Afleveringen

  • There are over 50 million players over the age of 50 in the USA alone and those numbers will only continue to grow for an activity that’s too often viewed as “kids’ stuff”. How and when do older players engage with online gaming communities? Do designers need to be concerned about monetizing techniques that might take advantage of vulnerable older adults? What can societies do to help older games access games that would be fun and beneficial for them? How can games themselves be more inclusive for older players?

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    Bob De Schutter (MFA, PhD) is an award-winning game designer, researcher, educator, and advocate for meaningful play in later life. He is a Professor of Applied Game Design at Northeastern University, where he is jointly appointed between the College of Arts, Media and Design and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. He is also the owner of award-winning game company Lifelong Games (LLC).

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    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

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    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

  • Games are particularly fertile grounds for extremist recruitment. Why is that? What’s special about games and gaming culture that might make them attractive spaces for recruitment? How does extremist recruitment work in games? What is being done about it right now? And what can be done to help prevent the spread of extremism through games?

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    Rachel Kowert, Ph.D is a research psychologist and the Research Director of Take This. She is a world-renowned researcher on the uses and effects of digital games, including their impact on physical, social, and psychological well-being. An award-winning author, she’s published a variety of books and scientific articles relating to the psychology of games and, more recently, the relationship between games and mental health specifically. Her YouTube channel Psychgeist serves to bridge the gap between moral panic and scientific knowledge on a variety of psychology and game-related topics. In 2021, Dr. Kowert was chosen as a member of The Game Awards Future Class, representing the best and brightest of the future of video games. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Wired, and video game publications such as Kotaku and Polygon.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

  • Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?

    Klik hier om de feed te vernieuwen.

  • When game companies simulate cultures in their games they usually focus on the tropes that their intended audiences have about those cultures and then design their game around those tropes. Is there anything wrong with that? If so, what? What can game designers do to present cultures – present and past – more respectfully?

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    Andrei Zanescu is a newly minted Doctor of Communication at Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada. His research focuses on resonance and its uses for (re)producing culture, in blockbuster games both digital and analog, as well as the overlap between blockbuster films and games. He also researches the political economy of game distribution, and the monetization of game platforms. Andrei is co-author of Microstreaming on Twitch, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. And he’s co-host of the Humor and Games.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • Gaming and game development work differently for the developed global north than the developing global south. What are those differences? How does the global south play and pay differently? Why is it so hard to start a game development company in the global south? How can the gaming world better take these things into consideration in order to be more inclusive to the global south?

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    Aditya Deshbandhu is Lecturer of Communications, Digital Media Sociology at the University of Exeter. A researcher of video game studies, new media, and the digital divide, Aditya examines how people engage with digital artefacts and seeks to understand how these interactions shape everyday lives. As someone who actively examines digital acts of leisure, Aditya's research in the last decade has examined social media and OTT platforms alongside video games and digital cultures. Aditya is also the author of Gaming Culture(s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life and the forthcoming The 21st Century in a Hundred games

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • In a couple of recent episodes guests have mentioned concerns about battle passes. So, in this episode we decided to explore how they work, how they differ from traditional subscription models or microtransactions, why they’re so popular today with game companies, and whether they raise any serious ethical concerns.

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    Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University where he researches internet infrastructure, platforms, apps, and games. He’s also written for a number of publications, including Briarpatch Magazine, Motherboard, and Real Life Magazine. Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanjoKaz00ie.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • What can college esport teams do to blunt harassment against female players and make esports more inclusive? Are they in a unique position to help solve these problems in esports? We chat with representatives from Kean University about their attempts to make their own esport teams more inclusive to women.

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    Theresa Lee is a returning student in her 40’s, who majors in Environmental science and Drones, and is the captain of the Hearthstone team.

    Joseph Sarnoski is Kean University's eSports program director. In addition to gaming, Joe is a professor of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences at Kean where he runs their drone piloting and applications program.

    Kelly Williams is Director of Athletics at Kean University. His 28-year + career includes both coaching and athletic administrative experience, including serving as the head men’s basketball coach and as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics at The College of New Jersey.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • How can ads for video games and for stuff in games be deceptive or manipulative? What do they need to consider when targeting kids? What sort of guidance do they get from governments or their own industry groups? We chat with Dr. Celia Pontin, former UK advertising regulator specializing in video games.

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    A former advertising regulator specializing in video games, Dr. Celia Pontin wrote the UK's formal guidance on how to advertise in-app purchases and loot boxes without misleading people. Celia's doctorate is on the effects of interactivity on interpreting video game narratives and professionally she works with organizations as a research consultant on the evidence base for public health policy in alcohol, gambling, and video games.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • In this episode we explore some of the ethical issues related to kinks in video games – mostly adult ones. How can games allow us to explore kinks? What are some ethical pitfalls designers should consider? How do issues like representation and consent fit in?

