Yes, you can reference to my alter ego.
You have smart teacher, questions target to latest issues in industry.

/Tyrian

Quote: Original post by TyrianFin
Yes, you can reference to my alter ego.
You have smart teacher, questions target to latest issues in industry.

/Tyrian

Hehe, she just said I can ask I had to make the questions myself. I made them in Swedish first asking some developers in Sweden. And to get a related answer I had to translate them. Which was a bit hard, was pretty hard to find good words that made the sentence sound "OK" in English.

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
Re "What is your perception of women?", it's a pretty weird question. How do you think the average person on the street would respond to it?
There's plenty of women in our office, and plenty of the men have wives and kids. We're normal people. What's the average perception of women in society as a whole? I'd like to think it's a meaningless question as we decided a long time ago that genders are equal...

My teacher is a woman with a issue about how people (mostly men) look at womans. She would flunk me if I didn't ask it. But it can be a real discussion maker as well (I have noticed)

Oh well time for school! Have a nice morning/day/evening/night!

You could do research on this site too. If memory serves, there was a thread about the women issue, and that was several pages long. Same for the violence issue. That is asked about 4 times per year.

BTW I like average women (small tits). So what?

Quote: Original post by FrozenSnake
Question 1
What do you think about games that depict violence?

Fun, as long as they are not overdone and remain part of the special effects (i.e they should never be the main theme of the game. please see more of my responses below).

Quote:
Question 2
In many (the majority) games woman are made beautiful or sexy. What is your perception of women?

Games are fantasy, and so are movies. All men and women are idealized.

Quote:
Question 3
What do you think about games where it's possible to rape woman/men in various ages unhindered? Ex. RapeLay.

Not interested. I don't fantasize raping women.

Quote:
Question 4
In some games violence are over-exaggerated to a degree that they might get banned from some countries. What do you think about that type of games? Ex. Postal.

Never played Postal, so I am not sure what you are refering to here. Violence is okay as long as it is not the main theme of the game.

Quote:
Question 5This question I ask because my teacher will probably flunk me if I doesn't ask it
Do you think violence in games make kids, teens or adults more violent?

Yes and No. The same question can be applied to guns. Do guns allow people kill each other easily? Yes, but at the same time it can also be used to protect. How violence is interpreted in games depends on the kids who play them. Some kids think it's cool, but they don't necessarily need to channel that violence to other people. Some psychotic kids would probably see that as inspirations.

Quote: Original post by FrozenSnake
Here are the questions:
Question 1
What do you think about games that depict violence?

fine if tasteful

Quote: Question 2
In many (the majority) games woman are made beautiful or sexy. What is your perception of women?

in the majority of films, tv shows, music videos, etc.........

Quote: Question 3
What do you think about games where it's possible to rape woman/men in various ages unhindered? Ex. RapeLay.

I think they are gross and wrong.

Quote: Question 4
In some games violence are over-exaggerated to a degree that they might get banned from some countries. What do you think about that type of games? Ex. Postal.

I think that over-exaggerated violence is fine as long as it serves a purpose other than just being violent.

Quote: Question 5This question I ask because my teacher will probably flunk me if I doesn't ask it
Do you think violence in games make kids, teens or adults more violent?

No, I believe there are studies that dance around it quite a bit. (many show it makes violent people less violent, but others do show that areas of the brain that pertain to violence become more active when playing violent games). The latter study I can't source because it was done by someone at my school and I don't remember who they were or how long ago it was. The former you should be able to find on google.

Quote: Original post by FrozenSnake
I want you all to respect that I am only looking for answers from people who have worked more than 1-2 years in the industry. That is, it requires that you have been working on this for you to respond. If you meet this requirement but do not have a employment at the moment you can also reply.

Not making any money off it but part of an upstart for several years now, you can decide whether that counts...

Quote:
Question 1
What do you think about games that depict violence?

Depends on the type. If you have a game where everybody in the game world is an enemy that attacks you on sight, I think it's perfectly ok, no doubts about it. If the violence is humoristic, it's also ok. For other cases it is necessary to judge from case to case, they can be doubtful in the same sense as movies depicting the same thing. I wouldn't say violence in games is worse than violence in movies, rather the opposite - after all the player has influence over how much violence he'd like to see, and in many games killing innocents has penalties such as being unable to receive or complete quests etc. In movies, you're just fed with violence en masse and can't choose. Violence in a movie, therefore, seems more of an inevitable solution, whereas in a game it is usually the least preferable option and the player has the power to avoid using it.

Quote:
Question 2
In many (the majority) games woman are made beautiful or sexy. What is your perception of women?

I disagree, women in games are seldom overly beautiful, they're physically unrealistic barbie dolls and they often have quite unattractive personality characteristics such as dominance, power and masculinity, more so than in an average movie. Which I in fact think is to go too far in the direction of feminism rather than to go to far in the direction of sexism, which I think is a common misconception of the game and movie industries. Rather, I think games should explore and show more respect to feminine characters displaying attributes such as shyness, submissiveness and fragility and let the game argue the lovability of such traits.

In short, the games have an atmosphere of false and misunderstood urge to be accepted by feminists and political correctness similar to what we see in most other mass media forms in society - it accepts the female sex but not the characteristics that are inherently feminine and that most women - and a great deal of men too actually - possess. As such it is falsely claiming to be respectful to women when it in fact respects only 5% of them, and depicts the remaining 95% as worthless. The answer is not more feminism - because feminism today is the acceptance of powerful and dominant women - but less feminism, and instead seeing the beauty of the shy, submissive, kind and caring women that constitute 95% of the female sex.

