Introduction

Computer-based or e-games, in both standalone and networked incarnations (including “Massive Multiplayer Online Games” or MMOGs), represent one of the most popular – and an economically profitable – uses of ICTs and CMC in the contemporary world. Such games not only simulate a range of human social interactions, from building (perhaps utopian) societies to historical and fantasy warfare of every age: the games further occasion and catalyze a range of human interactions that rightly inspire research from a variety of disciplines and specialties. Especially violent games (e.g., Quake, Doom, Grand Theft Auto III, and others) have generated some critical discussion, ranging from “moral panics” in popular media to social science investigations into possible effects and consequences of participating in such games. But e-games represent a relatively neglected subject in Information Ethics. At the same time, however, if broader discussion of e-games is to include responsible and informed ethical reflection, much more critical reflection from the various perspectives of Information Ethics upon the multiple dimensions of e-games and game-playing is needed. Hence this special issue of IRIE calls for such critical ethical reflection.

Possible Topics and Questions

While much has been written about potential psychological and social consequences of e-games, very little academic research has focused on the ethics of e-games. The ethical questions and issues here, however, are many – for example:
A. What ethics – if any – may be expected of gamers (e.g., honesty, fairness, respect, integrity - see: Code of Ethics http://investors.egames.com/ethics.asp)?
B. On the contrary, is it ethically justified to suspend such ethical expectations within specific games (e.g., Grand Theft Auto III) – precisely because these are “just a game,” i.e., a kind of psychological and/or social exercise that, like Carneval and other traditional events that temporarily invert prevailing social norms, may have cathartic and/or other beneficent effects?
C. Are there ethical norms to be expected of game designers – e.g., avoiding designs that intentionally or inadvertently reinforce questionable (if not dangerous and unethical) stereotypes regarding gender, ethnic and national identities, etc.? Or is anything justified as long as it sells in the marketplace?
D. How do different cultures shape and shade these ethical questions and responses? For example, are concerns with illicit sexuality in games primarily only an issue for U.S. (puritanical) parents, while European parents are more concerned about violence, while parents in Asian countries are concerned about …? Do different cultures understand the role of games differently – and thus, the ethical questions and ways of responding to these questions in different ways?
E. Additional questions / issues?

E-games, especially in their online versions, bring together participants from around the globe. A specific approach to the ethics of e-Games invokes virtue ethics – e.g., in Aristotelian and/or Confucian traditions – to ask the question, what human excellences and potentials are fostered by our playing such games (e.g., Coleman 2001)?
Contemporary feminist ethics, including an ethics of care (e.g., as developed by Nel Noddings) would also raise critical questions regarding what we learn and develop – specifically, what capacities for caring, if any – as we play such games.
What would such ethical analyses suggest to us regarding contemporary games? Are these analyses legitimate to use – and/or do they beg several questions regarding the nature of games, gamers, and game-playing?

[Coleman, Kari. 2001. Android Arete: Toward a Virtue Ethic for Computational Agents, Ethics and Information Technology, 3 (4): 247-265.]

The larger social impacts of computing and information technologies are one set of consequences that are ethically relevant to design and use of ICTs – and thus are of importance in Information Ethics.
Many negative consequences of game-playing are thematic of both popular and scholarly literature, e.g., concerns with encouraging violence, potential addiction, and other anti-social impacts. At the same time, however, at least some games may be argued to have ethical and social value as they enhance social and other sorts of skills, serve as an attractor in e-learning environments, etc.
What can reliable research in fact tell us regarding these impacts – both positive and negative? And: given the best available research on these impacts – what ethical conclusions (if any) may be drawn regarding the production and consumption of e-games?

