Coda: Ethical Considerations

I’ m writing this short chapter because, believe it or not, the designers of virtual worlds carry a responsibility for the consequences of their designs. Real people play these worlds, and the effects that a design has on them are real. Naturally, players themselves are in many ways accountable for their own actions: If you know that a virtual world has PD and you know that experiencing PD can be distressing, then when you play in that world and suffer PD and find it is distressing you can only blame yourself. Nevertheless, designers ought to be aware when some aspect of their design is likely to become an issue; its inclusion then becomes an artistic statement, rather than merely an element of gameplay.

This book is aimed at designers rather than players, so I’ll primarily be exploring the moral and ethical considerations that

arise concerning virtual world design ¹. All these are still open for debate: Where I express an opinion, that’s all it is, opinion; your opinion is worth just as much as mine in such matters.

I don’t claim to have any answers here, just questions. They’re questions that every designer of virtual worlds should ponder, though. With power comes responsibility; designers have power, therefore they must accept the responsibility that goes with it.

A word of warning; this section only concerns virtual worlds that do not have youngsters playing them. Virtual worlds that are written for (or that can be expected to attract large numbers of) children have a whole extra layer of ethical issues to their design, about which I do not feel qualified to comment.