The gaming franchise that both jump started my love for video games and left the most lasting impression on me is definitely the Halo series. It is a first person based shooter that  allows you to step into the armor of the perfect soldier, Master Chief, as he fights for humanity’s survival against the apocalyptic religious sect known as the Covenant. Halo has a rich history, deep characters as well as an intricately woven plot. The series really challenges the user to consider the scope of their actions as they play the game. When applying the five aspects of gaming to the series, one can see how morality plays a central role to the game:

1.) Authority/Respect

There is an immense amount of authority and respect in this series. For one, Master Chief himself is a Spartan, the highest rank of soldier present on the battlefield. He is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) hologram in the form of a female; Cortana has access to all the data available to the human race. On the enemy’s side, there are the Prophets, who direct the soldiers of the Covenant in the corrupt ways of their “religion”. In addition, there are two alien races that play a crucial role in the series, the Elites and the Brutes. The Elites are commands by the Arbiter, which is a sacred position in the religion, while the Brutes are led by Tartarus.

2.) Sanctity/Purity

Due to the Covenant being a religious sect, albeit a corrupt one, Halo proves to be a solid example of sanctity and purity in gaming. The Prophets constantly have their soldiers searching for artifacts central to the religion (e.g. the Halos) and are greatly disturbed when said artifacts have been “contaminated” by mankind’s presence. The Covenant also holds that the Prophets are beyond reproach, which is why it is a powerful scene when the Arbiter sees through the lies of the Prophets and allies the Elites with the humans.

3.) Care/Harm

As with any game that depicts war, Halo relies on a careful balance of care and harm both in and out of the narrative. Outside, there is your basic health. In Halo, your character has an overshield over the health bar, which will start flashing red after you take enough damage, indicating that the shield needs to recharge, and the player is now vulnerable; if the player continues to take damage without the overshield, they will die and need to either respawn or restart the mission depending on the game mode and settings. Inside the narrative, Master Chief’s relationship with Cortana is a prominent source of care in the game. He carries her physical computer chip in his helmet and works diligently to ensure both of their safety, even coming to rescue her from the Flood Gravemind in the heart of a Covenant battle cruiser. On the converse, Cortana takes care of Chief, helping him navigate through complex environments and hectic situations.

4.)Fairness/Reciprocity

Fairness is one of the most prominent aspects of Halo, especially in mutliplayer modes, as the developers elected to give the player the choice of who to damage (i.e. friendly fire: [ON] off). If you shoot the enemy players and focus on the objectives, your have a great shot at being successful and progressing relatively quickly through even the toughest circumstances. However, if you shoot your teammates, they can shoot back, and the A.I. will as well. When you fight alongside the Arbiter and shoot him enough times, he will pull out an energy sword and stab you (this outcome is very difficult to achieve, as you have to be the only one damaging him and he will not do it if accidentally hit while engaged by the enemy). In addition, if you betray your teammates in multiplayer, after killing the same teammate twice in a row, the teammate will have the option to boot you from the game. In terms of level design, the weapons are spread out evenly, with light, assault based weapons evenly distributed in both spawn areas while power weapons are center of the maps, encouraging teams to work together in order to acquire them. Finally, the player has the option to leave the game at any time by simply pressing the start button and selecting the option. This is not encouraged however, and players who leave to many games in a short period of time receive a ten minute timeout from multiplayer matchmaking.

5.) Loyalty/In-Group

Similar to fairness and reciprocity, loyalty plays a strong role in Halo. For example, the Arbiter choosing to lead his race away from the Covenant was a huge swing and demonstration in loyalty, because while the Elites broke their ties with the Covenant, they did so because the Prophets had ordered the Aribter to be secretly executed, an attempt which he thwarted with the help of his loyal companions. In addition, Master Chief provides a great example of loyalty when he accepts the truce between the Elites and humans, despite his many prior combat instances with the former.

In summation, Halo has something for everyone, the explorers would be enthralled by the intricate designs of every level, the Killers would love the thrill presented in the multiplayer modes. Socializers would revel in the ability to converse with other players over Xbox live. Achievers would enjoy pursuing the long list of Xbox achievements and attempt the new, daring challenges that the platform releases over Xbox Live daily. This franchise truly has something for everyone.

