“Follow Makarov’s Lead?”: Ethical Conflicts in Videogames and the Controversial ‘No Russian’ Level more

There is consensus amongst commentators that ethical conflicts in videogames are quite varied and that it is possible that game affordances and ethics frameworks deviate from the ones that players may be used to in real life. However, trying to judge player-responses to these by referring to a fixed and higher moral order have yielded problematic and incomplete analyses. With the possible increase in the number of sandbox-type games that allow numerous combinations of possibilities and choices, an increase in scenarios of ethical dilemma is very likely and problem of understanding ethical implications within videogames will become more challenging. The way forward would be to recognise that the responses vary according to the player and the total environment within which the choices are made so the analyses need to be carried out on a case by case basis rather than by appealing to a higher moral order. As observed earlier, in comparison to a response such as ‘What must I do?’, within the videogame scenario (and arguably in life as well) the more preferable response to decision trees formed in cases of ethical dilemma is ‘What are my capabilities and how can I do my utmost?’. Therefore, when the player overcomes a situation of dilemma and makes a choice, a possibility is actualised and an immanent ethics has come into play.