Opinion Ethical Gaming

[Le Pertti]

I got an idea for a website, that would track how a game was made and give it a rating or award on how ethically it was made. Like if the game had crunch, if it has predatory monetization, hell exclusivity deals could also be a factor since they are destructive to the medium and industry as a whole.

Imagie looking at a game on Steam and seeing a badge on how well it was made, similar like in the store for fair trade and such:

 

[Ge0force]

Steam already has several curators listing games with exclusivity deals and/or other shitty business decisions. I follow this one for example:

Steam Curator: Epic Exclusives List

Info on games or their sequels/dlcs which are mainly exclusive to epic store or other alternatives.

store.steampowered.com

 

[spiel]

Some sort of tagging system would be nice. It's hard to remember which are the crappy publishers/creators (Ubisoft, Dangen, the list sadly grows, god this industry sucks so much sometimes) and the reasons why I boycotted them in the first place.

Even better if there[UWSL] is a browser extension that can magically detect what game is mentioned in an article! I don't even want to give them clicks.[/UWSL]

 

[ISee]

Sounds interesting.

1. Getting the correct information is a big stepping stone. This is very important. We don't know how 90% of the games are being produced. Do you know anything about Death stranding? HZD? Flight Simulator? Halo Infinite?

2. The criteria would need to be thought out really well, weighting is also difficult because ethics are a subjective criteria.

3. How do you deal with publishers fighting back against an unethical stamp?
Saying something is unethical as a private person is fine. Giving a product an unethical rating as some kind of media outlet could be called defamation.

 

[Trisolarian]

Sounds interesting.

1. Getting the correct information is a big stepping stone. This is very important. We don't know how 90% of the games are being produced. Do you know anything about Death stranding? HZD? Flight Simulator? Halo Infinite?

This.

2. The criteria would need to be thought out really well, weighting is also difficult because ethics are a subjective criteria.

Also this. There are some parallels to another current employee/employer debate regarding ride share. Some employees like the current system. It will have be more in depth than, are you happy or unhappy.

3. How do you deal with publishers fighting back against an unethical stamp?
Saying something is unethical as a private person is fine. Giving a product an unethical rating as some kind of media outlet could be called defamation.

This. You'd have to avoid labels.

 

[Le Pertti]

Sounds interesting.

1. Getting the correct information is a big stepping stone. This is very important. We don't know how 90% of the games are being produced. Do you know anything about Death stranding? HZD? Flight Simulator? Halo Infinite?

2. The criteria would need to be thought out really well, weighting is also difficult because ethics are a subjective criteria.

3. How do you deal with publishers fighting back against an unethical stamp?
Saying something is unethical as a private person is fine. Giving a product an unethical rating as some kind of media outlet could be called defamation.

1. Alot would be just by the reporting by the devs themselves. Sure its all very anecdotal but I think its becoming more and more common with openness within the industry when it comes to working conditions:

2. It would have to be kept simple, while political leanings of the creators would be tempting to bring up, it has to be held to basic concrete things. Like working condition, harmfulness to industry and harmfulness to customer and stuff like that.

3. The same as it is on goods with fair trade and similar badges, its just a badge of honor, or seal of quality, Meaning companies that dont do things well just wont have the badge.

 

[Wok]

I think it is easier to flag the bad games, and (wrongly) assume the games which are not flagged are all good.

 

[gabbo]

I mean at some point you fall into this problem:

The real two issues are: how do you set out simple guidelines because if you go far enough out, you're going to be doing unethical things on a macro-socioeconomic level (see above)
The 2nd thing would be getting devs to actually provide verifiable proof of misdoings that a simple denial won't sweep aside suchthings as rumour by publishers.t. And while the industry is opening up, it's still very tight lipped because the power is never in the devs hands and repercussions are severe

If this place and Era have shown me one thing, you'll never be able to satisfy everyone on either side of such a debate (you're too lenient! vs you're too harsh! OR that one little thing was enough to get a thumbs down? vs that one thing wasn't enough to get a thumbs down?

I support the idea and would love to lend a hand if you wanted to actually try to make this a thing, but know it would be a tough mountain to climb

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I mean at some point you fall into this problem:

The real two issues are: how do you set out simple guidelines because if you go far enough out, you're going to be doing unethical things on a macro-socioeconomic level (see above)
The 2nd thing would be getting devs to actually provide verifiable proof of misdoings that a simple denial won't sweep aside suchthings as rumour by publishers.t. And while the industry is opening up, it's still very tight lipped because the power is never in the devs hands and repercussions are severe

If this place and Era have shown me one thing, you'll never be able to satisfy everyone on either side of such a debate (you're too lenient! vs you're too harsh! OR that one little thing was enough to get a thumbs down? vs that one thing wasn't enough to get a thumbs down?

I support the idea and would love to lend a hand if you wanted to actually try to make this a thing, but know it would be a tough mountain to climb

I love this Sonic icon. Thanks.