We report a study of a class of 28 sixth graders engaged in an extended computer-supported argumentive discourse activity. Participants collaborated with a same-side peer in arguing against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue. Meta-level awareness was facilitated by conducting the dialogs via instant messaging software, which made available a transcript of the dialog that was used in additional reflective activities. In the course of dialogs on 3 successive topics, participants showed significant gains in meta-level communications about the discourse, reflecting at least implicit understanding of its goals, as well as in the strategic moves that constituted the discourse. The latter advances remained evident when the social support of a same-side partner was withdrawn.

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In this chapter, seven experts from the games industry and from academia discuss late-breaking and big picture trends in ethics and games. Rather than deep analyses of the issues, these brief perspectives introduce main ideas related to current problems in ethics and games. These quick takes open up discourse on timely topics and ask questions that will lead to new research streams. A microcosm of the entire book, these quick reflections telegraph the themes that will emerge in the rest of the book. First, Mia Consalvo will discusses decision making in Dragon Age; next Greg Costikyan talks about Diplomacy and how game mechanics support ethical behavior. Drew Davidson then provides a meditation on the value of games, Nick Fortugno talks about ethics and Farmville, and educator David Shaenfield looks at new ways to support citizenship skills through gaming. Finally, designer Pete Vigeant gives his personal take on Red Dead Redemption and Bethesda Softworks founder and MIT professor Christopher Weaver unpacks controversies surrounding games.

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