Games and Ethical Issues
Johnny Soraker addresses many valid points in his Ted Talk seminar regarding ethics of video game psychologist. I began this video with the question in mind, how will this relate to gamification, because that was my intent, to choose a video that was similar to the topic that was so fresh on my mind. I have learned so much information about the benefits of gamification that I never knew, and now all I want is to find out more. As I was watching the video the first time, I thought to myself that it wasn’t a good choice because it was not related to what I have learned thus far, but as I watched it a second time I thought of my students. In years past I would hear them talking amongst each other about the hours they had spent the previous night playing Call of Duty with each other. It had never occurred to me the mechanics that went into designing a video game and that there is actual video game psychologist whose sole job is to observe and analyze gamers interactions to determine how to get gamers to play more. I found this very intriguing, Soraker mentions at the end of the video the “American Psychology Association Code of Ethics explicitly states psychologist should strive to benefit those with whom you work and to care to do no harm. Psychologist have a scientific responsibility, have to be on guard against personal, financial, and other factors that might influence or lead to misuse of their influence, and they have to most importantly of all take care that you do not undermine people’s self-determination.” His concern was that the video game psychologists were going against this very code of ethics when determining how games should be design in order for gamers to spend more time gaming to in turn spend more money. Soreker also states that educators should be teaching children basic psychology to help them understand human motivation so that they are able to decide whether spending money on these games is meaningful. In this regard, I agree it’s not a bad idea, but I am not worried nor do I really care about games that can be found and bought in the App Store. My concern is still with gamification, which leads to my point of choosing this video. How are these psychologists being used for the games produced for educational purposes, what are their considerations and findings? I believe if video game psychologists are being used in a manner to promote educational content and a child’s intelligence and well-being, are they really breaking the “code of ethics?”