Ethical Games Conference 2024

By some counts, a third of the world population is now regularly playing digital games. With this growing reach, we also see growing concerns about possible negative impacts of games on players, such as online toxicity, media addiction, financial harm from predatory monetization techniques, or so-called dark patterns. Research on these various ethical concerns is varied and patchy and not widely shared within the games industry, making it hard for game developers to tell apart warranted concerns from unsubstantiated moral panics. In parallel, we see game developers standing against long-standing industry issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion or worker rights and demanding industry action on climate change. In short, the public, researchers, and game developers are all pointing to the ethics of game design and development, and the lack of clear ethical standards for the game industry. In response, Ethical Games will bring together research on ethical concerns pertinent to video game development and the game industry workplace. By convening academics and industry professionals, the conference will also make the current state of research more approachable and accessible to industry professionals. Third and finally, Ethical Games wants to initiate a conversation to establish evidence-based code of ethics for the game industry that game studios could pledge to follow.