One of the most debated topics in the video game industry is one that may surprise you: not graphics or gameplay, but ethics. People, whether they are gamers or not, often ask themselves if developers have an ethical obligation when creating their next title. Just like the people behind your favorite movies or TV shows, game developers are asked to consider how their work will influence people.

Sometimes it seems public opinion likes to focus on the ethics of video games even more than that of films and TV shows, perhaps because it’s a newer medium. It also doesn’t help that, unlike even Hollywood’s most controversial films, video games allow the player make choices and essentially become a character in their game experience. Many argue that the immersive, experiential nature of this form of entertainment raises unique ethical issues.

At the same time, the game industry wants games to be seen not just as entertainment, but also as an art form. Many argue that this means video games should be held to higher standards when it comes to what they depict, and how.

At the end of the day, many agree it’s up to each person to decide what makes a game “unethical.” But what do you think? Read on for some food for thought in this popular and important debate on the ethics of game design.

The Hottest Topics of Discussion

Below we’ve listed the three major areas where ethics play a role in how game designers create their virtual experiences:

Violence is perhaps the biggest talking point when talking about controversial games. Although violence has existed in games almost as long as the game industry itself, those desiring to censor games have focused on a number of infamous titles.

One of the first was the original “Mortal Kombat,” which led to several court cases and played a role in the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Today, violence is everywhere in games. Games have also been accused of having a negative effect on players and desensitizing people to violence. However, game developers continue featuring violence in their games, arguing they do so only at a level that fits the context of the game’s world.

Nudity

Nudity is another sensitive topic when discussing ethics in games. While the number of adult gamers has grown exponentially over the years, younger players are still the biggest demographic for games, and likely to play any given game. This means that even if ESRB gives a Mature rating, plenty of gamers under 17 years of age will probably still play.

The evolution of graphics and realism in game art has sparked fresh debate on the topic of nudity in games, even if the developers only intend adults to play them. Many game designers feel they should have the same artistic freedom as Hollywood to depict mature content in their projects, and argue that it is every individual parent’s responsibility to keep M-rated titles out of their children’s hands.

Some games let player participate as a hero looking to bring the bad guys to justice, and feature villains committing acts of crime, from theft and arson to battery and homicide. But what about the opposite situation, where the player participates as a criminal? The issue a lot of people have with certain games is that they consist of gameplay where the player must commit crimes to advance.

Of all the titles out there to use as an example, none is better than “Grand Theft Auto,” arguably one of the most controversial series of all time, where players play as criminals. When it comes to crime in games, designers tend to leverage a little more freedom but are still careful. Knowing that not everyone approves of committing crimes in games, the many top game designers find ways to put the choice in the player’s hands. Most developers agree there should be rewards and consequences to influence the player’s decisions in a fun, engaging way.

Today, many people don’t have a problem with games featuring profanity and references to substances like alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. However, many others aren’t comfortable with this content, especially when thinking of letting younger gamers play titles littered with profanity. Unfortunately, the games that allow the player to censor cuss words are few and far between.

Some people also argue against showing characters, especially the protagonist/hero, using illegal drugs, tobacco, or any substance known to be harmful to your health — as is the case, for example, in The Saints Row series.

Responsibility vs. Artistic Freedom

Game developers feel they should have the same freedom as filmmakers, authors, and other artists. As an artform, games have the power to tell incredible stories, and many game designers argue that sometimes this requires including sensitive content. To the average game developer, censoring game content is equivalent to limiting their artistic freedom.

At the same time, designers should always consider that what they’re adding to their projects will be seen by people of all ages. Many consumers argue that, aside from protecting underage gamers, censoring game content provides a more positive game space that can still be creative and compelling. It also doesn’t help that many developers have been known to add controversial content not for storytelling purposes or artistic decisions, but simply to make the game more commercially appealing.

In the end, it’s still up to gamers and parents to consider the ESRB rating before venturing into their next virtual adventure. But what do you think about the debate on the ethics in game design?

Gain valuable hands-on experience in game design and hone your video game artwork and storytelling skills through our two-year MFA in Game Design Program. Visit our Master of Fine Arts in Game Design page to learn more and apply.

By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design

Adding storytelling to your game can help you connect emotionally to your players, add meaning to the experience, and increase long-term engagement. But stories can become a bit of a nuisance if not implemented properly. Following a few rules of thumb will help you add storytelling that does not clash with the rest of the experience.

Why Story

As I mentioned in a previous article, a combination of good art and fun game mechanics is a very effective way to attract players and create immediate engagement. But even good game mechanics can get repetitive and tedious over time unless they are accompanied by a larger meaning or drive, which is often provided by other elements like story, and social connection.