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    Kate Gray is a games writer and journalist with a specialist interest in portrayals of sex, sexuality, and relationships in video games. She is currently working on writing for several games, including one that's all about dating (but no sex. Well, implied sex). In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, whittling, and pottery, like a character out of Wind in the Willows.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • We’ve rarely discussed the specific category of adult games on this podcast. So, we do so here and now and honestly, with a bit more speculation and off-the-cuff “let’s try this idea out and see if it sticks” mentality. We explore whether adult games should be treated differently than other types of pornography, whether age-gating is actually desirable, and a bunch of other issues.

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    Fae Daunt is an Australian academic, researcher, and developer. Turning their experience in web into an endless curiosity for development and design, they have married their cultural experiences and academic knowledge into a sort of cosmic horror of curiosity. Fae wishes to further discussions of inclusivity, safe exploration, and understanding in games. They’re currently developing an experimental mobile game that progresses in real-world time

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • What should we think about when we bring sex and intimacy into video games? In this episode, we explore issues of player sexuality, in-game intimacy, representations of consent, and how video games can take chances and explore sexuality responsibly.

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode are:

    Zhia Zariko is a media and communication expat into games design and development. Originally studying written communication, she did an elective in games, aesthetics and culture and never looked back. She now holds a Masters on Let's Play videos from RMIT, Australia, and has been teaching games design and theory for 5 years. She is currently in pre-production for a narrative-driven game on romance, intimacy, and vulnerability in a dark fantasy universe."

    Fae Daunt is an Australian-born, English-temporarily-raised, Australian-returned academic, researcher, and developer. Turning their experience in web into an endless curiosity for development and design, they have married their cultural experiences and academic knowledge into a sort of cosmic horror of curiosity. Fae wishes to further discussions of inclusivity, safe exploration, and understanding in games. They’re currently developing an experimental mobile game that progresses in real-world time"

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • How do players morally engage with games? What can user experience research and moral psychology tell us about how players experience and think about ethical decisions in games? We chat with philosopher Paul Formosa and Game Designer Malcolm Ryan about their collaborative ongoing research exploring these questions.

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode are:

    Paul Formosa is a Professor of Philosophy, Head of the Department of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Paul has published widely on topics in moral and political philosophy, with a recent focus on the ethical issues raised by new technologies such as video games and AI. He also collaborates regularly with colleagues from a range of different disciplines outside of philosophy, one of whom is our other guest today, Malcolm Ryan!


    Malcolm Ryan is Course Director of the Game Design and Development program in the School of Computing at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Malcolm has published in game design, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. His current research focuses on how players make ethical decisions in video games, in collaboration with colleagues from philosophy, psychology and creative writing. He blogs about video game ethics research at MoralityPlay.org.

    Their research together (which is what we’ll be talking about today) is founded in moral psychology and user experience (UX) research. They’re interested in how players engage morally with games, how they exercise their ethical thinking to make decisions in games and how they experience these kinds of decisions. The hope is that this research will lead to richer, more engaging ethical content in games both for entertainment and education.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • Games are supposed to be fun and playing in a historical setting or replaying historical events can be really fun. But when does the use of history become morally problematic by misrepresenting that history, leaving out alternative perspectives, or failing to communicate to the player when the game is or is not meant to be historically accurate?

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Dr. Bram De Ridder - a postdoctoral researcher in applied history at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He has performed extensive research into the topics of public and applied history, and has advised numerous organizations on how to better use the past. His research has also studied how game developers and gamers relate to the past, leading him to found Sunken Tower, a history and game design company. Currently, he mainly plays Crusader Kings III, attempting to turn the Dukes of Brabant into the leading European power.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • The monsters we see in video games are usually antagonists that we destroy without remorse. But what is a monster and are there ethical questions that arise in relation to how they’re represented? In what ways can monsters utilize racist and sexist tropes in harmful ways? Can we treat a type of monsters as a race of pure evil? And is there anything that monsters might do that is beyond the pale? We chat with Dom Ford about Monster Ethics!

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Dom Ford - a freshly-minted PhD from the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His dissertation puts forward a method for understanding games through mythology, arguing that gameworlds instantiate particular models for understanding the world which the player then inhabits. He also works with conceptions of history and nostalgia in games and depictions of monsters.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • How would you make a game about a topic as important, complex, hard to talk about,, and NOT fun at all as domestic violence against children? We chat with Mathew Staunton about his game in progress on this topic and the ethical and design challenges it faces.

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    Our guest for this episode is Mathew Staunton, Ph.D. Originally north Dublin, he is a historian, publisher and printmaker, currently teaching and supervising research in the Printed Image department of the École des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris, France. His main research interests are the aesthetics of Irish nationalism and the historiography of child maltreatment on the island of Ireland. For several years, he has been working with artists, musicians and academics to develop an experimental historiographical practice that promotes a healthy public discussion of child maltreatment.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • Toxicity in online gaming is an incredibly complex problem to solve. Teams of moderators often seem hopelessly outmatched by the amount of toxicity and its sometimes ambiguous nature. But, what if we brought an AI into the game to help us with both toxicity and fraud by bots, which are essentially other AI? In this episode we look at one company’s attempt to do just that.

