GAME 304 Ethics in Video Games and Virtual Reality

This course explores right and wrong in a virtual world, including the worlds we find in video games, social virtual worlds, and virtual reality. The course begins with theories of moral and epistemic responsibility. It then presents different ways of interpreting virtual worlds - as real digital worlds, fictions, and social worlds. With this background the course then turns to a number of different topics, which include (but are not limited to) virtual ownership, avatars and identity (including sexual and racial identities), virtual aggression and violence, virtual exploitation, virtual friendship, the ethics of video game worlds, virtual labor and 'playbor', and virtual politics, as well as the politics of the metaverse. The course investigates these topics through concrete virtual worlds and video games, like Second Life, VRchat, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, as well as classic and recent virtual worlds and video games.