Morality Part 2: Senseless violence, or fighting for what's right?

This week we’ll continue our look at the research done by Tilo Hartmann and Peter Vorderer on the concept of morality in video games. Once a degree of believability has been established, a player’s actions will begin to reflect on their satisfaction while playing. Earlier work by Hartmann shows a trend in the connection between their actions in the game and the level of fulfillment they get while playing. Hartmann’s previous studies showed that “if a user violates his or her internal moral standards by doing harm to video game characters, dissonant feelings like guilt and disgust are likely to emerge.” It is assumed that if you feel guilt or disgust while playing a game, odds are you aren’t enjoying yourself as you play. It is also noted that “players reported that disturbing situations interfered with their enjoyment.” One player remarked that if he accidentally shot an innocent bystander (like a kid) while playing a game, it would definitely hinder any fun he might have.

Obviously, developers want to avoid alienating the player and make sure they stay immersed in the game. As Hartmann and Vorderer wrote, “game designers seem to design violent game play to be enjoyably guilt-free.” There are two methods developers can use to reduce any guilt the player might experience for committing a violent act in a game. The first method is to give the feeling of moral justification for one’s actions. If you are killing vicious aliens or Nazis, chances are you won’t feel sorry for such a clearly-defined enemy. But if you’re a criminal mowing down pedestrians, there’s no way to approach the situation as morally justified. The second method is to dismiss the consequences of one’s actions. Killing enemy characters won’t feel like much if they simply vanish into thin air. But if you see a pile of bodies twitching on the floor after you kill a room full of enemies, you probably won’t feel too proud of your actions, even if they’re in a video game.

These two methods are what Hartmann and Vorderer examined in their experiment. To make a long write-up short, they manipulated these two variables in a level they made for the FPS game Operation Flashpoint. Participants were instructed to either attack or defend an enemy torture camp (morality), while the characters they killed would either die realistically or simply disappear (consequences). The results of the study seem both obvious and surprising. If the violence was framed as justified, then the player felt both less guilty and had fewer negative reactions to what they were doing – this much seems like common sense. But what’s odd is that justification had no effect on the player’s enjoyment of the game. Hartmann and Vorderer suggested that justification may not even directly affect the enjoyment one gets from playing a video game. Interestingly, players who felt justified in their actions and saw the consequences of violence enjoyed the game almost exactly as much as players who wrought havoc and had no moral justification but did not have to see any consequences.

I think moral justification is what a lot of the controversy surrounding video games arises from. As long as a violent situation is framed in the right way, it will completely pass under the radar of most parents and anti-video-game activists. The wildly popular Halo series has you playing a super-soldier that kills thousands of aliens to defend humanity, and nobody seems to be offended by this. But games like the Grand Theft Auto series get people up in arms, condemning the game for the violent criminal acts it features. However, the player is the one who controls what they do in a game like GTA4. They can choose to be as kind or as bloodthirsty to bystanders as they want. What matters is the way the violence is framed, and if it’s seen as unjustified, then people will take notice and maybe get upset or disgusted. Game developers need to be careful how they set up the scenarios in their games, and they must take into account both the public’s reactions to violence, and the enjoyment the player will get from playing their game.