Ethics refers to whether something is right or wrong whilst being respectful to different ethnicitys, religions, cultures and many more so in Video Games, there is a lot of broken ice to be trod on and also a lot to be tip toed around. As video games have evolved, the acceptance of different diversities and backgrounds has come to the foreground of video game development.
An example as such would be a game like Street Fighter. The game portrays male characters as beefy, muscular and tough whereas the female characters where next to nothing and doesn’t portray females in what might not be deemed respectable.
Ethical issue examples include:
- Duke Nukem – Duke Nukem is supposed to be the guy that kicks ass and takes names and all the girls love but from someone’s perspective like mine, it can also be found offensive as the unrealistic proportions of the guy’s muscles or straight up ‘cool-ness’ is impossible to achieve. Following on from this, the females in the game aren’t equally portrayed in the game, in some cases there are females shown in full nudity or wearing just swim suits.
- Call of Duty: Zombies – The Zombies in this game are often referred to as Nazi zombies and wear similar uniforms to what Nazi’s worn back during world war 2. This could be deemed offensive possibly to people who lost people during that time or to people associated with the times that once were or could have been.
- FIFA 22 – FIFA’s most played game mode is only around due to one reason and that is the money it makes from loot boxes. Loot Boxes are a form of gambling that give you a chance at unboxing items of certain rarities, in this case, players. The issue comes when the value of a real world currency is used to buy said loot boxes. From a developers point of view, there are ways and means to buy these lootboxes outside of using real world money but it is far too easy and accessible to buy a premium in-game currency or loot boxes outright.
- Tom Clancy’s Wildlands – Tom Clancy’s wildlands is a beautiful looking game that take place in the country of Bolivia with an excellent story, however the game portrayed the country as being riddled with drugs and criminals wielding guns around every corner. Whilst the game didn’t have an impact on holidays or tourism in Bolivia, the country took offense and had to re-iterate that the game was nothing like Bolivia. – Link
And of course there are many issues beyond those that need to be considered when developing video games, films or animations. Diversity in video games is coming along nicely but still isn’t where it needs to be in terms of total acceptance and completely diverse workplaces. Diversity relates to equality and that everyone is treat equally no matter what your religion, race, colour, creed or orientation is. PlayStation Studio’s do a fantastic job with their video games and diversity.
Examples of such:
- The Last of Us – The character Ellie is found out to be a lesbian by the player during the DLC segment of The Last of Us: Left Behind. In The Last of Us 2, *SPOILER ALERT*, Ellie is portrayed as a rugged, tough female character who has survived many wars and is capable of many things.
- Horizon Zero Dawn – Aloy was on of the first female protagonists to be at the forefront of a AAA game, although The Last of Us does this now, in The Last of Us 1, the main character was Joel.
- Spiderman: Miles Morales – Miles Morales is a character from the Marvel universe who was essentially known as ‘The black Spiderman’. The issue goes back further than video games and into films and animation when Donald Glover auditioned to be Spider-Man and it was believed he didn’t get the part as he was black and Spiderman has always been portrayed as White. In an industry where there aren’t many main protagonists from different ethnicity’s, this certainly grew the awareness of Miles Morales outside of the Spider-Verse and allows it to be more globally accepted.
Other video game titles that do a good job of diversity and equality are:
- Assassins Creed – Valhalla was one of the most anticipated games of 2021 and whilst the game doesn’t particularly include a non-binary selection, being able to choose a male or female Eivor has made female gamers around the world feel more accepted and empowered that it is okay to play video games.
JORDAN | GLITCH ARCADE 