Gamification

I think one of the ethical issues of gamification is the addiction and compulsion of these games. I know several people truly almost addicted to games such as Farmville or Candy Crush. I even had a friend that would text me several times a day asking me to send her more lives in Candy Crush. On-line gaming has now taken on another dimension for people that have a gambling addiction. No longer do they need to go to a casino, or even leave their house to gamble.

A virtual world such as Second Life has its good points. Some companies use it as a virtual meeting place for employees. I also think it can be a positive thing for people that are isolated from people or are very shy. A virtual world allows them to meet and talk freely with other people. One ethical and scary downside to these virtual worlds is the fact that you are meeting and talking to strangers. If a teenager is playing this game – they can be preyed upon by sexual predators very easily. Sex is often encountered in Second Life. It is supposed to be monitored – however, there is always the chance that teenagers are participating in it.

I think virtual worlds can be very dangerous, especially to the younger generation. They are more susceptible to becoming obsessed with a game and will have a harder time distinguishing reality. The article Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation pointed out the issue of the distinction between the virtual and the real. The article states that “computer generated realities is working to erase the distinction between simulation and reality, and therefore between truth and fiction.” I think younger users should be monitored closely by parents while playing these games. So parents can limit the time they are spending, as well as helping them identify what is real and what is not.

When I read this, a recent case that was in the news came to mind. Two 12-year old girls in Waukesha tried to kill their friend by stabbing her 19 times. Their motive was that they wanted to prove themselves worthy of Slender Man, an evil character who lives only on the internet. “They believed he was real. In early 2014, Geyser and Weier decided to become what they called “proxies” of Slender Man, thereby proving their dedication to him and his existence to skeptics. To do so, they’d have to kill someone.” (http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/girls-who-tried-kill-slender-man-264218.html)