It’s on like Donkey Kong!
That is what David Sirlin and Frank got in an argument about at some conference, probably at a bar. I think David has a good point, but he misses a huge part, how do people actually learn ethics? Frank brings up how he learned ethics, but is that really what Frank bases his ethical choices on? I hope not!
I see ethics as something that grows and changes with people. Everyone has their own beliefs on the big ethical conundrums; death penalty, abortion, euthanasia, etc. The question would be how do you teach these in gaming? Do you present them with the ethical dilemma and have one choice that is good, and one that is bad? The designer is making the ethical decision, the player is just unfolding it.
David presents the forging argument, which I think is quite useless, because people lie all the time. Present them with a real problem, not a kids question.
What if a NPC offers information if you kill them after? Or screams for you to shoot them already from the pain they are in?
What about taking a game like Aiyiti, and offering an abortion clinic in it? You can have an abortion and barely to continue to feed your family, or have the baby and watch everyone starve?
Or how about if they add the Death Penalty to SimCity of GTA? It could change things, and even make you think about things you might be scared to.
Those are the real ethical questions we can ask in games, and maybe gain a better idea of what motivates people towards their own ethical decisions.