Games That Make Us Feel Bad

Games That Make Us Feel Bad

Ethics and Decision Making in Videogames
By Alex Justice

V ideogames are constantly evolving. Not only can developers build off
the ideas of their predecessors, but each successive technological leap
opens new avenues for digital games to explore. The last decade
especially has seen developers bringing forth new, mature games that are
very good at making us question our views on morality. But if we're going
to take videogames seriously; that is, if we're to view them as art, as
teaching tools, and as something that will positively improve our
existence, they need to be treated in the same manner and placed under
the same scrutiny as the other arts and sciences.

As is the case with most technologies, developers are exploring frontiers

that our existing set of ethics aren't yet capable of handling. And as it
currently stands, videogame progression is occurring faster than the
moral implications can be studied and debated. While it’s true a lot of
guidelines are already in place- be it from art, literature, or visual medias-
the simple fact stands that videogames aren't identical to their
predecessors.

Ian Bogost, author of Persuasive Games, may have said it best:

The growth of videogames as a legitimate medium

requires more than just comparisons to other media.

Instead of using blanket moralization on this emergent field, it’s time we

start viewing videogames as a new and independent art. This will
however, require some new terminology for easier reference. In his book,
Ian Bogost suggests the term "procedural rhetoric" to describe the new
area of persuasion that videogames open. Bogost acknowledges that

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although both the words "procedure" and "rhetoric" have negative

connotations attached to them, that it's not a bad thing.

The term "procedural rhetoric" is defined as:

The art of persuasion through rule-based representations

and interactions rather than the spoken word, writing,
images, or moving pictures.

And while it’s not exactly a catchy buzzword, someone will eventually
invent something clever enough to replace it. After all, even though most
sites are prefaced with “www”, no one still casually refers to it as the
“world wide web”.

Videogames differ from other media by persuading, not through telling

or showing, but by making me do it myself. Bogost later explains in more
detail the influential power of videogames and importance of procedural
rhetoric:

In addition to becoming instrumental tools for

institutional goals, videogames can also disrupt and
change fundamental beliefs about the world, leading to
potentially significant long-term social change. I believe
that this power is not equivalent to the content of
videogames, as the serious games community claims.
Rather, this power lies in the very way videogames mount
claims through procedural rhetoric.

Videogames are not powerful because of the ideas that developers want
or choose to expose us to. Videogames are powerful tools because of the
way they go about exposing us.

Bad things happen. This is a fundamental fact of life which most of us are
exposed to on an almost daily basis. Artists frequently like to subject us
to awful things as well. A good photographer can move us with an image,
as can a skilled graphic designer or visual artist. A movie can make us
witnesses to terrible events straight from the screenwriter's vivid
imagination. And a good author can pull us into the protagonist’s head

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and force us to be right there with them when every heart wrenching
event transpires.

But for all of these, no matter how intimate, we are only a spectator. Let
me say that again: For all the badness, we are still only watching these
things happen. Videogames, are different. They give us agency over
decisions in a way that no other artistic genre can.

Literature and visual media can make me witness the horror;

only videogames can make me responsible for it

With this there is a new kind of story telling emerging in videogames that
wasn't possible before. The passive role of observer is replaced with
interactivity. Now I'm responsible for the actions of the story's
protagonist. The events may have been written by someone else in
advance, but I’m forced to carry out the deeds.

Before someone inevitably points out that “it’s just a game”, it’s
important to remember progress. With the rapid advances in graphics,
screen resolutions, and virtual reality, the not-so-distant future may find
us with games so immersive they are difficult to distinguish from reality.

Nowadays most of us have a game that's done it to us. A game that forced
us to make a decision with no right answer. A situation where we knew
that no matter which option we chose- or we weren’t even given a
choice- something bad would happen, and in the aftermath we’re left
feeling slightly nauseous at what we’d done. As an example, I could have
chosen a more cynical videogame, one that is better known for its gut
wrenching decisions, but for me Bethesda Softwork's Elder Scrolls series
is getting pretty good at this.

