A brief introduction to some of the issues around ethics in Virtual and Augmented Reality. For developers and users, what are the ethical issues around the business, commercial and entertainment uses of VR/AR?

1. Ethical & Professional Issues
Week 7 – Ethics in Immersive Systems
Note: This lecture includes discussion of virtual sexual abuse
CC-BY-NC Daniel Livingstone,
The Glasgow School of Art, 2021
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

2. Immersive Systems
• Virtual Worlds
• Multi-user online virtual worlds aka Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)
• MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
• Virtual Reality
• HMD (Head mounted display) or CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment)
• Immersion has different meanings related to these systems
• Psychologically immersive in being cognitively absorbing, possibly with sense of presence
(being there) – c.f. Jennett et al. (2008)
• Immersion in VR also refers to perceptual immersion, where visual
(and auditory) perception is immersed in a computer generated
model of reality

3. What is Virtual?
• Virtuality is a distinct form of experience from Reality
• Digitally mediated experience
• Virtual experiences can still trigger emotional responses, and be experienced as
richly as reality. The experience is mediated by computers, but can be experienced
by users as vividly and concretely as something ‘real’
• A third class of experience is the Imaginary
• People routinely use imaginary experiences to e.g. role-play or prepare for difficult
conversations or situations
Reality vs Virtuality vs Imaginary: Three distinct classes of experience?

4. Virtual Worlds
• Virtual Worlds are places – persistent digital spaces where multiple users can meet
and interact (Bartle, 2003)
• persistent means spaces that continue to remain online while different players may log in
or out
• multi-user or massively multi-user in being spaces where potentially dozens, hundreds, or
even many thousands of players can interact in the same shared space
• Note that they do not need to use VR, be 3D or even be graphical
• The earliest virtual worlds were text-based
• MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon), MOOs (MUD Object-Oriented), and related games
• The very first Virtual World, known simply as MUD, is still online and playable here:
• https://www.british-legends.com/CMS/
• History of virtual worlds is another topic that we won’t go into here!

5. Ethics in Virtual Worlds
• Virtual worlds are not just games – they are communities (or more accurately are
places in which different communities may form)
• We have already mentioned ethical concerns around free-to-play, lootboxes, etc.
• Will not consider this further here, where we focus on the ethics in the virtual worlds
• Virtual Worlds commonly have game elements that can be played as if in a
traditional single-player computer game – and the ethical concerns identified last
week apply here
• The main difference is the existence of other players and the systems provided by
any particular virtual world that enable players to interact with each other
• As well as through various game mechanics, this can include text chat and voice
communications
• A further concern is in the meta-game – discussion forums, meetups and other virtual
world related activities that happen outside of the game itself

6. The People in Virtual Worlds
• Richard Bartle, co-creator of MUD, was first to try to define the key player types in
virtual worlds (described in Bartle, 2003):
• Achievers. Focus on game goals in the virtual world
• Socializers. Focus on inter-personal interaction
• Explorers. Focus on discovering as much about the world as possible
• Killers. Focus on dominating other players
• Other works have since considered other categorisations (c.f. Yee, 2006) but this is
still a helpful framework for our purposes
• The final category may be the category that causes most challenges in practice:
Players who want (in some way) to dominate other players

7. A VW is Not Just a Game
• In 1998, VW designer Raph Koster wrote A Story About A Tree about what happened
when a popular player, Karyn, of Ultima Online suddenly disappeared.
• Others later discovered that she had died in a car crash. Amidst an online outpouring of
grief, a memorial service was organised. A Garden of Remembrance was added to the
game, and a tree planted in her memory, and game code altered to allow players to leave
permanent tokens.
• Across a wide community, there was a deep sense of grief
• As VW have become more common, such online virtual memorials have occurred
more often, marking genuine friendships and the real grief felt by players when
another passes
• C.f. My disabled son’s amazing gaming life in the World of Warcraft, BBC News 2019

8. About A Story About A Tree
Bartle (2003) adds a coda to A story about a tree
• While making a documentary about virtual worlds, it was discovered that Karyn
never existed at all
• The player ‘Karyn’ was herself the fictional creation of another, unknown, player
• Sometimes the apparent player behind an avatar is itself a creation - masquerading
This twist – that people can form heartfelt connections with other people who don’t
really exist is perhaps not so surprising, and is a feature in some scams
• And sometimes the player in an online game is not who they claim to be
Does not take away from the many other examples, c.f. Mats Steen in the BBC example

