Imagine you are introduced to a new colleague. They inform you that they are an avid ‘gamer’ and enjoy playing violent videogames in which they can enact all kinds of physical violence, such as assault and murder: not an uncommon past-time. Now imagine that they start talking about other videogames they play in which they enact rape and paedophilia, or other taboos such as incest, bestiality and necrophilia. They describe how, instead of playing a serial killer or a zombie cannibal (a kind of undead Hannibal Lecter), they get to play the part of Nero the Necro in a game entitled Cold Pleasures or engage in bestiality in Fun at the Zoo, or how they have just ordered a game featuring the character Sylvester the Molester.
On hearing about these games – featuring less conventional enactments of taboos than assault and murder – would your attitude towards this person change? Do you think that these games are less moral than games featuring virtual murder, for example, and therefore that there is something “not quite right” about someone who plays these games?
You may be pleased (or possibly disappointed) to learn that the videogames mentioned above are nothing but the product of my imagination. That said, videogames involving the enactment of rape are available (e.g., RapeLay and Battle Raper), although not in the UK and US (for example). Nevertheless, when I present students with the scenario above, it is not uncommon for many of them to show quite visible signs of disgust and discomfort at the thought of games involving the enactment of rape and paedophilia (or such like), yet be quite unmoved by the idea of someone playing a game in which they take on the role of a brutal serial killer (although some dislike them all). Others claim to be untroubled by the idea of any of these games.
A common response among such students is: “What’s the difference? After all, it’s just a game.” Yet for the majority, there does seem to be a difference between enacting more conventional taboos (e.g., murder) and these other taboos (e.g., rape). The metaphorical line individuals will not cross varies, of course, but it is there. Of interest to me, however, is this question: irrespective of what people are prepared to enact within videogames, is there a limit to what they should be allowed to enact? This is a normative question about selective prohibition.
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"It is precisely because killing is prohibited that one is attracted to its enactment within the videogame."
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In essence, selective prohibition takes the following form: although all the content we are discussing amounts to the enactment of activities that are prohibited in the real-world, only some of these enactments should be prohibited in the gaming world. Murder, for example, is prohibited in the real-world, but virtual murder is not, nor should it be, proponents of selective prohibition would argue. On the other hand, as well as being prohibited for real, enacting rape and paedophilia (and such like) within videogames should also be prohibited. What justification is there for selective prohibition?
A number of arguments have been advanced in favour of selective prohibition. For example, the increased likelihood of harm (particularly towards women and children) or the significance of certain enactments in terms of what they might be (mis)construed as promoting (i.e., the trivialization of sexual assault and abuse). Elsewhere, I have argued that none of these arguments is convincing (see Young, 2013, 2016; Young & Whitty, 2012). Here, however, I shall focus on player motivation.
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