For those unfamiliar with the series, here’s a brief background:

In Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Imperials have conquered many races and
peoples, all of whom were assimilated into the Empire and are now
protected/policed by their Imperial Legion. In the land of Skyrim, the
native Nordic people are being oppressed by the Imperials and have been
told they can no longer worship their own god, Talos. The Stormcloaks,

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led by Ulfric Stormcloak, are Nordic rebels that are trying to drive the
Imperial Legion out of their homeland.

So how do they make us feel bad?

Provide no black and white, only different shades of grey

The dragonborn (the player) is forced to choose a side in the conflict,

which at first seems like a simple decision. Do I side with the oppressive
conquerors or the rebel freedom fighters? But as I started to interact with
the Stormcloaks, I realized that they weren't trying to drive out only the
Imperial legion, but every other non-Nordic race as well. They're actually
just a bunch of racist purists. Over time I also pieced together that,
following the Empire's defeat in a previous war by the Thalmor, many of
the issues that the Stormcloaks are fighting against are dictated to the
Empire by their Thalmor conquerors. The Empire is forced to adhere to
their treaties with the Thalmor or face total destruction. Ultimately the
Thalmor over-overlords appeared to be the only true bad guys, so I
decided to go with who I felt was perhaps the lesser evil and sided with
the Stormcloaks.

I was sent to deliver an ultimatum from the Stormcloaks which The Jarl
of Whiterun refused, deciding instead to side with the Imperial Legion.
With this rejection my mission was changed to secretly letting the rebels
into the city. But I quickly learned that the way the Stormcloaks planned
to go about driving the Imperial Legion from Skyrim is to wipe out any
city who refuses to side with them. So, the Stormcloaks and the
dragonborn(me) sacked the city, killed all of the guards, and installed our
own Jarl.

At the end of the quest line, after wiping out two more forts full of
Imperial soldiers who were just doing their jobs, the Stormcloaks take the
city of Solitude killing every guard and making their way into Castle Dour.
Inside was the Imperial General Tulius, the military governor of Skyrim,
and his lieutenant Legate Rikki. While the General was known to have a
great hatred for followers of Ulfric, he was ultimately bound by his oath
to carry out his orders, which included the ban on Talos worship,
regardless of personal feelings. Although Ulfric does plead with them to
surrender, they refuse and are both slain. After everything I’d been

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through, I later discovered that the entire rebellion was entirely

orchestrated by the Thalmor (bad guys) simply to weaken the Empire
even further.

But I had been offered another choice at the beginning of the game,
hadn’t I? How would that story line have played out?

In short, if I had chosen to instead side with the Imperial Legion and
combat the rebellion, the Imperials and I kill a lot of people who are
fighting for their own freedom and succeed in crushing the rebellion. In
the end Ulfric Stormcloak is executed along with any hope of freedom for
the Nords. Although the Empire is left much stronger than if I sided with
the Stormcloaks, both outcomes left me feeling like a traitor to well-
meaning people on the other side.

Leave us with no choice

In the city of Markarth, I found a Vigilant of Stendarr named Tyranus

outside of a locked and abandoned house. The Vigilants of Stendarr are a
priesthood of the Divine of Mercy, one of the Nine Divines (gods). They
were founded to combat Daedric influences, as well as vampires,
werewolves, and other dark creatures. Tyranus asked me to enter the
house with him to search for signs of Daedric influence. I agreed to help
and we went inside. As soon as we entered the basement Tyranus yelled
to me, "This is no ordinary Daedra!" and ran back upstairs for the door,
only to find it locked. Then suddenly Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of
domination and enslavement of mortals, spoke to me, telling me to kill
Tyranus. Simultaneously the room started to shake, and objects began
floating around the house.

"Right." I thought, "I'm the dragonborn- destined to save the world.

Regardless of who you are, I'm not killing a priest because you told me
to." So instead I tried to find a way to fight Molag Bal directly and, failing
that, find another way out. But after only a minute of searching, Tyranus
either panicked, or was too weak minded to resist Molag Bal, and
attacked me. I tried every option to calm him, but it was eventually clear
that the only way out of the building was to kill him. I was forced to kill
or be killed by a priest who had devoted his life to fighting evil. Gods
damn it.