My general perception of women is that they are on average physically weaker and shorter than males, but more caring and sensitive on average.

Quote:
Question 3
What do you think about games where it's possible to rape woman/men in various ages unhindered? Ex. RapeLay.

Haven't played any such game. To me, rape of underages is unacceptable to depict in a game. As for other forms of rape in a game, I suppose if movies can do it, then so can games.

There are different degrees of rape. Violent rape is not too nice to show, but unvoluntary penetration is in my opinion acceptable to show in games, unless the male carries STDs which he risks infecting the woman with. Society is often too focused on judging acts and not consequences, which is a shame. A HIV man who is very charming and infects 100 women because he can make them consent to sex, is in my opinion a far worse criminal than a man without STDs who rapes a dozen women. Women obviously do not have a too good capacity for judging which men are good and which are bad, and they're easily swayed by massmedial opinion on what guys are attractive and what guys aren't, or are affected by things such as self-confidence, which can be acquired easy for a man who is rich and a benefactor of nepotism from society. A woman judging men by their phenotype as opposed to their genotype has, biologically speaking, a dysfunction in her love and attraction instincts, or have been too brainwashed by mass media into insecurity that they do not dare to feel their true instincts in this field.

Thus, as long as mass media and fashion industry undermine the confidence of women in their true attraction feelings, it can be said to be problematic that women have such a great influence over their body and the choice of mating partner matching. And indeed so long as women are regularly depicted as being more capable of choosing partners than males, in popular media - something very much comparable to a woman raping a man - then involuntary penetration should certainly be endorsed as a bread and butter component of massmedial productions in my opinion. As a male, I think some balance is needed to compensate against the constant depictions of women seducing men with the men always being unable or unwilling to resist.

So, given this context, I feel that the depiction of non-consentual sex without violence (apart from minor struggling back from the woman), is perfectly acceptable and even positive to depict in both games and movies.

Quote:
Question 4
In some games violence are over-exaggerated to a degree that they might get banned from some countries. What do you think about that type of games? Ex. Postal.

Exaggerated violence can be ok if it is done as art or humoristic. I can't comment on Postal which I haven't played.

Quote:
Question 5This question I ask because my teacher will probably flunk me if I doesn't ask it
Do you think violence in games make kids, teens or adults more violent?

I think violence in games and movies is rather harmless to kids. Sure they _may_ get a bit more violent but not less morally good human beings. I'd say movies have worse effects because they build up the feeling of despair of being unable to affect what happens. Inaccurate depictions of love that lead people to false expectations from life are much more dangerous when it comes to turning kids violent and dangerous to society.

[Edited by - all_names_taken on May 4, 2010 2:17:56 PM]

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
I'd like to think it's a meaningless question as we decided a long time ago that genders are equal...

There are cultural differences, and I would hardly even say the "Western world" is in internal agreement that genders are equal - although our mass media is.

Indeed, the whole equality is a blatant lie and attempt at political correctness that will probably backfire quite soon. To begin with, there are undeniable biological differences between genders - just take the example of pregnancy. Some countries have tried to even out this biological difference between the sexes by forcing the males to stay home after their wife was pregnant. In some branches of industry, women or men are on average not as well suited to perform the tasks as well as the other sex can, yet these branches try to compensate for that by using nepotism and programs to promote the other sex.

Another example is that society pretends that women are supposed to be dominant and masculine in their behavior, as an attempt to deny the biological differences between males and females that exist on average. As such, the 95% of women who aren't dominant, and also the 60% of men who aren't dominant, are implicitly depicted as lesser beings. This is essentially one of the most serious forms of repression of women seen in history, made even worse by the fact that it is misrepresented as a matter of tolerance to women.

This just goes to show some of the most common reasons why there's no unity in the western world that (to quote yourself): "we decided a long time ago that genders are equal".

If the project is an ethical research project as applied to game development then your questions are not appropriate. More then likely you will not get the answers you are looking for with regard to ethics. Your questions are more along the lines of what game industry workers think, which in my mind is a survey and has nothing to do with ethics.

If you want to impress your teacher (and learn to think ethically) then apply utilitarian, deontologic or any other branch of ethics to the field. For instance you could use Ross' prima facie duties as applied to decision making during game development (as a whole or parts of). However, this is more along the lines of original work.

There has to published works on this topic. I suggest google scholar as a bare minimum starting point.

I do not have the requisite experience to answer your questions. However, I will say that I apply a blend of Rossian and Utilitarian ethics while designing and implementing software. Most of this is done during interface design (code and user). I also apply it when taking on new projects (i.e. Is the use of the software product ethical)

Original post by FrozenSnake

Quote: Original post by LockePick
Feel free to tell me a title of a book in the subject (Ethics in game-development).

In case these help.

Gamasutra Article

Published Paper

D Takahashi

ethics can be fun. Hope you enjoy it.

Edit: This paper seems interesting M Sicart - Proceedings of DIGRA2005

Quote: Original post by all_names_taken

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
I'd like to think it's a meaningless question as we decided a long time ago that genders are equal...

There are cultural differences, and I would hardly even say the "Western world" is in internal agreement that genders are equal - although our mass media is.

Indeed, the whole equality is a blatant lie and attempt at political correctness...

Humor:
Just what we nead. Game sponsored by feminist organization to promote masculinity of womans and neonaticide is used as gimmick to get free publicity.

/Tyrian

Quote: Original post by all_names_taken
the whole equality is a blatant lie and attempt at political correctness that will probably backfire quite soon. To begin with, there are undeniable biological differences between genders - just take the example of pregnancy.

If you think equality between the sexes means that people think men and women should be identical I think you've been misinformed.