Morality in video games

[hadesmichael]

Hi all!

 

I'm writing a paper (for my studies) about morality in video games nowaday. And 'm posting this on the nexus forum because of the awesome modding community there is :)

I would like to have your opinions on different matters, such as :

Do you think that user content (created by SDK) should be controlled by the society which has created/produced the game and

released the SDK ? What do you think of "mature" content made by user, should it be included in the game itself (by mature I'm talking about violence, sex...)?

 

Thank you a lot for your time,

Michael

 

PS: Sorry about any english mistakes as this isn't my main language.

[stars2heaven]

Im not clear on some of your questions. For your first question, are you referring to the company that produced the game or the community such as the one at Nexus. If it's the company then I'd say they have the right to protect their own interests, and that means controling their products in any way they see fit if they want to provide this service to the community. If it's the community, then they too have a right to control content. Here on the Nexus for instance it's a community effort, generally speaking, to prevent piracy or to steal anothers work. On an individual level however there isn't a whole lot to stop a person from doing it on their own some place outside of sites like this one.

 

As for your second question I see modding as not just a hobby but a form of art, and that includes the vanilla game product as well. In that respect I don't find any issues with "mature" content being displayed. There are other perspectives, such as matters of free speach, etc., that would lead to this conclusion as well.

[Vagrant0]

Do you think that user content (created by SDK) should be controlled by the society which has created/produced the game and

released the SDK ?

Generally it has come under the duty of those who create mods for a game to try and encourage mods which are in the same spirit as the game. in the past, this was easier since games were more limited by what they were programmed to do, but as games become more advanced and get created on more open platforms, it becomes up to the modder to create things responsibly. Generally, using any mod content voids all claims that the game maker might be responsible for said content. The only exception to this would be in cases where the game maker hosts those mods on their own site and has direct control of what is hosted. Ultimately though, it is the responsibility of the modder to create appropriate works, and often the complexity of using a SDK keeps most of the loons/sickos/nitjobs from doing much of anything.

 

What do you think of "mature" content made by user, should it be included in the game itself (by mature I'm talking about violence, sex...)?

The simple fact of the matter is this: on the internet you can't put anything into a google search without stumbling across mature content. It exists, and anyone with a basic command of any language can find it with relative ease. It's not a question of if it exists or not, nor if people will find/make it, just who and when. As for game companies... They have a marketing team and a project head to decide what content and how much of it they want in their game. Content made by the user, as has already been mentioned is not the responsibility of the game creator and has never been part of included content due to reasons beyond some abstract concept as morality.

 

Which leads to the real heart of the question, with something as abstract as the concept of morality, can you really judge something immoral simply because it does not reflect your own personal beliefs or those held locally? What about the context of this supposed "immoral" content, does it remain "immoral" regardless of where or how it is presented? The mere status of being a game marked as "mature" rated along with various international laws regarding violence, rape, torture, and worse tends to control most of the content that might be made for a game. Anything beyond that is really the problem of the ones who create the product/mod.

 

 

Beyond that, you'll have to do your own research...

[hadesmichael]

Thank you both for your time and your opinions. This will be of great help, truly!

[lordinquisitor]

Morality is the source of all evil.

 

Nothing wrong with sex and violence in games, depending on the maker and their chosen market.

 

Problems come when you have unkillable kids for a fallout based example. The kids should be allowed to be blasted apart especially as they are allowed to act hostile. Its just some moralist decied to make them unkillable and invulnerable which instanly ruined any belife in the world. Even to KO them would have eased the aggro they caused to some degree. Given it one of the few games to even have kids and animals in it you cant fully fault them just the country they have to sell it in.

[audioave10]

I'm afraid that just as in music and art, politics and laws (good & bad ones) will effect allowable content.