Ethics and Virtual Worlds
On the GoodPlay Project, headed up by Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, we've been conducting in-depth interviews with 15-25 year-olds in order to better understand the ethical implications of young people's online activities. I'd like to tell you a bit more about our research in hopes of generating some discussion around ethics in virtual worlds.
What is ethics?
We see actions as ethical insofar as they impact or relate to a community, be that a community of students and teachers in a particular school, of doctors who are members of the American Medical Association, of gamers who play World of Warcraft, of Battlestar Galactica fans who share fan vids in an online forum, or of young people who are “friends” on MySpace. Thinking about the ethical implications of one's actions involves considering one's roles and responsibilities in the context of community; this requires a certain amount of abstract thinking, and so can sometimes be difficult for young people, especially children.
Ethics and virtual worlds
Virtual Worlds are in many ways separate from "real life": they are frontiers where actions can hold different meanings, where decisions are often perceived to be low-stakes, and where young people have more freedom as compared to offline spaces. In short, virtual worlds present young people with new ethical landscapes that harbor great promises and significant perils. For example, the same anonymity and freedom that allows young people to explore new identities and to create and collaborate in new and productive ways online allows them to deceive others and undermine community norms with little accountability.
How are young people thinking about their actions in virtual worlds?
In talking with 15 gamers who play in virtual worlds, we have gotten a better sense of how players think about their actions in these contexts. Many players doing “unethical” things justify their actions by downplaying their significance, arguing that "it's just a game"; others justify and condemn actions only in the context of the rules set by designers, arguing that "if the game allows you to do it, go for it." There are some players, however, who evaluate their actions by asking whether they support, or impede, the goals of their in-game guild or of the game community as a whole. We consider the latter to be “ethical thinking,” which seems important to encourage in Virtual World participants, both because it will help improve their online communities and possibly engender ethical thinking in other, offline contexts.
What helps foster ethical thinking?
There were two interesting patterns we’ve observed across our interviews. First, players who had mentors who helped socialize them into their virtual world when they first joined tended to think more about their responsibilities to other players. Second, players who were very involved in guilds that created their own rules, or who were otherwise involved in created and enforcing norms and rules, were much more likely to think about their actions in relation to the community, as opposed to thinking about their actions only with respect to the rules of the game.
We've heard a great deal from young gamers, but are excited to hear from others in the RezEd community who can bring new perspectives to the question of ethics in virtual worlds. We welcome any questions you may have about our work, and invite your thinking about these issues:
- What are some other ways to encourage young people to consider their roles and responsibilities in relation to a virtual world community, to a group within a virtual world, or to the larger society? In short, what are some strategies for getting youth to think ethically in virtual worlds?
- All of our interview participants engage in these spaces on their own or with friends in informal contexts. How might young people approach virtual worlds differently when in a formal (school or after-school) setting supported by teachers or other adults?
- We find anecdotes of ethical situations very helpful in our research; do you have any stories or examples of "ethical dilemmas" you’ve observed or heard about in virtual worlds?
(For more info about the GoodPlay Project, please visit: http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm)
What is ethics?
We see actions as ethical insofar as they impact or relate to a community, be that a community of students and teachers in a particular school, of doctors who are members of the American Medical Association, of gamers who play World of Warcraft, of Battlestar Galactica fans who share fan vids in an online forum, or of young people who are “friends” on MySpace. Thinking about the ethical implications of one's actions involves considering one's roles and responsibilities in the context of community; this requires a certain amount of abstract thinking, and so can sometimes be difficult for young people, especially children.
Ethics and virtual worlds
Virtual Worlds are in many ways separate from "real life": they are frontiers where actions can hold different meanings, where decisions are often perceived to be low-stakes, and where young people have more freedom as compared to offline spaces. In short, virtual worlds present young people with new ethical landscapes that harbor great promises and significant perils. For example, the same anonymity and freedom that allows young people to explore new identities and to create and collaborate in new and productive ways online allows them to deceive others and undermine community norms with little accountability.
How are young people thinking about their actions in virtual worlds?
In talking with 15 gamers who play in virtual worlds, we have gotten a better sense of how players think about their actions in these contexts. Many players doing “unethical” things justify their actions by downplaying their significance, arguing that "it's just a game"; others justify and condemn actions only in the context of the rules set by designers, arguing that "if the game allows you to do it, go for it." There are some players, however, who evaluate their actions by asking whether they support, or impede, the goals of their in-game guild or of the game community as a whole. We consider the latter to be “ethical thinking,” which seems important to encourage in Virtual World participants, both because it will help improve their online communities and possibly engender ethical thinking in other, offline contexts.
What helps foster ethical thinking?
There were two interesting patterns we’ve observed across our interviews. First, players who had mentors who helped socialize them into their virtual world when they first joined tended to think more about their responsibilities to other players. Second, players who were very involved in guilds that created their own rules, or who were otherwise involved in created and enforcing norms and rules, were much more likely to think about their actions in relation to the community, as opposed to thinking about their actions only with respect to the rules of the game.
We've heard a great deal from young gamers, but are excited to hear from others in the RezEd community who can bring new perspectives to the question of ethics in virtual worlds. We welcome any questions you may have about our work, and invite your thinking about these issues:
- What are some other ways to encourage young people to consider their roles and responsibilities in relation to a virtual world community, to a group within a virtual world, or to the larger society? In short, what are some strategies for getting youth to think ethically in virtual worlds?
- All of our interview participants engage in these spaces on their own or with friends in informal contexts. How might young people approach virtual worlds differently when in a formal (school or after-school) setting supported by teachers or other adults?
