Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority

This paper covers a detailed analysis of the Milgram Experiments, how they were conducted exactly and an analysis of the results collated.

Link: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/pir/notes06/Level5/IR5503/Milgram.pdf

Ethics 101: Designing Morality in Games

This article discusses morality systems in games and includes an interview with Bethseda’s Emil Paglairulo and 2K Marin’s Jordon Thomas, discussing ethical building gameplay. The interview attempts to examine how to design moral choices which are both intellectually stimulating as well as fun to play. Referencing in creating The Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Bioshock 2. Morality systems have grown more common as games have become more complex. The majority of morality systems in games are still ‘black and white’ though, while some others try to offer more variety in choices, making the player experiment with different ethical stances. Interesting points made are that a morality system comes down to two requirements: engaging world for the player and creating choices with moral weight, while obvious a lot of games don’t offer both, but rather create choices which have no impact on narrative/gameplay. Players have to connect with the characters, Bethseda’s Pagliarulo “ I think Heavy Rain has proven this better than any game in recent memory. In order for a developer to provide moral choices that matter, the player has to be convinced that those choices are going to have some kind of effect on the characters in the game, and more believable those characters, the stronger the emotional impact.” Adding morality can stop player’s cruising through the same types of games they’ve gotten used to. Pagliarulo states that “Shooting the bad guy’ becomes ‘shooting the guy who may or may not be bad,’ and that in itself adds a unique twist to the gameplay”

Link: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5324/ethics_101_designing_morality_in_.php

BEHAVIORAL DECISION THEORY: PROCESSES OF JUDGMENT AND CHOICE

This paper studies the relevance of normative theories in the study of decision making and choice. Einhorn and Hogart propose strategies and mechanisms of choice which are: The role of acquisition in evaluation, acquisition, evaluation/action, conflict in judgement, judgement = choice and conflict in action.

Link: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2490959?uid=19312120&uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=3&uid=16757072&uid=67&uid=62&sid=56139146173

Shadow of the Collossus

Team Ico’s action-adventure game Shadow of the Colossus sees the player take the role of protagonist Wander as he travels a long distance with what appears to be a dead girl on his horse to a remote land with a castle in the centre. Once at the castle wander is told by an unseen entity that he must defeat sixteen colossi to bring the girl back to life. The intro cut scene is narrated by another character who explains a small amount of the back story that wander has travelled to forbidden lands and that Dormin (the entity) must be prevented from using a forbidden spell. This brief back-story at the beginning of the game already lays down clues that what Wander hopes to achieve could have tragic consequences. By the end of the game when Wander has defeated all of the Collosi it is revealed that Dormin has used him in ordered to possess his body and walk amongst the mortal world. Though a tragic love story, Shadow of the Collossus is evidence of how research into obedience and authority in games could lead to innovative design concepts. Could a game be designed around multiple paths of the player obeying and disobeying authority?