Simulated Killing

Overview
This topic covers the debate as to the extent of the moral weight of taking an artificial life in a simulated environment, some consider it to be comparable to actual murder, there are others who see it as literally and figuratively harmless, then there's everyone in between.

We would say that if Simulated Killing is indeed morally wrong, it cannot be for the same reasons as actual murder as the scenarios are different. When a virtual trigger is pulled, all that changes are the pixels and data within the gamestate, rather it is what is being simulated. There is also a distinction made between being an active participant (player) or an observer watching them play, and if this has a bearing on the moral calculations.

This might also just be a comment on how comfortable our society is with violence, as in the UK certainly, simulations of paedophilia or rape are banned, yet if it is 'just a game', there should be no problem with the content of the simulation, but for the most part, people are much more comfortable and gain far more pleasure acting out Die Hard than that scene from The Kite Runner.

Application:
This topic is a bit of a fun one in that; as rad as Kant, Mill and Aristotle were, none of them ever played any video games (not even mobile ones). Nor did they hang around in circles that did, so to that extent any application of their theories to this issue is a but of speculative conjecture as you can only use what was written about other topics, and see if you can apply it. Had each of them had a shot on angry birds, this may have been a different story, but we'll never know.

Another issue for working out where each theory stands is that there is yet no decisive evidence as to whether active participation in Simulated Killing is responsible for degradation of character and violence in the real world. As the jury is still out, it allows theories to be argued either way with personal preference.

Further Reading:

 * Article thinking about the topic from a few years back - https://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/01/06/ethics-of-first-person-shooters/
 * A handout from Routledge breaking it down - http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9781138793934/A22014/ethical_theories/Simulated%20killing.pdf

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