Slides from 30 minute talk on Designing Ethical Dilemmas given at the IGDA Madison Chapter meeting in July 2009

1. Designing Ethical Dilemmas Manveer Heir Raven Software July 28, 2009

3. You found a wallet on the street with $1000 and no clear owner?

4. Watch a mother and her child wither away to ensure your survival?

5. Who Is This Guy? B.S. Computer Science – Virginia Tech Programming Intern at Big Huge Games on Rise of Legends Gameplay Programmer at Raven Software on Wolfenstein for 2+ years Game Designer at Raven Software on Wolfenstein Currently Lead Designer on a top-secret project

7. How to act ethically in the workplace

8. No one told me research = reading :(

10. Need game emotions beyond fear and aggression

11. Can be the key to unlocking these new emotions in players

14. Ethics are “a set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral value” (Merriam-Webster)

15. Ethics are “a rational, methodological approach to the questions of good, evil, duty and values” (Sicart)

18. Mirroring Design (Sicart)

21. Games such as Fable

24. Can reward unethical gameplay this way to challenge the player's ethical framework

26. These games can potentially become preachy and don't take full advantage of the medium

27. Open designs are harder to account for, but potentially more rewarding

28. Open designs will be the way in which our games will open up new emotional responses in players

29. We Got Problems

32. Binary system that doesn’t account for ambiguities that exist

33. Applying scores and mechanics to ethical decisions marginalizes the decision

35. Turns to realization of the strategy

36. Robs the impact of the ethical decisions and turns the decision into one of optimal strategy

38. Need something more

39. Need ambiguity!

40. World is Gray

42. Consequences

43. Obstacles

44. Permanence

46. Not economically invested

47. Emotionally invested

48. Ludic elements need to support narrative elements

49. Ludonarrative Dissonance (Hocking)

50. No Magical Formula For Narrative

52. Need to significantly impact the game

53. Player needs to understand consequence is a result of earlier choice

54. Do not minimize impact of consequences

55. Mass Effect

57. Push player down a new path

58. Try making “moral” road the more difficult

59. Game paths don't have to be equal

60. Challenge player's conceptions of what is ethical!

61. Train

63. Choices that are mechanical (shooting) are fine to redo

64. Forces player to live with consequences

65. Lends self to experiential gameplay, not mastery

66. Tenpenny Tower

67. A Funny Thing Happened...

68. ENRAGED UPSET BETRAYED DISGUSTED

70. Consequences – If I “do the right thing” the humans still die and they never come back.

71. Obstacles – It's easier to just kill one side outright. “Doing the right thing” requires me to convince others and do an extra quest

72. Permanance – I decided not to let myself reload... why?

73. VENGENCE

74. This Is The Potential Of Ethical Dilemmas In Games

76. Contact Info E-Mail: [email_address] Design Rampage: http://designrampage.blogspot.com Follow me on Twitter: @manveerheir