I am a competitive achiever and explorer who enjoys discovering new ways to excel in games while adhering to my own sense of style. Along these lines some games I would enjoy that are similar and different from Halo are games from the Call of Duty, Madden, and Pokemon series.

The pokemon game system/paradigm is highly unique among the world of games. The main character (you), lives in a world where humans called trainers collect animal-like creatures, called pokemon, and use them to help in their travels and exploration. This primarily involves using pokemon as combatants and defenders, against other wild pokemon, or in organized battles with other trainers.

Care/Harm: As can be expected, care/harm is a controversial issue for the pokemon franchise, which has, in fact, recently been targeted by PETA for espousing animal cruelty and such. Though it is oft repeated in game that humans and pokemon live together in peace, it is at times difficult to imagine pokemon voluntarily submitting to a life of servitude and forced combat.

Fairness/Reciprocity: The game does not in and of itself implement fairness enforcing systems, explicitly, though it can be said that work and effort are rewarded by improved performance, and that with the capacity for trading implemented in later game editions (which must be approved by all sides), there are implicit fairness rules built into the interactions.

Loyalty/Ingroup: The player does not have the opportunity to join groups, and is in fact often countered by antagonists who are members of specific recurring gangs or groups. This in a way showcases the negative aspects of the group or mob dynamic, focusing instead on the power of the individual player as the moral agent.

Authority/Respect: The game heavily incorporates ideas of authority and respect, a common theme in level based games. Nearly everything revolves around power hierarchies. The player leads his party of pokemon. Various trainers work at gyms and are subservient to the gym leaders, who are themselves under the Elite 4, who fall below the regional champion. As the player increases in strength, they can challenge these different levels of authority/skill, and rise in the ranks

Sanctity/Purity: Ideas of sanctity/purity are, unlike in many games, fairly important. As a pokemon trainer, taking care of and training your pokemon well involves carefully monitoring their actions, their foods, what kind of creatures they fight against, etc. all of these things can lead to drastic changes in the pokemon’s development.

The game has aspects which can easily appeal to any kind of player. For socializers, there are the options for communications, trading, and battling over wifi. For killers, there is the entire battle system itself. For achievers, there is an entire hierarchy to climb, and hundreds of different pokemon to discover and capture, and for Explorers, a whole world to discover, which continually expands with the addition of new games.

As far as the games other people have discussed, I would probably enjoy just about all of them, except perhaps Angry Birds, League of Legends, or Kid Down the Stairs. I tend to prefer either more complicated or role-playing games which allow for character growth, development and exploration, or short games which can be played directly with friends, preferably in person (head to head). I am not a fan of single player killer focused games like first person shooters, but I do enjoy multiplayer fps’ for the socialization/game aspects.

For this week’s blog post, I decided to analyze a game which I have put more hours into than I would care to think about, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim is a first-person open-world role-playing game wherein you play as a character known as the Dragonborn, gifted with special powers. The game features a main quest and side quests which both feature the opportunity to make choices regarding your character’s allegiance and storyline ending. I analyzed the game’s morality in terms of the five aspects described in Jonathan Haidt’s TED Talk

Harm/Care

In Skyrim, the player is obliged to take care of their Dragonborn character as well as the Dragonborn’s followers.Often, the player has to choose to kill enemies before their character is harmed. Additionally, the Dragonborn is tasked to save the realm of Skyrim from a dragon threat, which is an additional example of the care morality aspect featured in the game.

Fairness/Reciprocity

Like most RPGs featuring quests, fairness and reciprocity features greatly in Skyrim. The Dragonborn must help other characters in return for their aid or rewards. In order to benefit from others, the Dragonborn must reciprocate and provide benefit to them first. In this way, Skyrim features the fairness/reciprocity morality aspect as well.

Ingroup/Loyalty

In the course of the Skyrim main quests, the Dragonborn has the option to join two factions – the Stormcloaks or the Imperials – or neither. In this way, the player can choose to join a large group and align themselves to the group’s ideals and services, or to continue acting out of self-interest.

Authority/Respect

Skyrim also features a simplified hierarchy of authority. At the beginning, the Skyrim is an escaped prisoner, but by choosing to help the Jarls (lords) of various cities, the Dragonborn can move up in society, becoming a Thane, which carries perks, such as immunity from crimes and different conversation options when conversing with characters of lower classes. In this way, Skyrim also features Authority and Respect aspects of morality.

