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What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos

What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos

David Phelps
Copyright: © 2010 |Pages: 25
ISBN13: 9781615208456|ISBN10: 1615208453|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781616922504|EISBN13: 9781615208463
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch009
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MLA

Phelps, David. "What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos." Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play, edited by Karen Schrier and David Gibson, IGI Global, 2010, pp. 125-149. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch009

APA

Phelps, D. (2010). What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos. In K. Schrier & D. Gibson (Eds.), Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play (pp. 125-149). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch009

Chicago

Phelps, David. "What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos." In Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play, edited by Karen Schrier and David Gibson, 125-149. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-845-6.ch009

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Abstract

Recent societal critiques charge that the pervasiveness and ubiquity of screen-based technologies place the emotional, social, and cognitive development of their users at stake. Many of these critiques suffer, however, from a sensational and moralistic formulation. To move forward ethical investigation into sophisticated inquiry this essay closely examines one screenworld technology, videogames, with an aim of (a) categorizing videogames’ active and performative features and (b) assessing how these features present themselves during gameplay as compatible, incompatible, and antithetical to our humanistic needs. These needs form a value system termed the Humanistic Ethos which is further articulated into measurable characteristics along four dimensions—the Poetic Imagination, Dialogic Relations, Systemic Thinking, and Existential Vigor. A survey of videogames along with two case studies develop these dimensions within their technical, social, and personal contexts revealing the delicate interplay between designer, game and player. Design principles compatible with the Humanistic Ethos are discussed. Limitations and future directions are also considered.

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