Ethical Issues in Gaming: A Literature Review

This paper reports on a literature review investigating the main ethically-related themes appearing in the academic literature on digital games, and considers their connections with games and learning, identity development, and the construction of personal beliefs. The themes explored include how videogames can shape players' attitudes or encourage the development of ethical (or unethical) behaviours (like aggression, to mention just one example), the treatment of personal and social identity, positive and negative effects concerning interaction processes in digital gaming circles, and the use of exploitative game mechanics intended to increase player engagement. These questions are explored by drawing on and updating a broadly based literature review that was carried out within the H2020 project Gaming Horizons. As well as reporting on those themes from an academic viewpoint, this paper offers some indications of both a theoretical and practical nature that may prove useful to a variety of game-world stakeholders, including game developers and marketers, researchers, educators and teachers, policy makers, and gaming enthusiasts of various kinds.