It is not hard to find examples in especially the more popular e-games of gender and cultural stereotypes – stereotypes that are ethically reprehensible insofar as they ideologically justify a range of inequalities and the violation of basic human rights. If certain games only work to reinforce prevailing “masculinist” stereotypes regarding how to be male; and if certain games teach us to see “the Other” (whether as a female and/or as a member of a cultural/ethnic identity different from our own) as naturally inferior, the legitimate target of violence, etc. – then a strong ethical case against such games could be made. On the other hand, gamers may be perfectly aware that “this is just a game” – i.e., they may well approach such stereotypes with a distance and irony that helps diffuse rather than reinforce them. Moreover, not all games work by presuming such gender and/or cultural stereotypes. And finally, a growing community of women gamers directly challenge these stereotypes about games. Are there games and ways of playing games that help us explore our identities as gendered beings in positive and fruitful ways, rather than simply playing off and thus reinforcing stereotypes that may be questionable, if not oppressive? Are there games and ways of playing games that in fact help us overcome ethnocentrism and come to see “the Other” in ways that teach us to respect the irreducible differences that define diverse gender and cultural identities – perhaps even teach us to communicate more effectively across these differences?

Starting at least with cinema and tv, modern western cultures encounter something like an "imaginative revolution" (W. Goebel): not simply mediated views of the world, but also fantasies and imaginative extrapolations that 'transgress' given reality can be constructed and communicated. This changes the lifeworld of people and potentially revolutionizes culture as the non-thematic background of understanding and communication. With e-games the imaginative revolutions seems to have made another leap forward - if not a quantum-leap: imagination now becomes tangible since it becomes interactive.
These developments pose new ethical questions. To begin with: what do e-games and the experience given by them mean to the cultural background of understanding the world, ones own life and each other? Moreover, especially the immersion offered by e-games seems to enhance the experiential quality of what they mediate. What does this mean for our understanding of reality and for the cultural labelling of specific realities as such?
For example: The game *Medal of Honour: Frontline* offers some experiences concerning history and war that movies like *Saving Private Ryan* never could deliver in such a direct and thought-provoking way. On the other hand most of the *routine* of the game obeys the *normal* rules of first-person shooters and thus deflects the *horrific truth of war*. What does this mean for teaching young people history in school and university? What does it mean for the historical consciousness of a generation that grew up with e-games of that kind?
As another example: the games *Silent Hill 2* and *Max Payne 2* give some insight into the psychotic mind (since the protagonists in both games are psychotic). What does this mean for the cultural *labeling* of sound vs. psychotic? What are the consequences to prevailing conceptions of order or - with Foucault - regime of health? Can and should that process of the imaginative revolution by games thus be ethically oriented into a certain direction - or do we face a process that may legitimately alter the cultural setting of certain issues, narratives (in Lyotard's sense) and legitimations? And if so - who or what may be able to state and justify the legitimacy of these alterations?

We do not imagine that this initial list of suggestions exhausts all possible topics and approaches to ethical reflection on e-Games. On the contrary, we encourage interested authors to propose additional frameworks, questions, ethical and analytical approaches, etc., that will add to our insight regarding ethics and e-Games.

The Rules of the Game

Potential authors have to provide an extended abstract (max. 1.500 words) until 30. June 2005. The abstract should be written in the mother tongue of the author. An English translation of this abstract has to be included, if the chosen language is not English or German. The IRIE will publish accepted articles (3.000 words or 20.000 letters including blanks) in German, English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. For further details see the submission guidelines.

The abstracts will be selected by the guest editors, Dr. Charles Ess and Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan. Authors will be notified by 15. August 2005.

Deadline for the final article (according to IRIE format guide) is 30. September 2005. All submissions will be subject to peer review. Therefore the acceptance of an extended abstract by the members of the editorial board does not imply the publication of the final text unless the article passed the peer review.

For more information about the journal see: www.ijie.org

A list of documents, which potential authors might find useful, can be requested by e-mail. Members of the ICIE will get a copy of the list via the ICIE mailing list.

Contact

Please send queries and proposals to guest editors,

Dr. Charles Ess: <cmess@drury.edu>
Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan: <eliz1679@uwm.edu>

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