Black or White: Making Moral Choices in Video Games

This article argues that the emergence of morality is one of the most important innovations in video games recently. It argues that often moral choices within games are ‘black and white’ for example, good or evil choices, rather than more morally ambiguous choices, a shade of grey. It also concludes that games such as Bioshock and inFamous “give the illusion of meaning to a player’s actions” and that these choices made are “promoted as a very weighty and important player decision, when in reality it has little bearing on your character”

This article is interesting in my research because I feel the use of moral choices in game design are an interesting innovation where a player can question what they are doing within a virtual environment. The concept of morality systems in games could be an interesting base for this research.

Link: http://uk.gamespot.com/features/black-or-white-making-moral-choices-in-video-games-6240211/

A Virtual Reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments

During the 1960s Stanly Milgram submitted an article called ‘Behavioural Study of Obedience’. Influenced by the trial of Nazi lieutenant colonel Adolf Eichmann the study contained research on how participants dealt with being coerced by an authoritative figure into acting against their judgement and committing acts of torture upon another human. The participants were asked to administer increasing voltage shocks to a ‘learner’ (who unknown to the participant is an actor) when questions were answered incorrectly. The learner is placed in another room and communication between the participant and ‘learner’ is conducted over intercom. The results of the experiment are shocking with 37 of the 40 participants administering the highest range of lethal voltage shock of 450 volts. Milgram concluded that we do as we are told when ordered by an authorities figure either out of fear or out of the desire to co-operate.

This paper conducts the same tests as the Milgram experiments but within “an immersive virtual environment”. Instead of an actor playing the role of the ‘learner’ the participents have to administer shocks to a virtual female human. The results show that despite the fact that all the participants are clearly aware of the shocks not being real and having no effect on a sentient life form, all the participants showed physiological and behavioural levels as if the situation was real. “This result reopens the door to direct empirical studies of obedience and related extreme social situations, an area of research that is otherwise not open to experimental study for ethical reasons, through the employment of virtual environments.”


Link: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000039

The Stanley Parable

The Stanley parable is a half-life 2 mod created in the source engine. The game sees you take control of Stanley, as he is narrated around his place of work. While exploring the environments of the Stanley Parable the narrator subtlety tells you what to do, for example, when you come to a corridor the narrator says 'Stanley went through the door on the left' or just before reaching a set of the stairs the narrator says 'Stanley went upstairs to his bosses office'. The interesting part to this mod is when you disobey what the narrator tells you what to do. Instead of the game coming to a stand still until they do what they are told by the narrator, the game continues, which leads to multiple paths and endings. The Stanley Parable challenges what choice and obedience mean in games. I hope to take inspiration from The Stanley Parable in creating a technical demonstration using the Unity Engine which I hope will give me supporting research. For the technical demonstration I would like to prove whether if subtly hinted, players will disobey authority from a virtual character.

Azimov

During the summer after completing my degree I began working on a 3D platform-puzzle game in a small team using the Unity engine. My involvement in the project is level designer and environment artist. I have also played a role in the early design stages of the game. Azimov is set on a planet that is inhabited by robots. The player controls a small robot who must traverse through levels by climbing onto other larger robots, hacking into their systems and taking control of their bodies. Different enemy types have different abilities which can be utilized to solve puzzles.

Stanly Milgram - Obedience to Authority Experiments

This Article Explains the methodology and experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram on his Obedience to Authority experiments.

http://cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article35.htm

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (HR) is a first-person action role-playing game by Eidos Montreal. The game has a “Cyberpunk” aesthetic art-style and is set in 2027 where technology has progressed to a stage where people can have surgically applied biomechanical augmentations to enhance physical attributes. Deus Ex: HR has been met by critical praise for its non-linear design. The biomechanical augmentations play a vital role in the games mechanics which allow the player to tailor the games player character into the way they would like to play the game. The primary “pillars of gameplay” as described by the developers are “Combat”, “Social” “Hacking” and “Stealth”. The games level design in turn is designed around these different play styles. For example one level with a clear objective is to infiltrate a police station in order to access the morgue. The player can walk straight up the front reception of the station and try to talk their way into the building (social), storm the front entrance by force using combat, sneak in by jumping over a fence and accessing the basement of the station through a manhole (stealth), or by hacking into a terminal which will gain access in to the back of the station. These choices are just the beginning of the level, once inside the player is presented with more and more of these choices which can be mixed and matched in order to reach the objective. For example, once the player has stealthily entered the station via the manhole. They could use combat to reach the objective from then on, sneak past policemen or hack terminals to reach less guarded access to the goal. None of these choices harder than the other to achieve, they are all relative to the player’s gameplay style. These choices are presented throughout the whole level and it creates an experience of freedom and accomplishment for the player which can only be achieved with non-linear design. Mechanics such as this require complex design. Taking note of Dues Ex: HR, a successful way of creating an enjoyable non-linear level is to create multiple routes to a desired location. For example, out-door and indoor areas, different floors in buildings, hidden corridors, air vents, locked doors that can be accessed by a certain skill or item. All these aspects must link together to create a tree branch of possibilities.


Image taken from: http://www.platformnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Launch-Trailer.jpg

Using time as a mechanic

Created by PHD of Computer Science, Christopher J. Hazard. Achron is a single/multi-player RTS game that plays a lot like other games in its genre where you collect resources and can create structures and units to manoeuvre around a map to defeat opponents. However Achron allows the player to manipulate time by using a timeline on the interface. This time line allows the player to see when they deal damage and when they are under attack by an opponent.

The blue horizontal line represents where the player is in time. The blue graph lines show the damage a player has dealt in time and the red shows when the player is under attack. By looking at the time line the player can see the intensity of an upcoming attack and make preparations. The game will also calculate when a player makes a choice so for example if a player decides to manoeuvre some units to the north on the map new graph lines will appear which is a prediction of enemy units in that area and the outcome of the battle which will happen. By clicking on a desired point in time on the timeline, spending chronenergy (represented by the large vertical blue bar at the top of the HUD), the player can transport themselves to that part of time. This can be used to travel to the future to see where an enemy might attack from to gain an advantage or lay an ambush or to travel back in time to undo a bad decision or build necessary units or structures for an upcoming battle.

With the ability to see the past, present and future all at once and to be able change any of the choices made in of these time intervals Anchron creates an interesting innovation for the RTS genre.