Ethics and Video Games Podcast

There are over 50 million players over the age of 50 in the USA alone and those numbers will only continue to grow for an activity that’s too often viewed as “kids’ stuff”.  How and when do older players engage with online gaming communities?  Do designers need to be concerned about monetizing techniques that might take advantage of vulnerable older adults?  What can societies do to help older games access games that would be fun and beneficial for them?  How can games themselves be more inclusive for older players? 

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Bob De Schutter (MFA, PhD) is an award-winn...

Games are particularly fertile grounds for extremist recruitment.  Why is that?  What’s special about games and gaming culture that might make them attractive spaces for recruitment?  How does extremist recruitment work in games?  What is being done about it right now?  And what can be done to help prevent the spread of extremism through games?

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Rachel Kowert, Ph.D is a research psychologist and the Research Director of Take This. She is a world-renowned researcher on the uses and effects of digital games, including their impact on physical, social, and psychological well-being. An award-w...

When game companies simulate cultures in their games they usually focus on the tropes that their intended audiences have about those cultures and then design their game around those tropes.  Is there anything wrong with that?  If so, what? What can game designers do to present cultures – present and past – more respectfully?

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Andrei Zanescu is a newly minted Doctor of Communication at Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada. His research focuses on resonance and its uses for (re)producing culture, in blockbuster games both digital and analog, as well as the overlap between blockbuster films and gam...

Gaming and game development work differently for the developed global north than the developing global south.  What are those differences?  How does the global south play and pay differently?  Why is it so hard to start a game development company in the global south?  How can the gaming world better take these things into consideration in order to be more inclusive to  the global south?

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Aditya Deshbandhu is Lecturer of Communications, Digital Media Sociology at the University of Exeter. A researcher of video game studies, new media, and the digital divide, Aditya examines how people...

In a couple of recent episodes guests have mentioned concerns about battle passes.  So, in this episode we decided to explore how they work, how they differ from traditional  subscription models or microtransactions, why they’re so popular today with game companies, and whether they raise any serious ethical concerns.

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Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University where he researches internet infrastructure, platforms, apps, and games. He’s also written for a number of publications, including Briarpatch Magazine, Motherboard, and Real Life Magazine.  Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanjoKaz...

What can college esport teams do to blunt harassment against female players and make esports more inclusive?  Are they in a unique position to help solve these problems in esports?  We chat with representatives from Kean University about their attempts to make their own esport teams more inclusive to women.

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Theresa Lee is a returning student in her 40’s, who majors in Environmental science and Drones, and is the captain of the Hearthstone team. 

Joseph Sarnoski is Kean University's eSports program director. In addition to gaming, Joe is a professor of Environmental and S...

How can ads for video games and for stuff in games be deceptive or manipulative?  What do  they need to consider when targeting kids?  What sort of guidance do they get from governments or their own industry groups?  We chat with Dr. Celia Pontin, former UK advertising regulator specializing in video games.

In this episode we explore some of the ethical issues related to kinks in video games – mostly adult ones.  How can games allow us to explore kinks?  What are some ethical pitfalls designers should consider?  How do issues like representation and consent fit in? 

We’ve rarely discussed the specific category of adult games on this podcast.  So, we do so here and now and honestly, with a bit more speculation and off-the-cuff “let’s try this idea out and see if it sticks” mentality.  We explore whether adult games should be treated differently than other types of pornography, whether age-gating is actually desirable, and a bunch of other issues. 

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Fae Daunt is an Australian academic, researcher, and developer. Turning their experience in web into an endless curiosity for development and design, they have married their cultural experiences and academi...

What should we think about when we bring sex and intimacy into video games?  In this episode, we explore issues of player sexuality, in-game intimacy, representations of consent, and how video games can take chances and explore sexuality responsibly.

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Our guest for this episode are:

Zhia Zariko is a media and communication expat into games design and development. Originally studying written communication, she did an elective in games, aesthetics and culture and never looked back. She now holds a Masters on Let's Play videos from RMIT, Australia, and has been teaching games d...