Critical Ethical Reasoning and Role-Play

Abstract

Role-playing games provide a particularly fruitful environment for the development of critical, ethical reasoning skills, a core component in developing a citizenry capable of fully participating in a cosmopolitan, democratic society. In this study, ethnographic interview participants recount particularly engaging ethical situations in their own game play. Through their responses, thematic trends develop that help us identify key elements in games that provide opportunities for the development of these crucial skills.

"One of the baddies all along"

“…In these situations, participants had to use their own critical ethical reasoning to justify their choice. Simkins and Steinkuehler [45] found that there were four main categories for players to believe to be facing a moral issue; effecting change (what and how can things be changed), mirroring (the way NPC's respond to the player's actions, showing a mirror to the player), social context, and significant decisions (where the choices available have clear differing consequences).…”

Virtuality

“…More work is needed to further explore the political economy of virtual worlds. Their powerful generality affords the possibility of modeling any domain, extending their reach to countless human activities: religion (Bainbridge 2013, Geraci 2014, education (Squire 2005, Ang & Zaphiris 2008, Lin 2008, Simkins & Steinkuehler 2008, Barab et al 2012, entertainment (Duncan 2009, Bardzell et al 2012, Paul 2012, science (Djorgovski et al 2009), social movements (Blodgett & Tapia 2010, McKenna et al 2011, and many more.…”

Game Review

“…Research, such as the pioneering work of Simkins & Steinkuehler (2008), which studies player responses to scenarios grounded in situated experience can help us understand actual player moral meaning making. In addition to being grounded in real experience, players have the option of trying out the different options available to them with respect to decision making, and they can experience the implications and consequences of these choices rather than simply imagine them.…”