Ethics for the Net Gen

Comments

Whether or not I should hit someone over the head with a baseball bat is the same in Grand Theft Auto and the streets of Brooklyn? Are you out of your mind? In GTA, if I kill someone sitting on my couch while I eat pizza it doesn't affect any aspect of the real world. If I bludgeon a man to death in the street there are long term effects that affect many people in a negative way.

Nice educational video.

Ethical and moral feedback through simulation. Shea Louck's comment was right. But I feel GTA and similar ultra-violent games are helping to humanize the violence, not contribute to it.

I don't believe that Prensky is saying that the act is the same, and has the same physical effects, but rather that the effect on the person enacting the scene is similar. The point is that games allow people to explore moral issues and experience things within a safe environment, and that those experiences can facilitate emotional responses that force the player to answer serious questions about their beliefs, and to think about how their actions "could" affect people in the real world. It increases our ability to grow emotionally and explore moral issues without causing harm to others.