Video Games Archives - Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Fall 2024 Weekly News Profile

The Day Before: The Ethical Lesson of Misleading Game Marketing

The highly anticipated MMO survival game, The Day Before, faced significant backlash upon release due to misleading marketing tactics by Fntastic, the game developers. The discrepancies between the polished trailers and the actual state of the game, coupled with allegations of fabricated footage and unfair labor practices, have led to widespread disappointment among players. This incident highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability within the gaming industry, emphasizing the importance of ethical marketing practices to rebuild trust between developers and players.

Summer 2024 Volume 7 Issue 2

How Free is Freemium? An Analysis of the Ethics of the Freemium Model in Video Games

Navneeth Suresh June 24, 2024 Freemium Gacha Lootbox Monetization Video Games

The freemium game model has seen many variations throughout the evolution of the gaming industry. This paper explores the many forms that freemium models have taken, analyzing the practices employed by developers to monetize their games. The ethical implications of these practices will be examined, focusing on the impact of these practices on player experience, fairness, and the overall health of the gaming community.

Summer 2023 Weekly News Profile

Why the Microsoft vs. Sony “Console War” May Be a One-Sided Battle

Kaylee Tseng July 25, 2023 Antitrust Tech Video Games

As Microsoft inches closer to finalizing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the console war between the Xbox and PlayStation systems continues. Although Microsoft has already conceded the Call of Duty franchise to Sony, it is unclear how the acquisition may tip the scales. Microsoft’s position as a global software powerhouse brings into question whether they even need to win the console war to survive.

Spring 2023 Weekly News Profile

Why Educational Game Design Matters

Jennah Saqib February 26, 2023 Gaming Remote Learning Space STEM Video Games

Kerbal Space Program 2 has just been released, and the scientific community is beyond thrilled. The original Kerbal Space Program is a beloved video game that encourages players to learn rocket science through a complex and realistic physics engine. It tackles a unique design challenge of being educational and fun and has suggested the value of enjoyment as the most necessary aspect of learning.

Fall 2022 Weekly News Profile

Why Ethical Free-to-Play Game Design Matters

Sabrina Sy October 9, 2022 Consumers Developers Game Development Monetization Video Games

The recent release of Blizzard Entertainment’s “Overwatch 2” has sparked many conversations in the gaming community centered around the ethics behind free-to-play video games and the duty that developers have to their consumers. As the game industry continues to shift away from a traditional one-time purchase model, developers must continue to consider what they can do to keep games as fair as possible for all players.

Spring 2022 Weekly News Profile

Activision Blizzard and The Harrowing Path for Diversity in the Video Game Industry

Kaylee Tseng April 19, 2022 Diversity Tech Video Games

Since 2021, video game companies such as Activision Blizzard have come under fire after several employees reported sexual misconduct. The legal battle between the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and Activision Blizzard shows how reformation within the industry’s social infrastructure is crucial.

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Apple’s Control of the App Market

VCE October 11, 2021 Apple Monopoly Video Games

Apple has faced a lawsuit over their in-app payment policies, and recently filed an appeal to delay the judge’s decree that they allow app developers to direct users to third-party payment platforms — but do they have an ethical justification for this?

Spring 2021 Volume 5 Issue 1

Pay to Play: The Ethics of Video Game Economics

Tyler Amano-Smerling April 27, 2021 Computer Science Gaming Addiction Loot Boxes Microtransactions Video Games

Video games provide endless hours of fun for people of all ages, races, and genders. Gamers may not realize, however, that certain elements of their favorite form of entertainment may pose a serious threat to their wallets—and even their mental health. Game developers employ various techniques to manipulate users into purchasing items in the in-game store, including lockouts, reward removal, and loot boxes; considering virtue ethics and computer scientists’ ethical code emphasizes the need to remedy this exploitation.

