Designing Ethical Dilemmas - Long

Designing Ethical Dilemmas Manveer Heir Raven Software July 28, 2009

What Would You Do...
If you had to choose between your wife and your daughter?
You found a wallet on the street with $1000 and no clear owner?
Watch a mother and her child wither away to ensure your survival?

Who Is This Guy? B.S. Computer Science – Virginia Tech Programming Intern at Big Huge Games on Rise of Legends Gameplay Programmer at Raven Software on Wolfenstein for 2+ years Game Designer at Raven Software on Wolfenstein Currently Lead Designer on a top-secret project

What This Talk Is About
How to understand and design games that let players experience ethical dilemmas
This talk is not about:
Ethical responsibilities of the designer
How to act ethically in the workplace

No one told me research = reading :(

Why Ethical Dilemmas?
One tool to create more meaningful play experiences
Need game emotions beyond fear and aggression
Can be the key to unlocking these new emotions in players

Ethics vs. Morals
Morals are the “principles of right and wrong behavior” (Merriam-Webster)
Ethics are “a set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral value” (Merriam-Webster)
Ethics are “a rational, methodological approach to the questions of good, evil, duty and values” (Sicart)

Types of Ethical Designs
Open Ethical Design
Open System Design
Open World Design
Closed Ethical Design
Substracting Design
Mirroring Design
(Sicart)

Open Ethical Design
Open System Design
Rules, systems, and mechanics are affected by player choice, but not narrative
Games such as BioShock
Open World Design
Character, narrative, fiction being affected by player choice
Games such as Fable

Closed Ethical Design
Subtracting Design
Player knows actions have weight, but has to decipher
Player deciphers the ethics of gameplay outside the scope of the game
Mirroring Design
Create a relation between the actions of the player and the character
Can reward unethical gameplay this way to challenge the player's ethical framework

Dilemmas Require Open Design
Closed designs rely on a high level of authorship by the designer
These games can potentially become preachy and don't take full advantage of the medium
Open designs are harder to account for, but potentially more rewarding
Open designs will be the way in which our games will open up new emotional responses in players

We Got Problems

Black and White Model
Designers tells you if you are doing a good or bad job
Binary system that doesn’t account for ambiguities that exist
Applying scores and mechanics to ethical decisions marginalizes the decision

BioShock
Saving or killing Little Sister’s starts off as an emotionally impactful decision
Turns to realization of the strategy
Robs the impact of the ethical decisions and turns the decision into one of optimal strategy

Star Wars
Never feel like Luke in the games
Need something more
Need ambiguity!

World is Gray

How Do We Reach Our Potential?
Narrative
Consequences
Obstacles
Permanence

Narrative
Player must be invested in world
Not economically invested
Emotionally invested
Ludic elements need to support narrative elements
Ludonarrative Dissonance (Hocking)

No Magical Formula For Narrative

Consequences
Choices have consequences
Need to significantly impact the game
Player needs to understand consequence is a result of earlier choice
Do not minimize impact of consequences

Mass Effect

Obstacles
Obstacles can make the player stop
Push player down a new path
Try making “moral” road the more difficult
Game paths don't have to be equal
Challenge player's conceptions of what is ethical!

Permanence
Redoing our choices robs them of the impact
Choices that are mechanical (shooting) are fine to redo
Forces player to live with consequences
Lends self to experiential gameplay, not mastery

Tenpenny Tower

A Funny Thing Happened...

ENRAGED UPSET BETRAYED DISGUSTED

How Does Tenpenny Tower Fare?
Narrative – I care about the world of Fallout, I feel bad for the Ghouls being treated like less than humans. I want to save them and “do the right thing”.
Consequences – If I “do the right thing” the humans still die and they never come back.
Obstacles – It's easier to just kill one side outright. “Doing the right thing” requires me to convince others and do an extra quest
Permanance – I decided not to let myself reload... why?

VENGENCE

This Is The Potential Of Ethical Dilemmas In Games

Thank You
Questions?
Contact Info
E-Mail: [email_address] Design Rampage: http://designrampage.blogspot.com Follow me on Twitter: @manveerheir

Designing Ethical Dilemmas - Long

by Manveer Heir on Aug 02, 2009

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Designing Ethical Dilemmas - Long — Presentation Transcript