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Camille Guillemot who started her career fighting fraud by making gaming a safer place for gamers. She quickly realized that fraud was only one part of the puzzle and decided to engage herself more on topics that mattered to her and joined Bodyguard as its Gaming Partnerships Manager, where she’s now dedicating her energy to make gaming a safer and better place for all players, developers, and content creators.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • Making money playing games on Twitch or YouTube sounds like a dream come true! But money never comes without strings attached. Streamers face pressures to build up their audience, ask for financial support, land and keep sponsors. It’s hard work and many burn out. Meanwhile, there’s questions about the ways Twitch and YouTube benefit from their labor. What are the ethics of making money playing games on Twitch or YouTube?

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Dr Mark R Johnson, a Lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on game live streaming and Twitch.tv, esports, and gamification and gamblification. He has published in journals including ‘Information, Communication and Society’, ‘New Media and Society’, ‘Media, Culture and Society’, ‘Convergence’, and ‘Games and Culture’. Outside academia he is also an independent game designer best known for the roguelike "Ultima Ratio Regum".

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • This is part 2 of our first two-part exploration of predatory monetization. Our guest, Elena Petrovskaya has been researching player complaints about monetization and has categorized them into 35 different types of potentially predatory monetization techniques – from pay or wait to the use of battle passes to aggressive advertising and dark interface design patterns. In part 1 we went over all of them. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend going back and checking it out. This time, we evaluate. We ask what is supposed to be predatory in these techniques, which ones we think are not actually problematic, which ones we think are particularly problematic, and what, if anything, should be done about them in terms of regulation.

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Elena Petrovskaya, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence in the UK. She specialises in predatory monetisation in digital games and its consequences, and is particularly interested in the links of game design to gaming disorder. She uses her background in psychology and human-computer interaction to take a player-centric perspective: developing knowledge bottom-up and working directly with players as the primary stakeholder. Her work spans ethics, wellbeing, and the lived experience of technology and its use. Elena’s work has been published in high-impact venues, she has given invited talks, contributed to written evidence calls by the UK government, and engaged with the public through media outlets such as The Conversation.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • When it comes to monetization in games, what do players see as misleading, unfair, or aggressive? Elena Petrovskaya asked this question to over 1000 players and organized their complaints to create a taxonomy of 35 potentially predatory monetization techniques organized under 8 different domains. There was so much here to talk about, we ended up with our first two-parter episode. So, in this episode (part 1), we go over each of these monetization tactics from unfair matches to how in-game currency can disguise real prices, to the use of aggressive advertising, and much more. Then in our next episode (part 2), we’ll explore whether these tactics are actually immoral and the potential consequences of predatory monetization on the gaming world.

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is Elena Petrovskaya, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence in the UK. She specialises in predatory monetisation in digital games and its consequences, and is particularly interested in the links of game design to gaming disorder. She uses her background in psychology and human-computer interaction to take a player-centric perspective: developing knowledge bottom-up and working directly with players as the primary stakeholder. Her work spans ethics, wellbeing, and the lived experience of technology and its use. Elena’s work has been published in high-impact venues, she has given invited talks, contributed to written evidence calls by the UK government, and engaged with the public through media outlets such as The Conversation.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • When a player steps into a game, often that game will have a political structure and the player’s choices in that structure may respond to their sense of justice. That sense of justice can also connect us as groups or factions in games. Can these factions engage in unethical in-game political action? Can players in massive multi-player games be considered citizens of those gameworlds in some sense? If so, can those worlds be tyrannical or benign dictatorships? Does justice demand giving players in such games democratic representation?

    ---------------------------

    Our guest for this episode is James "Pigeon" Fielder, Ph.D. - a Colorado State University political scientist who researches interpersonal trust and emergent political processes through cyber-based interaction and through tabletop and live-action gaming as natural experiments. He is the Chief Operating Officer for roleplaying game company Mobius Worlds Publishing and consults on organizational wargaming, crisis response exercises, and scenario planning.

    ---------------------------

    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

  • Putting blockchain and NFTs into games and marketing that as Play to Earn promises a revolution in gaming that will make money for both game studios and players. It’s a win-win for everybody! – or is it just hype created by cryptobros to ruin games by turning them into money-making machines? What is the promise of Play to Earn supposed to be and what ethical concerns does it raise with regards to how it treats both players and developers?

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    Our guest for this episode is Dr. Tom Rodgers, a Sociologist and Criminologist working at the University of Sunderland UK. He is interested in the commercial logics of the videogames industry, specifically how the industry has experimented with – and ethically justified – methods of measurement and monetization. He has also published work on how videogames offer up ‘ethically exceptional’ experiences in the British Journal of Criminology. Tom is also the co-founder of the international video games research network MultiPlay.

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    JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

    - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

    - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

    - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it! You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

    - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

    - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!

    Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

    Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

    Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

    Music and graphics by Daniel Sher