Purity/Sanctity

The only way that I could connect Skyrim to Purity/Sanctity was in the game’s marriage mechanic, wherein a player can choose a computer-controlled character of the opposite sex to marry. This gives the player a home and income from their spouse’s work, but also forces the player to commit to their chosen other and prevents them from marrying anyone else, thus keeping the sanctity of marriage (in a way). This may be a bit of a stretch, but it was the only way that I could find a connection.

One of the few video games I play these days is the video game LEGO Harry Potter.  I find this game extremely entertaining, and I will often say up long past midnight playing it with my brother over winter break.  I think LEGO Harry Potter is a great game to use as an example for morality in games, and I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that the story of Harry Potter says a lot about morality on its own.

Harm/Care:  In the game, your wand is your weapon.  This game isn’t about killing, but you are still armed.  Most of the time, your wand is used to open doors, levitate things, and get past obstacles.  The obstacles are usually the things that can hurt you, for example, walking into a harmful plant, getting attacked by magical creatures, or falling off course. In the later years, sometimes you’ll have to jinx or duel someone, and use your wand as protection against bad people.  Care is present in the game by collecting hearts.  If your damage is high or your life is low, you can collect hearts that will reduce your damage and increase your life.

Fairness/reciprocity:  Because Harry Potter is a student, much of the video game is also centered around learning.  The process of learning in this game is very fair.  You have the learn certain spells before you can use them.  And to learn spells, you have to pass the lesson by overcoming a certain obstacle.  Likewise, you can’t buy certain items without having enough coins, or move onto the next stage until you’ve completely finished the one you are on.  You can’t just start the game as a powerful wizard and to whatever you’d like.  You have to earn everything and work your way up.

Ingroup/loyalty:  Loyalty plays a large part in this game as well.  This is seen by automatically protecting people who are on your side.  It is impossible for you to kill or harm your friends.  You can throw as many spells at them at you want–you can levitate them, turn them into animals, and play harmless pranks on them, but nothing you do will harm them or make them die.  Because the game protects them from you, it’s automatically forcing loyalty on you so that you can concentrate on the things that are actually real threats.

Authority/respect:  Authority and respect is very similar to loyalty in this game.  It is seen by protecting authority figures in the game.  It is impossible for you to kill or harm your teachers, prefects, parents, or other authority figures such as shopkeepers.  You can attempt to throw spells their way, but they won’t harm them.  Also, depending on who you try to jinx, they may throw a spell back at you, and this CAN harm you.  This teaches you respect.  It shows you that the authority figures are more powerful than you, and so you should respect them and stay on their good side.  They aren’t their to hurt you, but they will put you in your place.

Purity/Sanctity:  Purity is probably the biggest underlying moral theme in the game, and it is also a huge theme in the book series.  This is because the whole premise of the game is to learn spells and become a good enough wizard to defeat Lord Voldemort in the end.  This represents the common theme of good vs. evil.  Even throughout the story before you encounter Voldemort, there are constantly good vs. bad scenarios.  There are friends and enemies, good creatures and bad creatures, good people and bad people, and good spells and bad spells.  All of this ties into the theme that in the end, good always wins.

So with that said…

If you are a person who loves killing in video games, then this game definitely is not for you.  Harm probably plays the smallest part in the story.  There really is no actual killing in the game, and when you “die” you just blow up into little LEGO bits. You don’t get rewarded on the amount of lives you take, or how much damage you do to someone.  In this game, you only harm/attack out of necessity and protection.

Also, if you are a person of likes the social aspect in video games, this game also is not for you.  There really is no talking between characters at all, in fact, they characters don’t even speak a real language.  They just make mumbles and murmurs–LEGO speak, if you will.  Gathering friends and building relationships isn’t really an aspect either.  It’s basically programmed who will be your friend and when they become your friend.  There’s nothing you can do to make them like you more or hate you.

But if you are a person who likes achievements and exploring in video games, then this game is definitely for you!  Throughout the game, you are constantly learning spells and collecting coins and other items, and you are rewarded for these achievements.  There are also other achievements separate from the plot, such as collecting cards, getting golden bricks, and helping students in peril.  These achievements are accomplished by exploring every corner of the stage you’re in.  There are even bonus stages you can unlock!