- We find anecdotes of ethical situations very helpful in our research; do you have any stories or examples of "ethical dilemmas" you’ve observed or heard about in virtual worlds?
(For more info about the GoodPlay Project, please visit: http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm)
15 Comments
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Comment by Or-Tal Kiriati on July 21, 2008 at 2:13pm
- This is very interesting. I especially like the mentors concept. Wonder if it can be a requirement in some games/virtual-worlds.
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Comment by Global Kids on July 21, 2008 at 2:55pm -
RezEd would like to invite members of the community share their thoughts on Ethics and Virtual Worlds. Please leave an audio message here with your name, organization, location and response in under 60 seconds. Voice comments may be repurposed in future RezEd Ethics and Virtual Worlds podcasts and print. Please click on 'leave a message' to be redirected to the Audio Recorder Page.
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Comment by Unre Visagie on July 22, 2008 at 12:21am
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Thank you for the information!
In our existing real world ethics are maintained in community structures of family, leaders and visibility of actions. In such a setup of community each one experience the consequences of their actions.
We implement access to Internet for productivity competency increases and access to delivering productive value add.
We found that you must take the integrated community with on the Internet and thus close the loop. We also found that it goes very wrong when young people are alone into the Internet world.
Give the whole family and leaders access at the same time and current community based ethics seems to stay in place.
Again, thanks for sharing your information!
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Comment by Birdie Newborn on July 22, 2008 at 11:55pm
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Thank you, Sam, for such a simple statement about ethics. Being aware of others -- so simple, yet such a growth hurdle for some.
I can't speak directly about how youth respond, because for our pilot project, none applied. However, the project, the Summer of Love 1967, was designed to be half-done by the time students arrived, so that they would have a clue, and could find plenty of places for initiative and collaboration. It certainly works with our Theme Team, with a little jostling of elbows for territory now and again. So, we don't set out the rules, the rules develop out of the project.
I did have several instances involving ethics. One was squatters with skyboxes doing their own thing, but occasionally dropping stuff. When we met them, I was impressed by their builds, and invited them to participate. However, they didn't take the hint, and when I levied a charge for prims, they all left. Not joiners, apparently.
Three more newcomers built inappropriate structures (one was a brothel), but one of them apologized and turned out to be a builder who responded to my suggestions, and added an appropriate structure for 1967.
It's that step of recognizing that there is a community, I think, that makes the difference. Noobies may be particularly difficult because of inexperience.
I strive for an open community, yet that challenges me almost every week.
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Comment by Sam Gilbert on July 24, 2008 at 3:24pm -
Thanks so much for your comments.
@ Birdie Newborn, I think your stories illustrate very well the difficulties faced in trying to get outsiders and new players engaged in a community--some people simply aren't invested in virtual worlds in this way, or, for better or worse, don't want to be "team players."
As others have pointed out, the way that virtual worlds are designed can often help to bring people into the fold. There are (@ Or-Tal Kiriati), for example, many online games that have built-in vassal/patron systems that are meant to encourage more experienced players to mentor noobies, which I imagine helps strengthen community ties.
@ Scott Mirek (audio comment), I think your talk of designing new models of fair renumeration for collaborative work fits into this nicely. I see an important distinction here between, on the one hand, those design interventions that would "automatically" compensate creators in some fair way and, on the other, those interventions that would help communities come to their own consensus over the best way to compensate contributors. This goes back to my point about getting participants involved in the creation and enforcement of the rules. How does this relate to the sorts of models you were thinking about?
@ Unre Visagie, I'm interested in your idea of integrating offline communities into online contexts. Can you talk a bit more about how you've done this with your work?
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Comment by Mariel García M on July 27, 2008 at 4:26am
- I don't have much to add to the discussion, but I thought I'd say that I am glad such a project exists. It is time to read about it.
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Comment by Andrew on July 27, 2008 at 10:01pm - I think mentorship may not always lead to "ethical" behavior, ie the drug dealer that "mentors" a kid from the block to learn strategies for avoiding cops, the baseball star that "mentors" the rookie by encouraging them to take performance enhancing drugs. I wonder what residue, other than potential "ethical" behavior, is gleaned from having a relationship around introducing a noobie to the rules within a new domain?
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Comment by Rafi Santo on July 28, 2008 at 2:25pm
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Really interesting post on Ethics & VWs from the Shaping Youth blog:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1957
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Comment by ShapingYouth on July 29, 2008 at 3:42am -
Hey, Rafi, thanks for the ping. I've been meaning to leave a comment here to tell everyone I'm running a series spinning off of Sam's initial conversation, as it's a vibrant, vital one that needs uncorked.
Here's part one on 'game cheats' http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1941
And you posted part two (lots of spin-offs in dialog offline w/pals on this too, which I've tried to sum in the comments section here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1957
Andrew, your 'mentorship' point is well taken on the nefarious side of potential hijinks, but I guess I don't see that as 'mentoring' ---that's exploitive opportunism for financial gain...Which um...er...also brings me back to my final post in the series re: marketers using 'cheats' for brand-washing and tapping into kids' love of covert hidden codes and such...
Good news is part 3 also includes some promising footnotes on the TSL grid where Asuka Martin's entire customer base and the teen community itself rallied behind her when her 'skins' and goods were being copied...Nice 'self-policing' peer to peer story.
Thanks again for opening this great conversation, Sam et al...Best, Amy
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- Amy, how did you hear the story about Asuka? So few people have any exposure or understanding of the kinds of amazing things that go on on the Teen Grid all the time!
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