Playing Good - Designing Games to Teach Virtue

Image: 'Tak Board' by Steward from Cunning Cross Stitch: http://cunningcrossstitch.blogspot.com/2019/04/tak-board.html

A quick introduction to today's article: During my student years, I developed a keen interest in the problem of teaching ethics. The problem can be phrased as follows - "you can teach someone all the ethical theory you want, but you can never teach them to want to be a good person." The assumption there is that good people are only good because they chose that path themselves - no-one can give them that will.

At some point, I was struck by the idea that games - video-games, table-top-games, that sort - could be useful in counteracting that problem. The article below is my bachelor thesis, written as an exploration of that selfsame idea.

Before we begin, I extend thanks to David, who taught me many a philosophical thought (and some excellent recipes for dreaming up thoughts of my own). He was one of my supervisors while I wrote what follows below. My other supervisor was Sophie, whom I will also thank for supporting my slightly deranged endeavours in making games a vector for social and personal change.

And now, the music. Since the article is too long to comfortably fit on a blog of this caliber,
please find it on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZVqR29XYi6QyIPnL5qi72NByCfvlVIJCD-8LUqMIujQ/edit?usp=sharing