racial discrimination, attempted rape, etc.
" I can’t see why someone wouldn’t want to"
Well…it is possible that the trigger warnings themselves are doing more harm than good. It’s hard to say, since psychology isn’t a real science (Lack of clearly defined terms, unquantifiable, not possible to have a control, etc).
How much harm will people experience without one? How much harm will people experience with one?
It’s easy to want to immediately perform an action which at the surface appears to help, but reality unfortunately isn’t that simple. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
“which is silly because in this day and age it would probably help sales”
Given how vocal some groups have been about it, I’m sure these companies have already looked at the data and found that not to be true. If they’ve been given any evidence to support it, it would already be an industry wide practice by now.
Congratulations; I see this discussion has found the weeds. You’ll want to take 10 steps back, turn 45 degrees to the left, and be sure not to miss the right turn at Albequerqe - that will steer us all back to the topic of ethics as far as video game design, not ESRB ratings, nor online interactions. It’s possible (albeit difficult) to make an M game that is still developed in a way respectful of the player.
Ummm, I am not talking about trash talking in a competitive shooter.
No, they don’t. Which is where doing the right thing comes in, aka ethics.
Online games are games and ethics still apply.
As you said…
I play online games to enjoy them. Rules are created to make sure all players enjoy the game. So therefore, it is part of what I see as important ethics to apply to games.
You may not design online games or play them so it is not important to you. But you asked the question. If you want narrow responses, then please make that clear. Do you mean only game mechanics or story? Do rules for engaging the player apply? What about in-game methods of dealing with issues and problems? How about false advertising and marketing of games?
I guess I went broader than you did, but you said GAME DEVELOPMENT, not just game design.
You dug yourself in, Asvarduil. So lecture yourself, not us.
Hopefully, the majority of us would also reveal if something has flashing lights that could trigger an autism seizure.