Podcast

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

Virtue Ethics: Cultivating Moral Character in a Modern World

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah with guest Branden leong This podcast explores the role of virtue ethics in engineering, emphasizing how virtues like compassion, integrity, and…

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

AR/VR and how they shape the future of technology

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah, Deep Shah, with guests “Greta Hoffmeister, Kariena Panpaliya, Dasean Volk, Hang Nguyen, Grace Eamer In this episode, the guests delve into…

Grand Challenges Special Issue

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

Redefining Societal Progress for Engineers

Natasha Singh March 29, 2023

Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges focuses heavily on the pitfalls of technological determinism. This paper supports Cech’s argument through a discussion of current examples of the consequences of technological determinism, such as the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, medication accessibility, and facial recognition technology. Though the consequences of a zealous engineering mentality are commonplace in our society, there are also current examples of tech companies neglecting to develop technology due to its possible negative consequences.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

How the Technical Sciences and the Social Sciences Should Go Hand-in-Hand

Charles Liu March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges presented by the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) fail to involve ethics as a part of the solution to these issues. Traditionally, engineers have kept their work separate from its societal implications. Engineers and their non-technical counterparts have an obligation to view all technical solutions under the moral lens of ethicists and futurists. Going forward, engineers must be aware of their limits and work with experts outside of their fields to develop solutions that will be cognizant of society as a whole.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Lies We Tell to Inspire: Responding to the Engineering Double Standard

Shub Gaur March 29, 2023

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges are critiqued by Dr. Erin Cech for what she describes as a double standard in engineering. Though Cech rightly discusses a lack of accountability and acknowledgement within the profession, her argument lacks nuance. The Grand Challenges were ultimately a promotional tool meant to inspire the next generation of engineers, yet Cech holds them to a standard of being professional rules and guidelines. This paper will discuss the distinctions that Cech’s argument lacks, including placing an unreasonable amount of responsibility on engineers and overstating their influence.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Grand Challenges: Authorial Particularism and a Lost Opportunity for an Equitable Society

Huzaifa Aslam March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges were developed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in an effort to expose future generations to the wide range of innovation and technology that they could one day take part in. As detailed by the Challenges’ creators, the list includes challenges that are most significant to our current world. Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the Grand Challenges is that a lack of diversity in the panel of engineering experts led to a lack of oversight into issues that are actually pertinent to developing nations. Cech’s argument that the Grand Challenges are a missed opportunity for social justice holds validity, but her mischaracterization of the lack of diversity requires further consideration.

Weekly News Profile

Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

NIH Funding Freeze Stalls Applications to Public Medical Research Funds

Rachel Pak April 17, 2025

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped considering grant applications in the wake of the Trump administration’s funding freeze. This has stalled around 16,000 grant applications competing for $1.5 billion in NIH funding to develop cutting-edge treatments. This freeze threatens lives across the country, as scientists lose jobs, local economies are damaged, and the health of patients fighting life-threatening diseases is put in jeopardy.

Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

FDA Approval of Bioengineered Blood Vessels Raises Concerns about Expedited Medical Reviews

Mo Jiang March 31, 2025

The FDA’s Accelerated Approval (AA) program enables early approval of drugs that treat serious conditions by bypassing unmet regulatory conditions. Despite risks, the recent approval of Humacyte’s bioengineered blood vessels has sparked concerns over how medical devices are approved during this process.

Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

The End of Break Room Banter: AI Teammates Reshape Workplace Culture

Mary Karapetyan March 16, 2025

AI teammates are a new variation of artificial intelligence designed to supplement employees in the workplace, boosting productivity while reducing burnout. Their integration into society underscores the urgent need for clear frameworks and regulations to ensure their ethical and responsible use.

Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

De-extinction: Does the End Justify the Means?

Janessi Diaz March 8, 2025

Colossal is a company committed to de-extinction. Its main mission is to bring back the woolly mammoth. This mission may help conserve critically endangered Asian elephants and mitigate the impacts of global warming. However, it also raises ethical concerns regarding the livelihood of wildlife that currently reside in the mammoth’s habitat.

Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

Returned Asteroid Samples Suggest the Building Blocks for Life are Scattered Across the Universe

Rachel Pak March 3, 2025

Asteroid samples collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx not only contain the pristine building blocks for life, but also the salty remains of an ancient water world. The spacecraft was able to help unlock these discoveries because it collected samples directly from the asteroid and carefully preserved them on the way back to Earth. These findings support the idea that asteroids delivered the building blocks of life to our planet early in its history, and may have delivered them elsewhere in the solar system. The success of this mission justifies the development of future sample retrieval missions to other cosmic bodies within our solar system.