Caution: Moral Parameters of the Media Equation and Gaming

The article, "The Ethics of Buying World of WarCraft Gold" by blogger Ponyma, brought attention to my area of study with gaming and education as the potential for engaging in amoral behavior with software design in order to advance knowledge or gain within digital mediums. Although this example demonstrates the possibilities of amoral behavior to undermine the structure of entertainment video games, this creates a cognitive dissonance for academics and researchers to design games for educational use in which students may be tempted to circumvent the function of the software for academic gain by possibly paying a person online to complete digital assignments or copying previous work-related material. The mere possibility of tampering to exist within software design creates certain challenges for educators to prevent copying of information and hacking of the software to manipulate assignments. The media equation, as stated by Reeves (1996, p5) "Media equal real life" suggests the fact that if individuals treat games and software as they do to other people with respect to interaction, then the potential to purse an amoral advantage in a competitive environment, either business or academia, will result in the desire for individuals to pursue an unfair advantage.

http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/6111

In the example of the article, individuals who play MMORPG's (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) to equip their avatars or characters with better items engage in amoral behavior by purchasing the fantasy world currency with real world currency. The danger in designing games for students to learn in digital environments carries additional consequences for students to pay others for their services in completing assignments. In addition, the games may initiate students the unintended consequences of bending rules and breaking laws. As the media equation dictates, "the automatic response is to accept what seems to be real as in fact real" (Reeves, 1996, p8) just as in society laws exist within games as players are limited in what characters or avatars may be able to operate or interact. When certain laws are broken in society there are resulting consequences that punish the individual for poor judgment, the same dynamic exists in games in that if laws are present students will break them to test the limits. However, without proper oversight or enforcement of digital laws in games or deter the ability for students to engage in amoral behavior, the resulting consequences may undermine the entire process of education itself and expose the challenges of creating games for students without the ability to cheat the design.

This example does illustrate an extreme viewpoint in the design and structure of gaming and student behavior. Yet, the idea that individuals will react to software similar to human interaction implies that flaws do exist in the structure of gaming and educational use by the afore mentioned examples. Laws deter bad behavior yet they are still broken by individuals from the most heinous examples to trivial traffic violations. The challenge for educators rests in designing games to limit the ability to cheat as well as the motive to gain advantage in a software design between students within a class. As long as competition exists in nature, the natural tendency for individuals to find a way to adapt to a problem or scenario in a superior fashion trumps the cognitive dissonance of knowing the difference between moral and amoral behavior.




Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. 1996. "Ch 1, The Media Equation," pp. 3-18 in The Media Equation. Cambridge University Press.

Ponyma (2008). The Ethics of Buying World of WarCraft Gold. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from the Philly Future website: http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/6111