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Hugo_Alvarez's This Is the Police (PS4)
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| [August 30, 2018 07:39:24 PM]
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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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| [August 26, 2018 11:44:27 PM]
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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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| [August 25, 2018 04:49:20 PM]
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In my initial playtime of This Is the Police, I ran into a number of in occurrences that could be seen as ethical dilemmas. One of these was when the game was teaching me how to fire people, it defaulted on firing my best man on the shift. At first, I was under the impression that I had to fire him, and I tried hitting various buttons on my controller, which ended up resulting in the game softlocking(oops). I later learned I didn't have to fire that character, it simply defaulted to him, but it brings up the question of whether a game should be able to make a choice for you in a situation where you can normally make the decision yourself.
Another ethical issue actually arose as a result of me having to restart the game. Since I had already gone through part of the work day before the game taught me about firing, I had to restart game, and thus redo some of my progress. However, I learned from my failures on the initial attempt to do better in the second. The ethical dilemma here is that the developers most likely didn't not intend on players getting second attempts in their first playthrough. Is it wrong for me as the player to play differently for the sake of doing better, or should I have tried to recreate my first attempt for the sake of preserving my first experience of the game.
The other major ethical concern presented was when the game told me to fire all of my black cops as an in game objective. Before I touch on the issue of race, I'd like to tackle this dilemma by discussing that the game explicitly told me to do so, where everything has previously been a choice given to the player. Granted, the player still has the choice to do so or not, but I yet to play enough to see the consequences of my actions. For the record, I chose not to fire them. This objective was also related to an election that is happening in game, which the police happens to have connections to. I also feel as though this is an interesting portrayal of the police force. In theory, the police shouldn't have bias in any way, so is it ethical to portray them in this way? Of course in real life, there have been examples of the police having this kind of bias, but should a game do so, or should it be an upstanding example of the police?
There is also the matter of race in this situation. I'm not sure of the exact time frame this game takes place in, and if the game told me I'm failing to remember, but it's clear to see that a takes place in a time several years ago, or at least a time that mirrors such a time period. Regardless, although I have yet to play the entirety of the game yet, if someone were to put the game down at around this point, it's easy to see how this could be misconstrued as pushing a racist agenda. Is it ethical to have this in a video game, or should there be a disclaimer upon starting the game stating whether or not the game is representative of the developers ideals?
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Hugo_Alvarez's This Is the Police (PS4)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 25 August, 2018
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