9. Moral Disengagement in Virtual Worlds
• As we saw last week, Moral Disengagement is one mechanism that allows players to
modify their ethical framework between ‘real life’ and ‘playing a game’
• This can create significant problems as for some users, as the Virtual World is not just
a game – while the world is virtual, the friendships and relationships can be very real
• So, e.g. a Killer may view the VW as a game, with other players being there to be
played with and dominated, while for a Socialiser the VW is a place where they hang
out with friends
• When these two player types meet, this can be the cause of upset and problems
• Different VW may have very different ways of handling this, from minimising opportunities
for Killers to negatively impact the experience of other players to designing the VW to
emphasise the game properties and setting up specific spaces and play experiences for
Killers

10. Example: Eve Online
• A space sim with control of resources and planetary
systems fought over by player factions
• Interesting example as many ways in which players could
cheat other players that would be against the rules in other MMO are part of the
game in Eve
• Swindling other players out of in-game currency (Ponzi scheme)
• Scams: a short list of forbidden and LONG list of permitted scams in Eve Online
• The game of Eve Online is that of a ruthless war between factions and lone-
operatives for money and power
• Actions that are in line with this ethos are part of the game
• The game fiction deliberately tries to set boundaries for moral disengagement
• Scams that affect real life are outside scope of game and are forbidden

11. Sexual Assault in Virtual Worlds
• Embodiment within VR spaces can make experiences ‘feel’ very real
• In multi-user spaces, this will include personal space
• Belamire (2016) reports her experience of being groped within a VR space in the multi-
user game QuiVR. While virtual and despite not having a ‘body’ within the world, the
experience felt real, and invoked genuine fear
• The game creators, Jackson & Schenker (2016), describe their reaction on learning about
this, and the modifications to the game to prevent reoccurrence (incl. hands disappear
when entering zone around another player)
• Even without VR level physical embodiment, VW can still in many ways feel real to
players socially immersed
• In 1993, Dibbell wrote a well known piece in The Village Voice: “A rape in cyberspace”
detailing a virtual sexual assault in the text-based LambaMOO VW, and the fallout and
consequences

12. Player Safety in VW & Multiuser VR
• Many MMO games limit PvP play to specific zones or require players to enable it
• Ability to block players in chat
• More safety controls needed in multi-user VR
• Designated ‘safe’ zones for new players
• Rule enforcement with bans for players for ‘griefing’ or bad behaviour
• Emphasise the game nature of the world to emphasise that what might be
considered rule-breaking in other games (Ponzi scheme fraud, deception) is explicitly
part of the game (c.f. Eve Online)
In any multi-user space you should expect some users to attempt to intimidate, harass,
and set out to upset other players
Designing to prevent problems before they happen and considering what could happen is
the responsibility of the creators of any VW

13. More Ethical Issues in VW
Bartle (2003) identifies a range of ethical issues under the headings of Censorship,
Players as People and Groups of Players as Groups of People
• Censorship includes ways in which the developers might self-censor while developing
games to appeal to broad audience, modern sensibilities, as well as limits on player
speech
• Players as people covers range of issues, some of which have been mentioned
already. Also consideration of privacy, religious representation, and of players with
mental illnesses & whether VW have a duty of care towards players
• Note that for many players VW may be helpful for mental wellbeing
• Groups of Players. Consideration of social engineering and races & racism. Do fantasy
games with different player races enforce notions of racism?

14. Learning Ethics In Virtual Worlds
• Finally, Virtual Worlds can also be used as a platform (or examples!) for teaching
ethics (c.f. Houser et al. 2011, Nadolny et al. 2013)
• Role-play scenarios
• Role-play as individuals within a particular scenario
• Embody students in the virtual world scenarios
• The scenarios are created in a 3D virtual space, within which students are able to move around
and interact
• Embodied discussion spaces
• Being able to discuss a hypothetical situation in a space created to model that situation, to make
the context more realistic or immediate

15. Ethics in VR
• Some of the issues we have already covered also apply in VR, in particular in multi-
user VR
• The physically immersive and higher sense of presence associated with VR can
amplify some of these issues
• Does this make some things acceptable in games more ethically challenging in VR?
• GTA V includes scenes where player performs torture. Is this different in VR?
• The immersive nature of VR also presents some distinct issues:
• Equity and Access
• Sensory stimulation
• Additionally, we can consider research ethics in VR

16. Bringing Back the Dead
• Hayden (2020) reports a highly unusual story of a mother
who meets her deceased daughter in VR
• Created for a TV documentary about the child, to allow
the mother to say a final goodbye
• Many ethical questions about the close invasion of family privacy for entertainment
in the TV programme itself – outside scope of this lecture!
• Is this ethical?
• We have photos, videos, memories of those we have loved – why not simulations?
• What if this is enhanced with AI to allow us to have conversations with deceased family
members?
• Is this something that can provide comfort to survivors? Should applications like these be
controlled or licensed?

