Karen Schrier

Ethics and game design : teaching values through play

Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play is the first book in its field to challenge scholars and researchers to answer questions such as: How can game design be improved to foster ethical thinking and discourse? What are the theories and methodologies that will help us understand, model, and assess ethical thinking in games? How do we use games in classrooms and informal educational settings to support moral development? This distinguished publication approaches such questions from a multidisciplinary perspective with the ultimate goal of inspiring further interdisciplinary dialogue and research in order to continue building the ethics and games community.

EPIC: a framework for using video games in ethics education

Ethics education can potentially be supplemented through the use of video games. This article proposes a novel framework (Ethics Practice and Implementation Categorization [EPIC] Framework), which helps educators choose games to be used for ethics education purposes. The EPIC Framework is derived from a number of classic moral development, learning, and ethical decision-making models, including frameworks and theories associated with games and ethics, as well as prior empirical and theoretical research literature. The EPIC Framework consists of seven ethics education goals (e.g., building ethical awareness, practicing reflection, and enhancing character), and 12 strategies associated with ethics education, which are also present in video games (e.g., role-play, modeling, and simulation). Each of the framework’s categories is described in detail, and the limitations of the framework are also discussed.

Avatar Gender and Ethical Choices in Fable III

This study investigates how players make ethical decisions in Fable III, a video game, with consideration to avatar gender. Thirty males, 18 to 34 years old, were recruited; 20 were assigned to play Fable III, with half assigned to play as a male avatar (Condition 1), and half assigned as a female avatar (Condition 2). Any ethical thinking skills and thought processes used were identified using a researcher-developed coding scheme. Analysis suggests that all game players, regardless of avatar gender, practiced ethical thinking—35 skills and 19 thought processes were identified and categorized. There were few differences found between conditions; however, when gender was a salient factor in a decision, this affected ethical decisions more frequently. Those in Condition 1 more frequently reported a personal connection to their avatar, and Condition 2 participants reported that gender factored into decisions more at the beginning of the game rather than at the end.

Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks

As games become increasingly embedded into everyday life, understanding the ethics of their creation and use, as well as their potential for practicing ethical thinking, becomes more relevant. Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks brings together the diverse and growing community of voices and begins to define the field, identify its primary challenges and questions, and establish the current state of the discipline. Such a rigorous, collaborative, and holistic foundation for the study of ethics and games is necessary to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, and curricula.

Ethical Thinking and Sustainability in Role-Play Participants

Purpose. Can games provide a holistic understanding of the ethical decision-making process related to sustainability and environmental management? Method. Thirty participants, 18 to 34 years old, were recruited. Twenty were then randomly assigned to play a popular role-playing game, which raises an issue of whether to drain or preserve a virtual lake. Ten participants were assigned to a control condition, which involved a written version of the lake dilemma. Using a researcher-developed coding scheme, this study compared the ethical thinking skills and thought processes used to approach the lake scenario. Findings. Control condition participants more frequently chose to drain the lake than game condition participants. The top-ranked thought processes used by the control condition participants were reasoning-related only, whereas the top-ranked thought processes used by the game condition participants were both reasoning- and empathy-related, which may have related to their greater likelihood to preserve the lake. While, most game participants chose to preserve the lake (75%), game participants chose the “negative” choice in this scenario more often than any other (non-sustainability related) scenario provided in the game. Implications. This study helps us to understand how people think through sustainability-related scenarios, and how to use games for policy making and education.

What's in a name?: naming games that solve real-world problems

Games are increasingly being used to solve real-world problems; however, multiple distinct terms have been used to describe this phenomenon. For instance, games such as EteRNA, Phylo, and Foldit, as well as SchoolLife, Fraxinus, and reCaptcha, have been variably been named as human computation games, games with a purpose, crowdsourcing games, and citizen science games. In this paper I review relevant literature to elicit possible terms to describe games that aim to solve a real-world problem (such as how proteins fold or bullying) through mechanisms like crowdsourcing activities, large-scale human participation, and/or collaborative problem solving. Next, I conduct searches of three major online databases to find scholarly articles using terms, as well as identify currently open questions as to the usage of these terms going forward.

Chapter 3 – Emotion, Empathy, and Ethical Thinking in Fable III

To what extent are emotion- and empathy-related skills and thought processes involved in how people make ethical decisions in Fable III, a video game? A total of 30 males, 18-34 years old, were recruited; 20 participants were randomly assigned to play Fable III; 10 were assigned to a control condition. Any ethical thinking skills and thought processes used were identified and categorized as empathy-related, reasoning-related, reflection-related, and information gathering-related. Results suggested that in an early in-game scenario versus a control condition, participants were less likely to consider another character’s or their own emotions when making a decision. Game participants practiced empathy-related skills and thought processes more frequently after having the time and opportunity to build relationships with in-game characters. Game participants, however, considered the emotions of others more frequently in a scenario post-game than those in the control group.

Collaboration and Emotion in Way

In this exploratory study, four participants were observed playing Way, an online, synchronous, multiplayer game. In Way, participants cannot use verbal or written communication; they use avatars to nonverbally teach and learn from each other and solve collaborative tasks to win the game. Based on an analysis, five themes emerged and recommendations were provided for designing online collaborative games. Shared contexts and goals, a relevant set of nonverbal cues and gestures, and a system that values collaborative success were suggested to enhance learning. Participants tried to name and interpret their partner’s emotions, but did not try to express emotion using Way’s interface. The anonymous nature of Way, and the focus on communication and problem-solving, seemed to enhance the participant’s attachment to the partner, as well as their interest in and awareness of one’s partner’s emotions. All results should be considered directional and descriptive, given the limited sample size.

Designing Games for Moral Learning and Knowledge Building

How can we better learn about and teach moral thinking and skills? How can we solve moral problems? One possible way is to create and use moral learning games, or games that enable players to work on moral scenarios, make moral choices, and gain relevant skills. One possible subcategory of these games is moral knowledge games, or games that aim to solve real-world moral problems and create new knowledge about morality. This article systematically analyzes relevant literature and related games and media to uncover a preliminary set of design principles for creating moral learning games and moral knowledge games. Frameworks such as the Elemental Tetrad, Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA), and Ethics Practice and Implementation Categorization Framework (EPIC) were used to analyze individual games and media. Ten different categories of principles emerged, along with 95 possible subprinciples. Implications, next steps, and limitations of this analysis were also discussed.