Vice City Virtue

n recent years, digital games have evolved into an entertainment form that is extensively debated and investigated. Particularly the moral issues surrounding this new medium are marked with high priority on the agenda of academic and political institutions. To date, morality in digital games is being studied in several disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, psychology, moral philosophy and human-computer studies. Findings remain fragmented and are hardly shared on an interdisciplinary level.

In this book we explore the wide range of moral issues that apply to digital game play from a multidisciplinary perspective. The book features contributions from scholars who evaluate the debate on violent games from a cultural, philosophical and theological point of view. From the perspective of media psychology, the attraction of virtual violence is examined, in addition to the cognitive processes underlying amoral gaming activities, such as taboo violation and cheating. Case studies include analyses of survival horror games and World War II games, and focus on specific titles, such as Fallout 3, Heavy Rain, Grand Theft Auto IV and Americas Army.