Resolving the Gamer's Dilemma: Examining the Moral and Psychological Differences between Virtual Murder and Virtual Paedophilia (Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology)

This book explores the gamer’s dilemma, which lies at the heart of theorising about the morality of certain video game content. The dilemma is as follows: given that gaming content involves virtual characters within a virtual environment, the moral permission of virtual murder would also appear to morally permit virtual paedophilia. Yet most gamers and members of wider society would not want to play, endorse, or find in any way morally acceptable the enactment of virtual paedophilia within a video game. Yet by accepting the moral permissibility of virtual murder they leave themselves vulnerable to having to accept the moral permissibility of virtual paedophilia. This book provides an incredibly thorough and systematic analysis and evaluation of the gamer’s dilemma, by considering the origins of the intuitions around the dilemma, and exploring whether they find support from traditional or contemporary moral theory and psychological research. The book will be great interest to academics and students of philosophy and psychology, as well as members of the wider public interested in video game violence and taboo enactments more generally. Resolving the Gamer’s Dilemma 4 Contents 6 1 Introducing the Gamer’s Dilemma 7 1.1 Virtual Murder: The Current State of Play 7 1.2 The Gamer’s Dilemma 9 1.2.1 A Brief Overview 10 1.2.2 The Homogeneity of Virtual Murder 13 1.3 The Legal Status of Virtual Child Pornography in the USA and UK 14 1.3.1 US Legislation 14 1.3.2 UK Legislation 17 1.4 Some Closing Remarks 19 Notes 20 2 Social Convention and the Likelihood of Harm: Luck’s Initial Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma 22 2.1 An Appeal to Social Convention 23 2.1.1 Manga: Reflecting Japanese Social Convention 24 2.2 Silencing the Minority View 27 2.3 An Appeal to Significant Likelihoods 30 2.3.1 Deductive Fallacy, and Necessary and Sufficient Conditions 31 2.4 Is Virtual Paedophilia Significantly More Likely to Result in Harm than Virtual Murder? 33 2.4.1 Evidence (Virtual Violence) 35 2.4.2 Evidence (Child Pornography) 37 2.5 Argument in Favour of Virtual Paedophilia 40 Notes 44 3 Motivation, Discrimination and Special Status: Luck’s Further Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma 45 3.1 Finding Pleasure in the Idea of Paedophilia 46 3.1.1 Simulating Vice 47 3.2 Different Motivations: Enjoying the Competition Rather than the Kill 50 3.2.1 The Thrill of Virtual Violence 53 3.3 Unfairly Singling Out a Group for Harm 55 3.3.1 Random Versus Targeted Virtual Murder 57 3.3.2 Incorrigible Social Meaning 60 3.4 The Special Status of Children 62 Notes 63 4 Virtual Paedophilia as Child Pornography, and Harm Done to Women: Bartel’s Attempt at Resolving the Dilemma 65 4.1 Bartel’s Three Propositions 65 4.2 Virtual Paedophilia as Pornography 67 4.3 Child Pornography Is Child Abuse 70 4.3.1 Contesting the Moral Equivalence of Virtual and Actual Child Pornography 75 4.4 The Eroticization of Inequality: Bartel’s Moral Objection to Virtual Paedophilia 77 4.4.1 Levy’s Argument for the Eroticization of Inequality 78 4.5 Is There a Morally Relevant Difference Between Virtual Paedophilia and Virtual Murder? 82 Notes 85 5 Targeting Morally Irrelevant Characteristics and the Need for Context: Further Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma 87 5.1 Patridge’s Non-harm-Based Approach to Resolving the Dilemma 88 5.1.1 Targeting Individuals Based on Morally Irrelevant Criteria 90 5.2 Targeted (Child) Sexual Assault versus Ubiquitous Sexual Assault 93 5.3 Ali: The Importance of Context 97 5.3.1 Differentiating Between In-Game and Gamer’s Contexts 97 5.3.2 Appropriate Engagement 99 5.3.3 Morally Objectionable Intrinsic Properties and Questionable Viewpoints 99 5.3.4 Differentiating Between Storytelling and Simulation Games 100 5.3.5 Accounting for Our Intuitions 103 5.4 What Is Wrong with Enacting Taboos for Their Own Sake? 104 Notes 107 6 A New Approach to Resolving the Gamer’s Dilemma: Applying Constructive Ecumenical Expressivism 108 6.1 Now That Is Immoral, Isn’t It? 109 6.2 Constructive Ecumenical Expressivism 110 6.2.1 Constructing a Moral Norm 113 6.3 Social Convention by Another Name? 115 6.4 Applying Constructive Ecumenical Expressivism to Ali’s Account 119 6.5 Applying Constructive Ecumenical Expressivism to Patridge’s Account 121 6.6 Establishing a Normative Ethic 124 6.7 Concluding Remarks 125 Notes 126 References 127 Index 139 Front Matter....Pages i-v Introducing the Gamer’s Dilemma....Pages 1-15 Social Convention and the Likelihood of Harm: Luck’s Initial Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma....Pages 17-39 Motivation, Discrimination and Special Status: Luck’s Further Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma....Pages 41-60 Virtual Paedophilia as Child Pornography, and Harm Done to Women: Bartel’s Attempt at Resolving the Dilemma....Pages 61-82 Targeting Morally Irrelevant Characteristics and the Need for Context: Further Attempts at Resolving the Dilemma....Pages 83-103 A New Approach to Resolving the Gamer’s Dilemma: Applying Constructive Ecumenical Expressivism....Pages 105-123 Back Matter....Pages 125-139