Two Articles on Video Games

http://www.igda.org/articles/rreynolds_ethics.php

In the article, Playing a "Good" Game: A Philosophical Approach to Understanding the Morality of Games by Ren Reynolds, he argues the point that the game Grand Theft Auto 3 is not immoral because the pleasure people get out of playing out-weighs the harm it might cause. He argues this through several different philosophical perspectives, and through his own ethical and moral views. I do not particularly agree with his argument because although he believes that the pleasure of playing the game outweighs the harms of video game violence, he does not have any proof to back up his statement and is making this assumption on his own beliefs. If a mothers child goes our and commits a violent act because he has been playing a violent video game for weeks, she would probably believe that the harm of the game outweighs the pleasure her child got from playing it. Although I do not really agree with his personal view points, it is also hard to argue and opinion that is not support by fact.

http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com/2004/08/ethics-of-video-game-based-simulation.html

In this article, The Ethics of Video Game-Based Simulation by Susan Smith Nash, she argues the point that using a simulation video game to train military personnel is not ethically sound because it promotes the idea that they player is invincible and dehumanizes killing. She argues that because the player can make their character look like anything, and not just themselves, the player does not associate themselves with the killing and makes it more like a game than a real life simulator. I agree with her points in this article because I believe it would be hard to train military personnel in ground combat with a video game. The air force has flight simulators, but you can construct an airplane and make everything very real including sounds, smells, and what flying feels like. It may be harder however to simulate the battle field in Iraq for a ground solider. By putting a controller or fake gun in their hand and letting them shoot at a screen it does not truly simulate the real life situation of killing another human.