17. VR: Equity and Accessibility
• Some users are prone to motion sickness in VR (women more than men)
• Should all VR apps include a non-VR mode?
• How liable should VR developers be for taking steps to minimise motion sickness?
• Sensory stimulus from VR can be quite high and tiring
• Weight of headsets, and screens close to eyes
• Do apps need to be designed to ensure regular breaks?
• Inversion of stimulus
• Mismatching proprioception (body sensing own movements) and VR such as swapping
left/right hand motions, mismatching head movements, etc. can be very disorienting and
very likely to cause motion sickness. Should deliberate inversion of stimulus be ‘banned’
or are there reasonable cases for use?
• Accessibility and digital divide
• Are developers focussing on VR exacerbating issues around digital access?

18. Big Data & VR
• Analytic data captured while using VR can be detail rich
• Motion tracking and usage information can act as a form of biometric – and
potentially allow different users to be identified
• c.f. Gait analysis (Giles, 2012)
• Some VR platforms are tied to social media platforms and profiles (Oculus and
Facebook) and terms may allow the social media platform to have even greater
access to your data

19. VR and the Self
• As will see next week, a range of VR experiments have shown that experiences in VR
may impact on user behaviour after finishing a game/session
• See Madary, M. and Metzinger, T.K. 2016. Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct.
Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2016.00003/full
• These results come from experiences developed specifically for research purposes, looking
at impact of different experiences on altruism, unconscious bias, etc.
• Traditional psychological experiments cannot put you in another body – but VR can!
• With this in mind, what level of awareness do VR game developers need to have on
the lasting effects of illusions of embodiement?
• Is it ethical to create game experiences that encourage VR players to be
rude/offensive/mean knowing that embodied experiences can have lasting effects?
• Do all VR games have to always promote positive virtues?

20. Ethical Experimentation in VR
• VR is also a tool that has been used to conduct experiments, some of which
specifically address or raise ethical issues. Mel Slater and colleagues have carried out
a wide range of particularly interesting experiments
• Will revisit in more detail in week on research ethics!
• The issues of using VR with human subjects in experiments
• E.g. Motion sickness and related issues
• Ethically challenging experiments in VR: Obedience experiments in VR (Milgram)
• Using VR to address unconscious bias or study ethics!
• Pan, X. and Slater, M. 2011. Confronting a moral dilemma in virtual reality: a pilot study. In:
Proceedings of HCI 2011 The 25th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction., pp. 46–51.
Available at: https://www.scienceopen.com/document_file/d1335a07-65df-46f8-97ec-
7f5fea94ed64/ScienceOpen/046_Pan.pdf.

21. Ethics in AR?
Augmented reality may also present some unique ethical concerns and issues
• E.g. A common concept for AR apps it to add the ability for users to create virtual
tags in real environments, some form of virtual graffiti that can only by viewed by
other app users
• Potentially this could include racist or other problematic content being tagged to sensitive
locations, such as places of worship
• Could virtual tags be used to aid in criminal endeavours?
• Do such apps require moderation systems, and how would this be managed?
• Location based AR may put players at risk by encouraging them to move to locations
that are dangerous (traffic, risk of criminal assault, etc.)

22. Ethics for VW/VR Developers
• As we have seen with social media, games and VR utopian applications envisaged by
proponents of a new technology never tell the full story
• While the ethical concerns of games, VW and VR may not be new, they bring a wide
range of ethical issues into new contexts in sometimes surprising ways
• In developing a new VW/VR technology, developers need to be aware of the ethical
concerns that are most likely to arise for adoption, use and misuse
• There have been ample examples of abuse, harassment and problems in VW/VR, so
should not plead ignorance
• No matter how conscious and how much effort goes in here, be prepared for surprises in
how users adopt technology – both for good and for bad
• Deciding how to balance user freedoms and user protections, is a choice that a developer
makes – and should be a conscious choice!