Game Education Summit North America

Paper Abstract:

It has often been said that every aesthetic choice is also an ethical one. While this relationship may be somewhat easy to comprehend when it comes to traditional storytelling media like novels and films, it becomes more complicated when it comes to video games. As games become more story-driven, the ethical landscapes they figure become more interesting. This paper takes as its starting point the class in Video Game Theory and Analysis I teach at Loyola Marymount University. A key element of LMU’s mission statement is an emphasis on the promotion of justice, specifically in preparing students to practice ethical responsibility and compassionate leadership. The video game class has proven to be an especially rich arena in which to encourage students to explore and apply ethical issues to their analysis, discussion, and creation of games. As students analyze story, character, space, and game play in mainstream as well as serious games, they are able to articulate more clearly the ways that games have engaged ethics over the past three decades and look ahead to imagine ways to deepen the ethical dimension in games as well as the way we talk about gaming and gamers