{"id":709,"date":"2018-04-16T18:42:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T22:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fms321.wnhughes.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/game-log-3-3-moral-sensitivity-and-the-witcher-3\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T19:46:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T23:46:23","slug":"game-log-3-3-moral-sensitivity-and-the-witcher-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/2018\/04\/16\/game-log-3-3-moral-sensitivity-and-the-witcher-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Log 3 \u2013 3: Moral Sensitivity and The Witcher 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Witcher 3<\/i> is always praised for its immersive storytelling. \u00a0For me, part of what makes the game feel so compelling is that the narrative is dynamic. \u00a0In a dynamic narrative game, the story responds to the player\u2019s actions. I have always loved games like this as they require you to really consider the choices before you and how they may impact the narrative as you play. \u00a0Some of my favorite examples of these types of games are Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic<\/i>, the Fable <\/i>series, and Jade Empire,<\/i> just to name a few.<\/p>\n

RPG Classic, KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic)<\/p>\n

Despite playing numerous titles like these throughout the years, I never considered how a lot of times these games were, in a way, evaluating my morals. \u00a0In a journal article in Games & Culture titled \u2018Training Moral Sensitivity Through Video Games\u2019<\/a>, the authors engage in a study of 20 different games and how well they encourage \u2018Moral Sensitivity\u2019 on the part of the player. \u00a0Basically, the authors see a game as excelling at employing MS when it successfully pushes the player to make decisions with regard for the moral implications of their character\u2019s actions and how they align with their own values. \u00a0In the study, the authors point to a specific quest in The Witcher 3 where the player catches an arsonist who attempted to burn down a blacksmith\u2019s forge in retaliation for his working with the invading army. The player is presented with the choice of turning him in, resulting in his execution, or letting him walk free. \u00a0The authors see this as a fine example of MS because the player is able to immediately see the results of their actions and the moral ambiguity of the arsonist\u2019s motives encourage the player to evaluate the situation. An additional important thing that the authors failed to mention is that this quest takes place relatively early in the game, so in my mind it kind of the sets the stage for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

The arsonist, after being turned in<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to think about how games can be bad at compelling moral sensitivity. \u00a0For me, a game like Grand Theft Auto doesn\u2019t have great MS. When I play that game I act like a madman and absolutely do not consider the moral or ethical implications of my actions. \u00a0My goal is to just have fun. However, I think it\u2019s important to recognize that Rockstar, the studio behind the GTA series, doesn\u2019t seem too concerned with encouraging MS. Their games are filled with camp, such as cartoon characters and over the top storylines. \u00a0\u00a0In my mind, this is all an effort to disconnect the player from reality so they can act uninhibited by their morals or values. This reveals a key distinction in the goals of TW3 and GTA. A game like the Witcher 3 wants to you to get into the mind of the character Geralt and make the character your own by making him act as you would. \u00a0A game like GTA wants to provide you with a total escape from reality and your own responsibilities.<\/p>\n

A player escapes from reality by beating someone up as Princess Peach in GTA<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Playing Around With Morality: Introducing the Special Issue on \u201cMorality Play\u201d<\/h4>\n

Malcolm Ryan, Paul Formosa, Rowan Tulloch<\/p>\n

Games and Culture<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

First Published\u00a0October 31, 2017
\nhttp:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/1555412017719344#articleCitationDownloadContainer<\/p>\n

Source: Game Log 3 \u2013 3: Moral Sensitivity and The Witcher 3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Witcher 3 is always praised for its immersive storytelling. \u00a0For me, part of what makes the game feel so compelling is that the narrative is dynamic. \u00a0In a dynamic narrative game, the story responds to the player\u2019s actions. I have always loved games like this as they require you to really consider the choices …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"item_id":"03fa38b08724f700c5e6cfcb48caa5ac","pf_source_link":"","item_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:25:34 +0000","item_author":"admin","item_link":"http:\/\/fms321.wnhughes.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/game-log-3-3-moral-sensitivity-and-the-witcher-3\/","item_feat_img":"","item_wp_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:25:34 +0000","item_tags":"","source_publication_name":"","source_publication_url":"","nomination_count":"1","sortable_item_date":"1523629534","item_description":"","pf_word_count":"653","pf_forward_to_origin":"no-forward","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[189],"tags":[34,191,192,193,194,195,149],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-round-3","tag-console","tag-escapism","tag-games-culture","tag-moral-sensitivity","tag-morality","tag-the-witcher-3","tag-uncategorized"],"nominators":{"1":{"user_id":1,"nomination_datetime":"2018-04-16 16:08:01","nomination_unixtime":1523909281}},"archiveOrgStatus":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xw5i-br","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":728,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/728"}],"feed":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/pf\/v1\/feeds\/176"}],"nominator":[{"embeddable":false,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/user\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}