The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments

Games allow players to experiment and play with subject positions, values and moral choice. In game worlds players can take on the role of antagonists; they allow us to play with behaviour that would be offensive, illegal or immoral if it happened outside of the game sphere. While contemporary games have always handled certain problematic topics, such as war, disasters, human decay, post-apocalyptic futures, cruelty and betrayal, lately even the most playful of genres are introducing situations in which players are presented with difficult ethical and moral dilemmas. This volume is an investigation of "dark play" in video games, or game play with controversial themes as well as controversial play behaviour. It covers such questions as: Why do some games stir up political controversies? How do games invite, or even push players towards dark play through their design? Where are the boundaries for what can be presented in a games? Are these boundaries different from other media such as film and books, and if so why? What is the allure of dark play and why do players engage in these practices?

Torill Elvira Mortensen is Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. She studies multi-user games and digital media culture. She’s a board member of Norsk Tipping and the author of Perceiving Play: The art and study of computer games (2009). She was a founding member of the editorial group of the journal Gamestudies.org.

Jonas Linderoth is a professor at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published several peer-reviewed journal articles about perception, learning and cognition during gameplay and is a contributor to the Routledge volume Sports Videogames.

Ashley ML Brown is a lecturer in Game Design at Brunel University London in the United Kingdom. She is a board member of the Digital Games Research Association and the author of a chapter in Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy as well as her recently completed thesis entitled ‘Sex Between Frames: An exploration of online and tabletop erotic role play’.