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Sep 25th, 2018 at 00:18:25 - Little Nightmares (PS4) |
In today's play session of Little Nightmares, I thought about what's happening in the while looking at it from a matter of perspective. I think to most people who play this game, the player character, as well as the other similarly sized NPCs found in the game, are innocent creatures who are being treated horribly in context to the game. The larger life forms seen in the game, who have also been shown to have disproportionately long arms, big heads, and generally small and stock body structure, would likely be considered to be grotesque and monstrously evil creatures. This makes sense when considering this is a horror game, and the developers most likely did this intentionally to strengthen the unsettling tone in the game. However let's say, hypothetically, the developers intended the player character to be part of a species that proves to be a danger to every other form of life present in this games world. Would it be right for players to demonize the 'antagonists' like this while helping a creature that could potentially cause problems for the rest of this games world? It's interesting to think about, as a similar mindset could be applied to other games. Most of the time, the developers likely don't expect players to think about their games ethically quite like this, but it brings about interesting questions in relation to the current philosophy's of game design.
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Sep 23rd, 2018 at 00:30:04 - Little Nightmares (PS4) |
In my playtime of Little Nightmares, a horror game that strives upon being making the player uncomfortable, I found that various real world ethical boundaries were broken for the sake of brilliantly capturing the unsettling feeling it is aiming. Among these unsettling images are someone he seems to have been hung, strange parasite like creatures falling from the ceiling, an environment that overall seems cold, dangerous, and unhealthy to be living, blood on the walls, to name a few things. The environment in the game seems to present itself as manipulative of children to the point of harming them. There are several unnamed child like NPCs who seem lost or scared. In my playtime I came across a room with what looked to children in uncomfortable beds. A large shadowy and ominous figure walked in to scope the area. In my first attempt of the room, a failed to get by unnoticed and was immediately killed. It gets the player thinking about what is really going on in this fictional space, while also doing a good job of being unsettling.
When comparing situations such as these in a video game as opposed to say, a movie or a book, I personally find it to be further on the unsettling as the player themselves has control over what happens in the game. Seeing someone being hung in a movie is one thing, but actively controlling my character to walk underneath someone, whose presumably been hung, while pushing a chair felt ever more uncomfortable. While the game is called "Little Nightmares" and these scenarios do an excellent job at selling the horror, it begs the question of how much is too much? Technically speaking, this game could be argued to be much tamer than many others, particular those that have the player gunning down countless of NPCs, yet the presentation here is something else entirely. I look forward to what the game will continue to throw at me.
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Aug 30th, 2018 at 19:39:24 - This Is the Police (PS4) |
Today's play session of This Is the Police ended in an unexpected way. I was playing through the days as I had normally been doing. Then on the last day that I played, I hit the 'X' button to go to work, and my character, Jack, was shot through the window, which promptly ended the game and sent me to the title screen. This experience taught me a few things about the game. The most important being that there is more depth to the game that I had realized. My decisions made during certain cutscenes and during the work day had more weight than I had realized, to the point where it greatly impacts the length of the game. For reference, I did some research and learned that this is roughly a 20 hour game from what I've seen, but I've only put in about three.
Ethically speaking, having the player play through a game again for the sake of a better outcome is an interesting dilemma. As someone who has played a variety of games, this concept is not new to me, and I am not opposed to, but it begs the question of whether certain people will be comfortable with that idea. Some consumers may feel as though they wasted time playing the game if it their experience prompted them to receive a premature or unsatisfying ending. It also depends on the marketing the game received. If the developers ever stated that the game takes a certain amount of time to complete, but a scenario such as my experience occurs, is that ethical of the developers? Should they have to specify that the game can end at various points, so as not to unexpectedly disappoint the consumer?
One thing about the game I have yet to address directly is the process of sending cops out to stop crime, a rather important mechanic in the game. When sending officers out, the game designates a certain number of cops you are allowed to send out for any crimes. While this is very useful from a gameplay perspective, as it allows for the player to gauge the severity of a crime, but ethically speaking, should the game be allowed to make a decision like that for me? In a game largely about sending cops out to fight crime, should it be the player's responsibility as an officer to gauge how dangerous a crime is? This would more accurately simulate what it might be like being an officer with this kind of responsibility. Of course, other compromised such as this were most likely made for the sake of the gameplay experience, but was it ethical to do so?
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Aug 26th, 2018 at 23:44:27 - This Is the Police (PS4) |
Today's play session of This Is the Police brought with it a couple of concerns. The first that I came across was the game showing me a depiction of several people's decapitated heads being hung from a ceiling fan. Granted, the image wasn't particularly grotesque, but it still came up without warning, at least as far as I recall. The ethical question here is of course, should video games be allowed to show grotesque imagery such as this passively with little warning. That's not to say there was no warning. After all, the game is rated M for mature, but that brings the question of rated M games should be excused at all. Should video games in general be allowed to have such grotesque imagery.
The other ethical concern in my playtime today came up as a result of me choosing not to fire any of my black officers yesterday. The gave me a message that implied that my decision will result in something detrimental to me, though it is not exactly clear what. Regardless, this is simply a continuation of my previous observation, in which this can be taken as a racist agenda. However, this time I was more directly told by the game that choosing not to be racist would result in bad things for me, the player.
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Hugo_Alvarez has been with GameLog for 6 years, 2 months, and 27 days |
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