Events are much more meaningful if they are tied to a larger story. When playing basketball, scoring a basket is fun, but the experience is much more meaningful and powerful if that basket is the winning basket at the end of a game against a long-time rival team, even more if winning will let us get a scholarship to a renowned college … and will make us the first in our family to get a college degree … which will eventually let us to help our family get out of poverty and … you get the idea.

What is so powerful about stories is that they can wrap up the combination of ideas and emotions that form our experiences in ways that we can easily understand and link to our values and other experiences in our lives. A story can turn an abstract goal into something that relates to our values and views of the world.

Here are 3 rules of thumb to help you determine if you have a story that works to make your game more compelling without annoying players:

Rule of Thumb 1: Start with a Clear Conflict

There is one single element that fuels a good story: conflict — says Evan Skolnick in his excellent book “Video Game Storytelling, What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques.” He is right. Story is not a lot of blah blah blah, it is not fueled by details about characters, feelings, and places; it is fueled by conflict, by someone wanting something and not being able to achieve it because of something else. Make that conflict clear as soon as you can in your game.

The more your players can relate to the story’s conflict and to what is at stake, the more compelling your story will be for them. The faster you can introduce your players to that conflict and why it matters, the sooner the easier it will be for them to find meaning in the activities and goals they need to complete.

The first conflict you show your players doesn’t need to be the only conflict. It doesn’t even need to be the main conflict, but it should be the conflict that helps the player makes sense of what he/she needs to do in the game next.

Rule of Thumb 2: First Do, Then Show, Then Tell

There is an old axiom in Hollywood: “Show, don’t tell.” If you want to communicate how courageous a character is, don’t say it; instead, show the character doing something courageous. In the same book for video game storytelling I mentioned above, Evan Skolnick says that in games, where the players are active participants, this axiom can be modified to “Do, then show, then tell.”

If you want to communicate how courageous and powerful a character is, give her powerful abilities and give her big challenges to face. Instead of telling the player the attributes of her character, let her experience them herself.

If you cannot find a way to communicate story through actions, then use visuals as a second option. Only use dialogue or text if there is no other way of conveying important information that your player needs in order to make sense of what she is doing.

Rule of Thumb 3: Keep It Simple and Minimal.

The right story makes the game more intuitive, but it needs to start simple. Story can get deeper and more complex as the game progresses, but focus on utilizing story to make your game’s goals and rules easier for players to connect with and easier to understand. If the story is not making it easier to play, chances are it is not the right story.

The story introduction should also be minimal. One of the main mistakes that game developers make when adding story is trying to communicate all the background to the players at the beginning of the game. Players do not care about your story details or your characters until they are more invested in the experience as a whole. It is important to provide meaning, but you don’t have to provide the player with more information than the bare minimum to make your immediate goals and activities make sense. The worst thing you can do is present your player with a bunch of information that they don’t yet care about. Long dialogues and explanations are usually skipped and all your work will be in vain. Start simple, and add complexity only if the rules and goals of the game require it.

Evan Skolnick divides story facts into 3 categories: first, facts that you need to know right now to understand what you need to do in the experience; second, facts that will be important later in the experience but you don’t need to know yet; and third, facts that maybe add flavor but are not essential at any time in the experience to understand what you need to do. As a rule, the only information you really need to give the player is the one related to the first category. Save the rest for later and even then try to convey it first through actions and visuals.

Chess

Let’s look at Chess as an example. It may be an extreme case but it exemplifies the points I am making.

The conflict is simple and easy to understand: you are a king with a court and an army, your enemy is another king with his own court and army and you need to defeat him. There are other details in the story about who is in your court, which characters are important and powerful, how big is your army, etc., but all that information is communicated through actions and visuals.

You know whom your enemy is because your team is one color and your opponent is the opposite color. You know that there are different characters because your pieces have different shapes. You know who is in your court and how powerful they are because your different pieces have different attributes and behaviors, and some of these attributes prove to be more powerful.

The story is simple and minimal. It helps us make the rules and goals of the game more intuitive — like the fact that only knights on horses can jump other pieces, or that the most important piece is the king — but it does not give us additional information that is not essential to understand what to do next.

Conclusion

Story is an important tool to help us add meaning and connect emotionally to an experience, but the wrong story could turn into an annoyance for the player. By following these three rules you can avoid wasting time and resources developing stories that don’t help your game: 1) Introduce a clear and easy-to-understand conflict as soon as you can, 2) Communicate your story through actions first, visuals second, and only as a last resort through dialogue and narration, and 3) Keep the story simple and minimal, give you player only the information than helps him/her understand what he/she needs to do in the game at that point.

Learn more about Game Design at the New York Film Academy.

Interested in applying? Click here