Moral in videogames
- Thread starter Jachwe
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Because I play video games to be a type of person that I can't be in real life. Besides I hardly ever care about NPS since the majority of game have NPC look alikes with repeat voice actors, so it's not like killing a real person.
Kind of stupid argument. Just because they are not real does not automaticly imply you should not consider not killing them. Why is it not like killing a real person? because it has no real consequences like a dead body lying around or because the virtual people are despite their expressivness no sentient being or because your sense for morality does not tingle? And the first part reads in context like you want to be a murdering with no remorse person.Fusioncode9 said:
You cannot reasonably expect to justify your behaviour in videogames in two short sentences. For any future posts please give it some effort.
I love it how one could debate if destroying pixels is evil.Jachwe said:
Morality is the fat that grows when people live in peace for too long. It is subjective and changes from person to person.
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Back to the topic.
No, it is not morally wrong to destroy pixels. You are playing a game. The objective is to point something and press a button. How you do that, in what form and what controls are involved - that's the game iself and its mechanics, but every game have its rules and laws. It is within the boundaries of the game that we 'murder' pixels, therefore it is not morally wrong.
Unless they teach you how to kill people with pens.
First of all, your initial argument is flawed because most of this site is atheist, and couldn't care any less about the ten commandments. To say that killing someone is never justified is just plain wrong. Secondly, people in videogames DO NOT EXIST. They are simply pixels on a screen using code to act in a way that imitates human behavior in order to further immersion. They can't think, feel, reproduce, or do anything to warrant an ethical debate over their "murder."Jachwe said:
That's really all there is to it. They aren't people inside a video game, they're just a visual representation of code.
I realize that I might be "technically" incorrect in me describing how a videogame works, but the point can be seen nevertheless.
*resists urge to rant about how the Old Testament with the 10 Commandments means jack-shit to Those Who Follow Iesus Christos (aka: Christians) who scragged the 10C's for his followers and gave only 2 rules to follow, and how even so that means jack-shit in a virtual world where no physical being is hurt.*
Also; Morality is subjective to the individual. No sense trying to broadly apply one individual's sense of mortality to the whole world as that will just fail spectacularly.
That's my view having being forced to attend church for nearly 15 years solid without a say, and having read the Bible front to back many times over those 15 years (which were 8 years ago after finally getting away from a control freak of a mother).
Also; Morality is subjective to the individual. No sense trying to broadly apply one individual's sense of mortality to the whole world as that will just fail spectacularly.
That's my view having being forced to attend church for nearly 15 years solid without a say, and having read the Bible front to back many times over those 15 years (which were 8 years ago after finally getting away from a control freak of a mother).
Sorry but I don't care weather or not I kill an NPC. Why would my morality senses tingle if I destroy a collection of ones and zeros. And I'm not trying to justify my behavior to you, I'm just explaining why I don't care if a pixelated sprite on my tv screen dies.Jachwe said:
What a splendid way to start! Insult the other party. While a society does have defined norms an morals, an individual does not have to agree with them. You killing me might upset a society of people, but individual members of said society might have mixed feelings and views on the matter (depending on circumstances). Either way, morals are relative.Jachwe said:
The only reason I feel okay with killing in a video game is that I know that it is not real. If the game was real, and I was killing people, then there wouldn't be any justification.
Morality is useless in games. Most people (thankfully) can thoroughly distinguish between games and reality and right and wrong. Games can be used to put individual morals to the test through ordeals/challenges (when done right, that is) but, come on, it's not like games are in anyway a representation of what people are or how they act in the real world. If that was the case, a night of riots would be considered a peaceful 24 hours period.
That said; the argument "I play immoral/evil in games because I can't in real life" OR "I kill NPC's in video games because it's illegal/wrong in the real world" is still worrying. It makes me wonder just how unstable some fellow gamers really are.
And no, of the few studios that have ever been able to portray moral dilemma in games ever Bioware is not one of them. Simply put - their cause and effect, or consequences are underplayed/non-existant/play a tiny part in a sequel. This makes for shitty moral standards in games.
That said; the argument "I play immoral/evil in games because I can't in real life" OR "I kill NPC's in video games because it's illegal/wrong in the real world" is still worrying. It makes me wonder just how unstable some fellow gamers really are.
And no, of the few studios that have ever been able to portray moral dilemma in games ever Bioware is not one of them. Simply put - their cause and effect, or consequences are underplayed/non-existant/play a tiny part in a sequel. This makes for shitty moral standards in games.
