Moralni izbor u video igrama: zrcalna projekcija stvarnosti ili zaseban logicki sustav

Pavlić, Matko. (2016). Moralni izbor u video igrama: zrcalna projekcija stvarnosti ili zaseban logicki sustav. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Sociology. [mentor Čulig, Benjamin].

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Abstract

In recent years, moral choice in video games has become a significant sociological phenomenon. Video games today demand moral reasoning as one of the main plot mechanisms, as well as a connection between the player and the narrative of the game. Such a phenomenon provides a unique opportunity to look at video games from a relatively unexplored scientific point of view. Video games allow for immersive experiences and direct participation in various virtual scenarios and environments, as well as fantastic stories about good and evil. Through the interaction with the game systems, players become agents in complex narratives, making decisions and using their skills of moral perception and moral reasoning. Making moral decisions isn’t something new when it comes to media. It is regularly present in books and movies, where audience interaction is at a much lower level; a viewer can only observe and doesn’t have an effect on the plot. There is no real interaction between a movie and the audience, except parasocial interaction and the cognitive processes of the viewers themselves, who evaluate the decisions made by the characters on the screen, whereas in video games, the player directly interacts with the game systems and mechanics, taking on the role of the agent making moral decisions. Every video game has its own set of rules and is made of (more or less) complex internal logical systems which allow players to interact with the game world, also limiting their actions and decisions, guiding them and determining what is possible and acceptable and what isn’t. To obey the rules is to play the game, respecting the logic it implies, while ignoring the rules breaks the “magic circle” that creates the border between the game space and reality (Huizinga, 1992). Moral rules and moral choices are a product of the rules and the logical system of the game. This paper examines the relationship between moral choice in video games and real moral beliefs, feelings and principles of the players. In other words: is moral choice in video games a mirrored projection of reality or a separate logical system? The answer lies in the fact that players as moral agents give meaning to the game, through their interaction with its system. Video games today deal with serious and real moral questions such as preservation of life, sacrificing one life for another and other moral dilemmas. Therefore, it is not a question of whether the games themselves will be a mirrored projection of reality in the narrative sense, but will the players (as moral agents) act rationally, according to their moral principles and give meaning to moral dilemmas in video games or will they be morally disengaged, neglecting the real consequences of their actions. The goal of this paper is to analyze the ways in which the players make moral decisions inside the “magic circle” of the game and how those decisions influence the emotional reactions of the players.

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