The Ethics of Computer Games

石头

作者：Miguel Sicart
出版日期：May 29, 2009
出版社：其它
页数：280
ISBN：ISBN-10: 0262012650 ISBN-13: 978-0262012652
文件格式：PDF

Review
“Miguel Sicart’s The Ethics of Computer Gamesis a thoughtful and nuanced investigation of a topic of greatimportance. Sicart weaves together insights and influences from severalfields, providing an erudite (and also approachable) introduction tothe subject. This book will be valuable to educators who want to targetethics in their Game Studies curriculum, as well as to journalists,parents, and others who have ethical concerns about games.”
—Katherine Isbister, Polytechnic Institute of New York University
“Sicart provides surprising insight to a topic rarely discussed insuch an analytical and unbiased manner. This is critical reading fordesigners wishing to embed true meaning and cultural resonance in theirgames.”
—Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association
Product Description
Despite the emergence of computer games as a dominant cultural industry(and the accompanying emergence of computer games as the subject ofscholarly research), we know little or nothing about the ethics ofcomputer games. Considerations of the morality of computer games seldomgo beyond intermittent portrayals of them in the mass media as trainingdevices for teenage serial killers. In this first scholarly explorationof the subject, Miguel Sicart addresses broader issues about the ethicsof games, the ethics of playing the games, and the ethicalresponsibilities of game designers. He argues that computer games areethical objects, that computer game players are ethical agents, andthat the ethics of computer games should be seen as a complex networkof responsibilities and moral duties. Players should not be consideredpassive amoral creatures; they reflect, relate, and create with ethicalminds. The games they play are ethical systems, with rules that creategameworlds with values at play.
Drawing on concepts from philosophy and game studies, Sicartproposes a framework for analyzing the ethics of computer games as bothdesigned objects and player experiences. After presenting his coretheoretical arguments and offering a general theory for understandingcomputer game ethics, Sicart offers case studies examiningsingle-player games (using Bioshock as an example), multiplayer games (illustrated by Defcon), and online gameworlds (illustrated by World of Warcraft)from an ethical perspective. He explores issues raised by unethicalcontent in computer games and its possible effect on players and offersa synthesis of design theory and ethics that could be used as bothanalytical tool and inspiration in the creation of ethical gameplay.