Research Methodology

Qualitative research

Qualitative research aims to theorize and contextualize meanings in human behaviour, for example, decisions we make and reasons why we perform certain actions.

Ethics

Grand Theft Auto, the first instalment to the series is a game that raised a lot of ethical questions when it was released. Grand Theft Auto is set in three cities which the player is free to roam, the main objective of the game is to reach a certain amount of points for each city, the player can achieve this through various criminal activities; stealing cars and selling them, running people over, killing and assassinating people, also missions can be completed which include robbing banks, being a getaway driver, returning stolen drugs to syndicates and more. These raise ethical questions that Toshihiro Nagoshi designer of the game Yakusa reflects upon in this article from kotaku.com "I thought one day someone is going to have to make something like this. Personally, because I think you must think about the influence games have on people, I would never think about wanting to make a game like this. However, because of the moral issues in this game, I think we should have a healthy debate...In gaming, if you make a decision, there is a reaction, and it's the most stimulating form of media, I think. And thus, it can asked if it's the most dangerous media... Depending on what you make, perhaps." (Nagoshi, Yakuza Creator On Grand Theft Auto by Brian Ashcraft, Kotaku.com, 2009) I believe Nagoshi makes a good point, it’s a debate that has been running about films for years, do they have an effect on people? Here is an article from cbsnews.com. This is a report by Correspondent Ed Bradly. Devin Moore of 18years “who had played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months.” (Ed Bradley, Can A Video Game Lead To Violence, n.d.) Shot dead three police officers after being brought into Fayette police station on suspicion of stealing a car, he then “grabbed a set of car keys. He went out the door to the parking lot, jumped into a police cruiser, and took off.” (Ed Bradley, n.d.) Its reported that after his capture Moore said “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime.” (Moore, n.d,) Frighteningly these do feel very similar to events from the game and there is no denying the assumption that Grand Theft Auto could be a contributing factor. Attorney Jack Thompson on the case says “What we're saying is that Devin Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator... He bought it as a minor. He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game. It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did.” (Thompson n.d.) My views on this moral question on video game related violence is that if someone is capable of committing such an extreme act of violence they would find some other medium to vent themselves with, for Thompson to say Grand Theft Auto is a “Murder simulator” (Thompson n.d.) and provokes violence from individuals in the outside world is unfounded as there would many more cases across the globe. I believe it a possibility Devin Moore was capable of crimes even before he played Grand Theft Auto, but I am not denying that it may have desensitised him and contributed towards his actions, which could have been from elsewhere in his life or yet to be, from another media source for example, reading about a crime, or watching a violent film or documentary.

The Making of: Playstation

Here is an article from edge-online.com. It gives a good introduction into the history of the playstation and its success.

Rising from the ashes of a battleground of negotiations and betrayal with Nintendo over the Super SNES CD, a peripheral CD-drive for use with the SNES "Nintendo declared that it would be breaking its deal with Sony by partnering with Philips instead." (edge staff, the making of: playstation, 2009) This enraged Sony's president Norio Ohga and with the influence of Ken Kutaragi (who designed the S-SMP chip, used in the Super NES) sony eventually decided to develop their own console. At that time named the Playstation X. 

A part of this article I found particularly interesting was the decision by Norio Ohga to remove Ken Kutaragi from Sony and move him along with nine team members to Sony Music. He did this for two reasons:

Not only outside the company but also internally views towards Sony entering the gaming business was met with resistance, and Ohga feared Kutaragi's passion to enter it would crush his reputation. Explained by a quote from Phil Harrison, the then president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios "The main reason why the Sony brand wasn't really used in the early marketing of the playstation was not necessarily out of choice, but it was because Sony's old guard was scared that it was going to destroy this wonderful, venerable, 50-yearold brand. They saw Nintendo and Sega as toys, so why on Earth would they join the toy business? That changed a bit after we delivered 90 per cent of the company's profit for a few years."(Harrison, n.d) This is also an interesting insight in to the cultural value of gaming within business at that time.

Secondly "Sony Music knew how to nurture creative talent and how to manufacture, market and distribute music discs - with the move to CD-ROM, the mechanics of making and supplying games had become similar to that used for music" (edge staff, the making of: playstation, 2009) which would have made the working on CD-ROM on the Playstation for Kutaragi an easy transition.

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?