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Ethics in Videogames

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Submitted By derood
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Videogames have often been the center of entertainment for many people all over the world. Many consider videogames to be a form of free speech such as movies and books. Videogames have entertained millions across the world and have generated billions of dollars in revenue. However, there are also many ethical issues pertaining to the videogame industry. Some companies in the industry have recognized that certain monetization methods of their videogames can create large amounts of profit at the expense of the consumer. Videogames have often been labeled as overly violent and blamed to be the cause of murders or other violent actions. Videogame addiction is also becoming a real problem in many households and societies. Governments around the world have taken different approaches to the problems in the videogame industry and there have also been many studies on these problems.
Videogames have often been criticized for having high amounts of violence. In 1992 when the videogame series known as Mortal Kombat was released, it had a system known as “Fatalities”. Fatalities were a finishing move performed on the opponent that would brutally dismemberment and execute them. The level of gore and violence in the game resulted in the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) which was established to make the videogame industry assign age and content ratings for videogames (Kohler, 2009). Even after the creation of the ESRB there were other violent videogames produced that would later be blamed for massacres. The perpetrators of the infamous Columbine High School massacre played many hour of a shooter videogame called Doom. In the aftermath of the tragedy the families of the victims attempted to sue the companies responsible for creating the videogame (Ward, 2001). As a result of this situation and many more there were studies and research done in

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