Au-delà de l’engagement moral : Vers un élargissement de l’éthique vidéoludique

Abstract

Video game studies have mostly addressed the concept of ethics or morality with that of moral engagement, which arose in response to examples of games characterized by manichean morality systems. Faced with these examples of cartoonish morality, the field has inquired on how video games can offer meaningful discourses on the subject. However, scholars have yet to “engage” in a clarification of their conceptual apparatus, showing great timidity towards pre-existing normative ethics, which are nevertheless instrumental in informing our judgments about what a “good” game is. To bridge this gap, we will revisit moral engagement in light of virtue ethics, which introduces previously neglected issues in video game studies regarding the development of the person who happens to play, their emotions and their flourishing. This examination will highlight the inadequacies of the concept of moral engagement and the benefits of replacing it with that of commitment to goodness.

Keywords

• video game
• moral engagement
• ethic
• virtue
• emotion
• commitment to goodness