Focus, sensitivity, judgement, action: four lenses for designing morally engaging games

Malcolm Ryan; Dan Staines; Paul Formosa

doi:10.26503/todigra.v3i2.72

Focus, sensitivity, judgement, action: four lenses for designing morally engaging games

Malcolm Ryan, Dan Staines, Paul Formosa

School of Computing

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Historically the focus of moral decision-making in games has been narrow, mostly confined to challenges of moral judgement (deciding right and wrong). In this paper, we look to moral psychology to get a broader view of the skills involved in ethical behaviour and how these skills can be employed in games. Following the Four Component Model of Rest and colleagues, we identify four “lenses” – perspectives for considering moral gameplay in terms of focus, sensitivity, judgement and action – and describe the design problems raised by each. To conclude, we analyse two recent games, The Walking Dead and Papers, Please, and show how the lenses give us insight into important design differences between these games.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	143-173
Number of pages	31
Journal	Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association
Volume	3
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.26503/todigra.v3i2.72
Publication status	Published - 2017

Bibliographical note

Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

game design
lenses
ethics
empathy
videogames
moral psychology
Four Component Model

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10.26503/todigra.v3i2.72

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 652 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Designing for moral engagement in videogames
Ryan, M. (Primary Chief Investigator), Formosa, P. (Chief Investigator), Howarth, S. (Chief Investigator) & Messer, J. (Associate Investigator)
1/01/18 → 31/12/19
Project: Research

Cite this

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abstract = "Historically the focus of moral decision-making in games has been narrow, mostly confined to challenges of moral judgement (deciding right and wrong). In this paper, we look to moral psychology to get a broader view of the skills involved in ethical behaviour and how these skills can be employed in games. Following the Four Component Model of Rest and colleagues, we identify four “lenses” – perspectives for considering moral gameplay in terms of focus, sensitivity, judgement and action – and describe the design problems raised by each. To conclude, we analyse two recent games, The Walking Dead and Papers, Please, and show how the lenses give us insight into important design differences between these games.",

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Focus, sensitivity, judgement, action: four lenses for designing morally engaging games

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Designing for moral engagement in videogames

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