Do We Have Free Will In Video Games? - A Video Essay
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2024
- In this video essay, I will be discussing the worlds of various video games and how their narratives contribute to a discussion on Free Will and Morality in video games in general.
If you watched all the way through, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on Free Will in video games! Do you feel you were able to express your emotions well enough to enjoy a tailored experience?
Resources:
Bartel, C. Free will and moral responsibility in video games. Ethics Inf Technol 17, 285-293 (2015). doi.org/10.1007/s10676-015-93...
Beyond: Two Souls. Directed by David Cage, Quantic Dream / Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2013. Sony PlayStation 3 game.
The Walking Dead. Directed by Sean Vanaman, Telltale Games / Skybound Entertainment, 2012.
Minecraft. Markus Persson, Mojang / Microsoft Game Studios, 2011.
Kirkman, Robert. The Walking Dead. Orange, CA :Image Comics, 2010.
Here's the link to the specific website with the Bartel Journal:
link.springer.com/article/10....
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i think the argument between determinism and free will is moot.
in a video game, you have free will within the boundaries of the game's coding.
in life, you have free will within the boundaries of your material conditions.
the options you have in each will also necessarily derive from the same conditions.
we can know for basically a fact what path a boulder will take rolling down a hill if we have enough information about environment to leave effectively nothing to guesswork, so it stands to reason that all of reality is basically just boulders rolling down hills. free will is the idea that the boulder can choose not to crush your house, so you build your house directly in the path of the boulder because you believe in the good nature of the boulder or the fear the boulder has of the consequences of its actions. while determinism is building your house away from the path of the boulder because you did your researcher and determined the path the boulder will certainly travel down when it eventually rolls.
free will is confusing, messy, scary and even dangerous, it would be safer not to see the world through the lens of free will, but unfortunately we dont have a choice.
@@kenpanderz "free will is the idea that the boulder can choose not to crush your house" - This doesn't make any sense. If understood literally then it obviously makes no sense considering a boulder is an inanimate object and cannot make any decisions. If understood figuratively it still doesn't make sense considering that you are then defining Free Will in such a manner that it becomes akin to randomness and we know randomness doesn't give us Free Will. Defining Free Will to mean "the ability to do otherwise" is unwise and illogical. If instead we assume that will is derived from desire and thus include desire in our definition; determinism is no longer an issue and the definition actually makes logical sense. What use would mankind have for the ability to "do otherwise", assuming that doing otherwise means making a choice not derived from our desire, anyway?
It's like the choice of being good or evil in games, most people choose to be good because we don't feel good by doing evil things and being an asshole without a reason.
its very strange and very interesting how what should be a 50/50 choice really isnt because of factors beyond our control, and often beyond our very awareness. how can you have freedom to choose if you dont even know that there are choices to be made? its mind-bending stuff
free will has layers. it doesnt exist on the deepest layer (where the laws of physics/code of the game truly constrain possibilities), but it feels like it exists on the surface layers (where you can choose what to have for breakfast or whether or not a character dies in the game). its when the deeper layers overshadow the surface layers that these "no choice" scenarios become a problem. where you present a scene that is supposed to feel like a choice can be made but the end result is the same regardless, like a fork in the road that converges to a single road again just past your field of view, or a character dies later anyways regardless of what choices you make beforehand.
choice is, and always has been, an illusion, but you choose how much you believe in that illusion. or maybe not, since it would open a whole can of worms if you were to dig too deep into the idea that all beliefs are choices, especially if you think that religion or sexuality or entertainment preferences are "beliefs" rather than "true knowledge", assuming theres an actual difference..
(this topic is annoyingly complex)
morals also play a huge part of how i play games. outside of specific games that heavily cater to being the bad guy, or obviously dont let you play as a good enough guy to bother RPing as one (like Prototype or GTA). in Fallout/Elder Scrolls game,s i basically never steal, even when ive done enough good to balance out the "morality meter" in my favor. it just feels wrong. the exceptions would be when stealing is the only way to complete a quest in the way i think is best, or its an item i really want and cant get by other means. even in GTA style games i try not to kill civilians for reasons beyond having to fight off the cops as a result. it just feels needlessly cruel to do it, even to fake characters. ofcourse if someone else wants to mow down as many pedestrians as they can manage or steal everything that isnt nailed down and kill anyone who tries to stop them, in a videosgame, then more power to them, its not a multiplayer game so they are no real risk to me.
Does free will exist in video games?
Call me Kevin: Hold my whiskey
Good work. Use timestamps going forward. Subbed
This is a pretty good video.
best video about video games so far!
only if the developers let us. most of the time? no.
Even if the initial scene is slightly different if the ending is the same you've only made the illusion of a choice, you've gone down one of two corridors that look slightly different and reach the same end, and as such both choices are equivalent and there is no choice actually being made.
It doesn't matter that you did make that decision and the scene went by slightly different, its as if you open the door with your right or left hand, it makes no difference and as such its not a real choice.
soooooo beyond underrated hello
I feel like im here early
Oh you made it to my reductions, grats hopefully the algo chose you
4th; great vid; this is probably gonna blow up
I hope so, this took a lot of effort!
Not really
First
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