I'd like to explore a subject with you I raised on a gaming subreddit, because I think it has wider implications and can stimulate a broader discussion about active and passive messaging, the practice of "evil" and all the ways we encourage it and engage in it ourselves, by way of a video game.
The nice thing about this is, for a deeply immersive roleplaying game it can tickle the part of the brain that leads to emotional investment, much like you get invested in your favorite character from a book or TV show. That leads to moral investment so your conscience comes into play, and so it's interesting fodder for exploring doing extreme deeds you'd never do in real life to get a small taste of how you might react to them. I never feel guilty gunning everyone down or running them over with ambulances in Grand Theft Auto. I'm just not emotionally invested in that series. I don't get immersed in it. But some games, like Fallout 4 are different, and they're designed to be immersive and get you emotionally hooked.
This is about choices, guilt, and conscience ultimately.
These days when I play Fallout 4, I destroy the town of Far Harbor as a matter of course leaving its citizens to die gruesome deaths at the hands of horrible monsters, for the perk I get. It's easily one of the best in the game.
So from purely a gameplay standpoint, doing so is a win. Almost gamebreaking actually, but if you've already played through a bunch of times, it can be fun to play this way.
And here's the important issue for me, and that is personal to me - I don't want to try to universalize my experience, as you may feel differently, agree or disagree I'm not trying to start a war. This is a moral argument, but one that is again, individual and personal - it's not intended as judgment of anyone else or anything like that.
From a moral standpoint I get that familiar twinge of guilt whenever I bring down the windfarm and wipe far harbor off the map. Especially since I helped them all first and got their hopes up (for the experience points, you understand).
That brings up an issue for me. I've long understood, and read confirmation of the idea that we don't learn like a computer does. We learn like we acquire muscle memory. Our learning of math(s) is *like* learning to catch a ball, and that's why practice helps at least as much as instruction, and why experience is gold, but...
I've been taught (and I agree with the analogy) that one's moral core is like corrugated cardboard in that it gets weaker where you fold it. The more you fold it the weaker it gets. Bear with me.
The more you do math(s), the easier it is to solve math(s) problems.
The more you lie, the easier it gets to lie.
The more you steal the easier it gets to steal.
The more you destroy Far Harbor the easier it gets to destroy Far Harbor.
That little feeling of guilt gets eroded every time I hit that fateful button.
Why might it matter? I'm not sure, but could it make it easier for me to hurt people (even people I've helped) for personal gain? Again, I don't know.
I hope not, but there's a part of me that wonders.
I recognize the difference between fantasy and reality. The game is just pixels. But that guilt isn't. The guilt is real.
Like I said though, I believe it's possible to erode feelings of guilt and remorse. Basically any time you violate your own code the code becomes less effective. (Everyone with a conscience has a moral code even if they haven't articulated it to themselves).
In other words, *your own* standards are the judge. If *you* do something *you* know is wrong, it makes it easier to do that thing *you* feel is wrong, and related things as well. I firmly believe that to be true. I think I can make a solid factual case for it as well, but I'll spare you for now.
As far as transferring from the game, if you are invested enough in the game where your conscience is coming in to play, then yes, I think the same rules apply, because what I said above is about nurturing or harming your conscience.
When you harm your conscience it becomes less effective, *at least when it comes to specific areas where you've violated it, like stealing* - a mobster can have a big problem with theft, but no problem with murder under the right circumstances, for example.
But does it harm your conscience more generally too? Does it make the whole thing weaker? I don't know. Maybe the answer is yes? Is that same mobster *more* likely to do other criminal acts after they've killed someone? I tend to think so, since they've already violated a major societal norm, what's one more?
Am I more likely to lie, cheat, or otherwise do someone dirty for my own benefit because I *am* violating my own conscience by destroying far harbor?
That's the question I'm wrestling with. Far Harbor as a sandbox for my own moral navigation, but also possibly bleeding over into real life precisely *because* my conscience bleeds into the game. As I said this doesn't happen with GTA.
Maybe this whole thing seems ridiculous to you.
A) Maybe it seems silly in the first place that someone could get so invested in a game - to which i'd say a good game is like a good novel. you haven't found the right one. and some just don't like to read. and some people just don't like games. I'm actually sympathetic to that last one as I really only like the fallout franchise.
B) Maybe it seems silly to you that games could impact your conscience, but if so I'd like to hear why, so please carefully consider what I wrote, such that you understand the many angles I'm coming at to get to my point. I'd love to hear from you.
Or maybe you'd like to add something, or this makes you think of a related situation. Let's talk about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment