Video Games as Culture and Society

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7821612.stm
In reading the news over the past few days I have become increasingly interested in the rise of the video game as a cultural medium and the moral messages they include. As a member of the video game generation, they have always been a part of my cultural experience. The years that certain games emerged and the systems that went with them, had a definitive effect on the manner in which I socialised and the way in which I interacted with other members of my generation. I have never been convinced that video games breed violent or inapropriate behaviour, or at least, no more so than any other medium. Movies, books and television play a similar role in our society and, in my mind, it would be helpful if more people saw them as equals rather than in an artistic hierarchy. That having been said, there is an extent to which a virtual environment in which you are able to make your own moral decisions, and in which these moral decisions have a specific outcome on the extent to which you are rewarded/punished may well have a stronger influence on future behaviour.

More modern games, especially those that are designed as simulators for an actual society (rpgs, mmorps, etc.) seem to be taking increased notice of systems of morality and in doing so could be said to be helping to address a long standing problem in the genre. I call it a problem in the sense that it provides a greater degree of realism with a system of morality in place, than a traditional video game would display. What is interesting for me and specifically my studies is that the systems employed are almost always simple systems of Kantian ethics. There are a series of rules that cannot be broken and, if one breaks them, a set punishment is allotted for the breaking of those rules. In many cases the punishment is the loss of life, or a fine. In others, perhaps games with a more advanced system, the retribution can be in the form of loss of standing or opportunity and in a very few, being stonewalled or met with open hostility by certain sections of the programming.

Mmorps seem to take ethics to a different level. World of Warcraft, for instance, allows a degree immoral behaviour to occur, but associates it with risk. Player killers exist in almost every game of this type, though their are usually a sufficient number of disincentives to discourage such behaviour. If such societal retribution is not sufficient, i.e. the moderators or program itself does not take direct action, then the emergence of society based on mutual protection can be seen. Players group together in guilds specifically designed to usurp power from other unruly players and fight back against those that have harmed them in the past. Retributive justice is taken into the hands of society at large with little account for the state or how the situation might more effectively be managed.

A full scale study of such phenomena would no doubt be fascinating. A blank world with the opportunity for colonisation and the emergence of powerful players with vassals and governmental systems. Would stable governements emerge? Surely the game would begin as life was described by Hobbes, 'Nasty, brutish, and short.' Later a social contract might make an appearance, a form of end user license agreement to force players to obey certain rules and regulations. In any case the amount that could be learnt by philosophers about morals and government would be invaluable. Our culture given a fresh start, allowed to develop from a blank state, into whatever government that may emerge.