Abstract
This chapter pursues the question whether virtual violence is a morally problematic behavior. Virtual violence is defined as any user behavior intended to do harm to perceived social agents who apparently try to avoid the harm-doing. This chapter reviews existing literature that suggests that users hurt themselves if they get engaged in virtual violence (e.g., become more aggressive) and that users may also harm other users if they direct their violent acts against their avatars. Recent research is reviewed that further suggests that users may intuitively perceive virtual agents as social beings. They may thus intend to do harm to other social beings (instead of objects) when conducting virtual violence. The chapter also tackles (and denies) the idea that autonomous virtual agents are living entities that may suffer from virtual violence. In light of the reviewed evidence, virtual violence is considered a morally problematic behavior.
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Notes
- 1.
The intention-based approach to judge virtual violence will also be considered when tackling question 1. The underlying questions are whether users indeed intend to do harm to other social beings (as presumed in the definition of virtual violence) and whether they play violent video games or commit violent acts in other virtual environments.
- 2.
It needs to be noted, however, that the conditions that constitute life or a living agent are lively debated among philosophers, biologists, computer scientists, and engineers (e.g., Ray 1992). Readers that like to learn more about this debate may also consult the scientific journal “Artificial Life”.
- 3.
It has to be noted that the main goal of research on artificial life is to model life in order to explore and understand it. The debate about actually living software systems (instead of software that merely imitates, simulates, or models life) is not of central importance to the general field.
- 4.
The given example may also be misleading, as it may not fully match the definition of violence that underlies the present chapter. An important part of the definition of violence is that the potential victim apparently tries to avoid the harm-doing. The opponents of a box-fight (or in any other violent sports competition) may certainly appear to avoid being harmed. However, the fact that they willingly entered the violent situation beforehand contradicts the notion of a victim that tries to avoid being harmed. The same applies to users that willingly entered a violent virtual environment. Accordingly, it may not be fully correct to label behavior “violent” that aims to do harm to those who willingly entered the violent situation (and expected the possibility to be harmed). This is not to say that virtual violence would never be harmful under those conditions, because it can still “amount to destruction of property, albeit in an environment where that is an expected outcome of participation” (Dorin 2004, p. 108).
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Hartmann, T. (2011). Is Virtual Violence a Morally Problematic Behavior?. In: Cornelius, K., Hermann, D. (eds) Virtual Worlds and Criminality. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20823-2_3
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