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Thursday 30 August, 2018
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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