Lack of cognition and biological functions my friend. Inanimation. Science doesn't care about them. God doesn't care about them.
You may as well be arguing that punching a wall is "hurting" it.
I think a better arguement is "Is it morally wrong to kill a sentient AI being (assuming it wasn't humanely "justified")?"
You may as well be arguing that punching a wall is "hurting" it.
I think a better arguement is "Is it morally wrong to kill a sentient AI being (assuming it wasn't humanely "justified")?"
in lots of video games its killed or be killed fuss you can justifies killing them as self defense.plus morals are what a person thinks is right and wrong now society believes killing people is wrong but the NPC's are not considered a person so "killing" them is not considered wrong by society and all gamers i know. npcs are not living things as determined by the laws of science they cant reproduce,they are not made up of cells and ect. ect. (cant remember what the rest was)so "killing" an npc can be related to throwing a rock into a pond well a bloody gory rock into a pond of blood lava to be precise.
I kill in a video game depending on the objectives in said video game, whether or not it requires me to kill a person. I've never received an assassination quest in real life.
Also because I was raised by my own parents, who taught me the difference between entertainment and reality.
I pose to you OP, another question. What motivates you to come online to make stupid threads and accusations against people (primarily calling everyone stupid that is providing you with a valid response to your invalid question)? Oh crap are you trying to get us to do a college essay for you? Pretty sneaky, sis.
Also because I was raised by my own parents, who taught me the difference between entertainment and reality.
I pose to you OP, another question. What motivates you to come online to make stupid threads and accusations against people (primarily calling everyone stupid that is providing you with a valid response to your invalid question)? Oh crap are you trying to get us to do a college essay for you? Pretty sneaky, sis.
Morality is subjective. At one time not being hetrosexual was seen as evil by most people does that mean it was evil? I tend not to kill people unless it is the only way, it is the best thing to do in that situation or in is an online game where killing people is just like playing a game of paintball.
Because, now lean in close this is important ... closer ... a bit closer ... IT'S JUST A BLOODY GAME.
You are not killing anyone you are shooting pixels at other pixels.
There is no morality in the choices because it's not real.
If I shoot someone in the face in a game his pixel family aren't going to start a protest and proclaim me a pixel slaughtering monster.
It's people that bring morality into gaming that make people believe games can make people into homicidal lunatics when those very people were bat shit insane to start with,
In short, I kill people in games because it's not bloody real therefore I can sleep peacefully at night.
You are not killing anyone you are shooting pixels at other pixels.
There is no morality in the choices because it's not real.
If I shoot someone in the face in a game his pixel family aren't going to start a protest and proclaim me a pixel slaughtering monster.
It's people that bring morality into gaming that make people believe games can make people into homicidal lunatics when those very people were bat shit insane to start with,
In short, I kill people in games because it's not bloody real therefore I can sleep peacefully at night.
Well met! Have a drink.TheIronRuler said:
I'd like to point out to the OP that we're assuming that, since these pixels look and behave like we do, they inherently carry the same morals as us. What morals are carried by these people and their world are left purely to the designers of the game in question. I like to think this is proved simply by how we play: Does the protagonist wield a weapon of any sort? Do NPCs react when said weapon interacts with them?
The point I'm trying to carry across is, I don't think it's quite right to play a game and assume it works entirely the same there as it does in the world we ourselves live.
OP, I also understand that you're trying to impress upon us the importance of morals to begin with. If we're so desensitized to mere images of sentience being maimed, what's stopping us from killing people we know are real, besides the consequence of incarceration, social ostracism and the like? Like everyone else who blithely answered without giving a second thought (or some of you, anyway), it really is as simple as "it's not real". When we distinguish fantasy from reality, we apply the strict morals we were raised with to what will affect us and our well being, and also to the people we assume are as real as us (i.e the rest of the world).
Well..... at the risk of continuing what might fast become a flame war, I must also agree with the concept that Morality is Subjective. At best, morality is based upon Society's needs for the moment, then discarded when useless.
Whew, not that's done. Because I want to I suppose. Pixels are different from people, and are thus, simulations of what we do. There are no real life consequences of letting loose with, say, Prototype in a game, so we do that. Pixels are not people, and this will remain true until the discovery of Artificial Intelligence.
Whew, not that's done. Because I want to I suppose. Pixels are different from people, and are thus, simulations of what we do. There are no real life consequences of letting loose with, say, Prototype in a game, so we do that. Pixels are not people, and this will remain true until the discovery of Artificial Intelligence.