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Deceive us

In 4E 174 the City of Markarth was retaken by the native people of the
Reach in what was called the Forsworn Uprising. Two years later, when
the city was retaken by the Nords, led by Ulfric Stormcloak, no one was
spared who didn't assist in the retaking of the city, not even women or
children old enough to lift a sword. The only survivors were those who
were able to escape.

When I first entered the city of Markarth a woman was killed right in front
of me in the market by a man yelling something about the Forsworn. I
was then approached by another man named Eltrys who handed me a
note asking me to meet him in secret later. When I finally met with him,
Eltrys asked me to investigate the woman's murder, which after an
exhaustive investigation, eventually lead to his death by the city guards
and me being framed by them for his murder where I am taken away to
the jail in Cidhna Mine.

While in prison I'm given the opportunity to speak with Madanach, the
leader of the remaining Forsworn who has also been imprisoned.
Through my investigations and my personal conversation with
Madanach, I learned that although officially removed from Markarth, the
Forsworn have spies everywhere inside the city and are working to slowly
take it back yet again. Although they seemed like dangerous cultists, the
alternative was to side with the corrupt and brutal Silver-Brood family
currently running the city. I felt like my choice was clear. I should help the
Forsworn escape and take back their city.

However, as soon as we made good on our escape, I stepped outside to

witness the Forsworn already "taking back the city". In a massive and
sudden assault, the Forsworn were killing everyone; guards and civilians
alike.

The other option had been to kill Madanach in his cell and escape alone.
This choice, I later learned, would have ended the killing with Madanach.
I had been fooled and directly caused a slaughter.

Force us to commit horrible acts, or quit

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In the Elder Scrolls games there are always variations of the same guilds
that the player can join and advance in: The Mages Guild, Fighters Guild,
Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood- a secretive group of assassins
who are the fulfillers of the contracts between Night Mother and
someone who has prayed to her for someone's death. When you kill
someone in cold blood, whether they were a horrible person or innocent
victim, the Dark Brotherhood will approach you with an offer to join
them. If you choose to do so, you become an assassin of the Dark
Brotherhood who receives all their orders from Speakers who commune
with the Night Mother directly.

Yes, going down this road requires certain "job expectations", but
normally your victims deserve it, or are at least inconsequential and rude.
However, all contracts are between those who want someone killed, and
the Night Mother. If someone offers enough gold during the proper ritual,
then someone else is dying and it hardly matters how nice or important
they are. To advance further in the order, I had to complete all my
contracts on time, no questions. Ok, I’m now a hardened killer anyways,
I can handle this.

But then I was contracted to kill a bride on her wedding day.

Her only crime was being the cousin of the emperor, and someone
wanted to hurt him. I tried to tell her what I was there to do, but she
simply misunderstood and thanked me for celebrating with her on the
happiest day of her life, welcoming me into the festivities even though I
was a stranger. For this mission I actually agonized over a way to avoid
the inevitable outcome. However, the only way to proceed was to settle
on doing it as fast and impersonally as possible. I put an arrow in her neck
from the balcony adjacent to where she sat with her fiancé overlooking
the other guests.

The power videogames have over other literary and visual media, is that
most of these events, although twisted, aren't any more powerful or
creative than any decent stories we’ve read, or movies we’ve seen. Their
ability to move and stick with us over time is entirely dependent on the
agency that these games afford us. They don’t give a completely open list
of choices for us to use our sense of right and wrong and pick the

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“correct” choice over wrong ones. They intentionally force us into an

uncomfortable place and make us choose- If we’re even given the choice-
between equally bad scenarios. This is an example of procedural rhetoric
being used at its most compelling:

Forcing us to be uncomfortable with ourselves and our own actions.

While most games that make us feel bad often involve violent content
and events, I'm in no way advocating that videogames cause real world
violence. In fact, the opposite result could be argued, where by exposing
us to necessary evils in the safety of a simulated environment,
videogames strengthen our sense of empathy for those around us. If
doing horrible things to completely artificial characters can make me feel
this bad, I know that I would do everything that I can to avoid them in
real life.

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Citations:
Ian Bogost. Persuasive Games. 4 April 2013.

Bethesda Softworks. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. 4 April 2013

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