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Ethical Stewardship: Designing Serious Games Seriously

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Entertainment Computing and Serious Games

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9970))

Abstract

In this chapter, we propose an ethical framework for serious game design, which we term the Ecosystem for Designing Games Ethically (EDGE). EDGE expands on Zagal’s categorization of ethical areas in game design by incorporating the different contexts of design and their use. In addition, we leverage these contexts to suggest four guidelines that support Ethical Stewardship in serious game design. We conclude by discussing a number of specific areas in which ethics plays a role in serious game design. These include games in (a) a military context, (b) the consideration of privacy issues, and (c) the evaluation of game design choices.

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Acknowledgement

In addition to Prof. Katharina-Anna Zweig (zweig@cs.uni-kl.de), our chapter editor, we would like to thank Dr. Cheri Gurse, founder of Scholar Builder, for her time and dedication in editing this chapter. Dr. Gurse works as a professional editor in the Social Sciences and can be reached at cgurse@fielding.edu.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Leadership Development, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Alyea Sandovar

  2. School of Communication, Media and IT, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Eelco Braad

  3. Fraunhofer IOSB, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Alexander Streicher

  4. Bauhaus-Institute for Infrastructure Solutions, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar, Germany

    Heinrich Söbke

Authors
  1. Alyea Sandovar
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  2. Eelco Braad
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  3. Alexander Streicher
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  4. Heinrich Söbke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alyea Sandovar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. RheinMain University of Applied Sciences , Wiesbaden, Germany

    Ralf Dörner

  2. Technische Universität Darmstadt , Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

  3. TU Graz , Graz, Austria

    Michael Kickmeier-Rust

  4. University of Duisburg-Essen , Duisburg, Germany

    Maic Masuch

  5. TU Kaiserslautern , Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Katharina Zweig

Further Reading

Further Reading

To develop a deeper understanding of the perspectives mentioned in this chapter, the following list is suggested for further reading:

Values in Game Design: Flanagan, M., & Nissenbaum, H. (2014). Values at play in digital games. Boston, MA: MIT Press.

Information Ethics: Floridi, L. (Ed.). (2010). The Cambridge handbook of information and computer ethics. Boston, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Digital Game Ethics and Models: Schrier, K. (Ed.). (2010). Designing games for ethics: Models, techniques and frameworks. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Player Ethics: Sicart, M. (2011). The ethics of computer games. Boston, MA: MIT Press.

Digital Game Ethics: Zagal, J. P. (2011). The videogame ethics reader. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.

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Sandovar, A., Braad, E., Streicher, A., Söbke, H. (2016). Ethical Stewardship: Designing Serious Games Seriously. In: Dörner, R., Göbel, S., Kickmeier-Rust, M., Masuch, M., Zweig, K. (eds) Entertainment Computing and Serious Games. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9970. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46152-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46152-6_3

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