Suppose that Luck is right and therefore both virtual murder and virtual pedophilia (and virtual rape) are morally equivalent.
Are virtual murder and virtual pedophilia (and/or virtual rape) both morally wrong or are they both morally permissible? Why?
When making your argument consider the following proposal:
Righteous Gaming (RG): If an action would be gravely immoral in real life, then it should also be immoral to perform it in a video game even though it isn’t real. Thus, perhaps God (or the social contract) commands: “Thou shalt not make video games that allow players to simulate immoral acts, nor should you commit such acts if you are playing such a game.”
RG would still allow us to make violent video games so long as the violence is morally righteous and justified. However, under this proposal it would be wrong to make games like Grand Theft Auto in their current form since they allow players to kill innocent people for no good reason and, of course, similarly RG would forbid virtual pedophilia and/or virtual rape in games. Notice too that all of the difficulties Morgan Luck identifies are because murder, pedophilia, and rape are all gravely immoral in real life. Hence, the Gamer’s Dilemma is the result of making video games that allow players to commit murder and perhaps that was the real mistake and rather than try to force an arbitrary line between virtual murder and virtual pedophilia and/or virtual rape we should simply recognize that RG is correct.
Is this right? Should we adjust our attitudes and behavior to conform to RG (i.e. refrain from playing games like GTA or at the very least refrain from performing immoral acts when playing them)?
If not, why not?
A good essay will:
– Demonstrate understanding of the Gamer’s Dilemma.
– Demonstrate understanding of Righteous Gaming (RG)
– Develop either (a) a thoughtful defense of Righteous Gaming or (b) a thoughtful defense of virtual immoral actions in video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, etc.
– Correctly identify and defend controversial premises using sound reasoning, helpful analogies, appeals to plausible principles, etc.
A format example is posted below!
Only source should be the book “College Ethics A reader on Moral Issues That Affect You, 2nd edition”
NO Ai Allowed
