Thinking Ethics

Expressive game - changing places

A while ago I received a message from Professor Sebastian Genvo, a Professor of communication sciences at the University of Metz, France (Centre de REcherche sur les Médiations - CREM). He develops research and Master courses on the aesthetic, cultural and economic aspects of video games (and has written several books in French about these topics and some articles in English).

He is also a game designer and has developed "Keys of a Gamespace", where you can dive into someone else's life and explore his psychological/cultural/social problems. You will be able to experience his/her ethical and moral dilemmas and face the consequences that occur in such a situation. The game only works on PC - and as a Mac user - I have not yet tried it - but it sounds intriguing. 

Malaria

OK - not quite ethics, but politically correct... There is a new game app to fight against Malaria that is being launched by World Vision. Besides swatting mosquitos while avoiding the ladybugs, you can donate 5 CHF - about 5 US $ - to buy a mosquito net in Senegal or Tanzania. Bye Bye Mosiquito, can be downloaded to your phone. Also available in the App Store and on Android. 

The Witcher 2 - video game

I ran across a video game review in the New York Times by Seth Schiessel entitled "Exploring Moral Consequences, the Obvious and the Unintended" . I admit that I have not tried playing it (yet) - but was drawn to the title, and from reading the review I decided to post it. 

The Witcher 2 : Assassins of Kings is a video game from the CD Projekt RED in Poland. It is about a world where humans dominate elves and dwarfs against the backdrop of politics. Please feel free to post comments if you try it out.

Cybersafety game

Super cool cyber safety game for kids 9 to 12 (and over, I admit to getting hooked) developed in Switzerland for "Action Innoncence" and the Swiss Foundation for the Protection of Childhood. Check it out at netcity.org.

Morals and Social Responsibility Quiz

From the BBC website - a questionnaire on morals and social responsibility. Takes about 10 minutes to fill out.

Netscape quiz

How do you rank on the ethical scale ?

Check out netscape's quiz here. The only problem with this game is a bit of psychology - when individuals are pitted against large (insurance) corporations they tend to think of the corporation as an anonymous entity, and so they act less responsibly.

Game on evolution

-Will Wright has devolopped a new video game called Spore - to give players, and hopefully kids, a taste of evolution and science.  You start with single cell microbes and follow them through their evolution into intelligent multicellular creatures. For once that I find a game that does not have killing or car crashes in it.... Read all about the development of this game in this article in The New York Times by Carl Zimmer entitled "Gaming evolves". Also check out their website http://www.spore.com , the game should be available as of Sept. 7th.

Baseball Ethics Game

Try this baseball ethics game by rating two scenarios on The Hardball Times website here. The material was developed for an American Studies course at Carleton College.

Experience life as a refugee

The UNHCR has just came out with a game called "against all odds"  that let you experience what it is like to be a refugee. The game is in English, but also offers Swedish, German, Greek and Norwegian.

The game is structured in 3 parts, with 4 or 5 situations. The parts are war and conflict (running from persecution), border country (can I stay here?) and a new life (loss and challenge - yes you can stay here but how will your life be).  Great initiative - play it here.

Energy sources and pollution

Chevron has developed a game with The Econimist Group called energyville, which allows the player to choose from a portfolio of energy sources to power a city from now until 2030. Good critique of it on motherjones.com here. Who also annouces a SimCity type of game being developed for BP by Electronic Arts for power generation and pollution simulation to be release on November 15.