The way I see it, video games are an area either outside of morality or with their own morality.
Like I enjoy war games. In CK3, I invade and push my religion and culture to try to make the map all one colour ruled by preferably me, but if not me then preferably my dynasty, and if not that then preferably my religion. If a rebellion or heresy starts, I try to stamp it out ASAP.
Anyone who does any of that in real life is fucking evil.
Lots of games have very flimsy motivations for the conflicts. X race hates y race is so common in fantasy games, generally unchallenged, too.
In shooters, most are “you follow your orders or you lose”. Even the ones that explore the whole moral side of actions will usually make you do the questionable stuff so your character can question it later.
Sometimes, games serve to build situations that help you understand how some immoral behaviors may become widespread in a given context.
You use CK3, for example: anyone would agree today that ordering your children to marry the prince or princess of the duchy of Wheredafuckisit is immoral, but when doing so could be the difference between having a political ally or not to help you out defend against some warmongering neighbour, it’s easy to see that the only rulers that did remain rulers were the ones who didn’t hold personal liberty in high regard.
What I mean to say is that a Zoroastrian incest simulator is a great way to provide people with sociological education.
Me IRL: slavery is evil, we should tax the rich 1000%, all that good stuff.
Me in Kenshi: time to put an entire nation to the torch just because their guy said some bullshit about my race one time. Also, I’ll enslave a couple cities along the way; gotta feed/stock my war machine, after all.
The way I see it, video games are an area either outside of morality or with their own morality.
Like I enjoy war games. In CK3, I invade and push my religion and culture to try to make the map all one colour ruled by preferably me, but if not me then preferably my dynasty, and if not that then preferably my religion. If a rebellion or heresy starts, I try to stamp it out ASAP.
Anyone who does any of that in real life is fucking evil.
Lots of games have very flimsy motivations for the conflicts. X race hates y race is so common in fantasy games, generally unchallenged, too.
In shooters, most are “you follow your orders or you lose”. Even the ones that explore the whole moral side of actions will usually make you do the questionable stuff so your character can question it later.
I’m in perfect agreement. But you can’t build an animal-fighting game and then try to claim adding guns is immoral.
One of the Pals’ descriptions almost literally says it hunts humans for sex.
Sometimes, games serve to build situations that help you understand how some immoral behaviors may become widespread in a given context.
You use CK3, for example: anyone would agree today that ordering your children to marry the prince or princess of the duchy of Wheredafuckisit is immoral, but when doing so could be the difference between having a political ally or not to help you out defend against some warmongering neighbour, it’s easy to see that the only rulers that did remain rulers were the ones who didn’t hold personal liberty in high regard.
What I mean to say is that a Zoroastrian incest simulator is a great way to provide people with sociological education.
Me IRL: slavery is evil, we should tax the rich 1000%, all that good stuff.
Me in Kenshi: time to put an entire nation to the torch just because their guy said some bullshit about my race one time. Also, I’ll enslave a couple cities along the way; gotta feed/stock my war machine, after all.