Framing the Dilemma: The Influence of Immersion in Ethical Choice Making

Ethical choices are a feature present in a number of video games that gives players the ability to test their ethical values. However, ethical choices are not always driven by rationality or ethical thinking in video games: immersion, gameplay design decisions, and flow sometimes help developers nudge players’ actions. We argue that understanding how choices are framed within the complex expressive medium “video game” and how immersion deriving from expressive complexity plays into that framing does foster our comprehension of the dynamics of choices in diverse contexts, in particular of morally charged choices. Furthermore, game designers’ decisions regarding gameplay mechanics, and particularly default choices, highly impact on the behaviors expected by designers in different situations, and on the resulting perception of such expectations in the mind of the player. Lastly we argue that the loss of self-consciousness afforded by imaginative immersion and gameflow [15] leads to de-empathizing ethical thinking in moral-oriented choice-making in video games. Employing Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum’s [4,5] close-reading techniques, we reflect on the implication of these aspects on players’ ethical choice-making, and how the architectures of a game mirror, generate or enhance different behaviors regarding moral decisions. Quantic Dreams’ Detroit: Become Human will be used to address our questions.