To sum up… LEGO Harry Potter is definitely a game for achievers and explorers who believe in the notion of good conquering evil.

Growing up we all go through phases.  Whether it is fashion pertaining to clothes and shoes or technology, our interests are forever changing.  When it comes to games the same thing applies.  Some games I still enjoy and some I do not, but the game I enjoyed playing the most was Crash Bandicoot!  The concept of this game was for you, as the player, to complete all the tasks within each level in order to level-up and eventually beat the entire game.  Each task had obstacles that you had to overcome in order to advance, some of which included dying or being injured.  It was not until I saw the Ted Talk video that I looked at Crash Bandicoot in a whole new light when it came to the idea of morality.

Care/Harm: In Crash Bandicoot, both aspects of care and harm come into play.  Going through each task set before them, Crash and/or his sister Cocoa had to try their best to get through each level without being harmed.  Some of the obstacles included swimming through bodies of water, dodging swords and avoiding animals like rhinos.  Although there were many dangers there was one item that kept the characters safe through it all and it was referred to as Aku Aku.  Aku Aku is a spiritual witch doctor that served as Crash’s protector throughout the course of the game

Fairness/Reciprocity: When it comes to the act of being fair I would have to say that overall the game was quite fair.  Sure, there may have been times when it seemed like I just couldn’t get past a level or two, but that wasn’t the game; I believed that that had to do with the skills I had or may have lacked at that particular point, but were taught and probably just forgot.  After you complete each level crash gains more abilities that help him overcome more and more obstacles in his quest for the goal.

Loyalty/In-group: In terms of loyalty you typically think of others who are on the journey with you and whether or not they are really there to help or hinder you, but in the context and setup of this game the idea of loyalty does not come into play for Crash or his sister Cocoa.

Authority/Respect: Sure one could think of Crash as an authority figure and one who is respected by his sister and Aku Aku, but I believe the authority would be Crash’s evil enemy Dr. Neo Cortex.  Throughout the course of the game Dr. Cortex is trying to build an army of beasts to try and conquer the world and Crash is trying to get to him in time.  Other than those two characters, no one else has qualities of authority.

Sanctity/Purity:   Lastly is the idea of sanctity and purity.  Although these two qualities are quite heavily prevalent in the world today, and maybe in some games, it does not show it show in Crash Bandicoot at all and thus not applicable.

Sure, Crash Bandicoot is all about survival and the quest ‘til the end, but analyzing it through the aspects of morality you can see that it’s also about fairness, care/harm, and authority.  Without these morals Crash Bandicoot probably would not be the game that it has become in terms of enjoyment and fun.  (I highly recommend this game to those who have never played for once you play once; you are guaranteed to go back!)

I admit it, I love Pokemon. I am mostly a collector, as I do not have the knowledge necessary to getting the best Pokemon, stats, and move sets. But I’m addicted all the same. Since the storyline changes with every game that comes out (though the stories are usually quite similar), I will be explaining the five aspects of morality with regards to the game mechanics, rather than plot.

1. Harm/care: This has always been a controversial issue in Pokemon. Players trap Pokemon in Pokeballs, and force them to fight each other. But, apparently, we’re friends with Pokemon? They get injured and knocked out, but we always take them to a Pokemon Center or give them a potion to revive them.

2. Fairness/reciprocity: The more time you put into the game, the more experience and money you get. You can also trade Pokemon with other people, and in that respect, you set up your own rules of fairness. The Pokemon themselves also have a particular idea of fairness. The more attention you give them, the more they like you. But if you let them get knocked out too many times, or give them nasty things to eat, they don’t like you any more. This doesn’t usually apply, however, except when you try to evolve certain kinds of Pokemon.

3. Ingroup/loyalty: The more time you spend with one Pokemon, the more friendly it becomes towards you. The more time you spend battling using one Pokemon, the stronger it gets. It is easier to complete the storyline using just six Pokemon, rather than switching between parties all the time. You can not, however, afford to be loyal to one or two specific types of Pokemon. Each type has its own weaknesses and resistances, and you need many types of Pokemon so you are not at a disadvantage against any one opponent.

4. Authority/respect: The player is basically the authority. However, some Pokemon disobey their owner because their owner isn’t strong enough. If you get a high-leveled Pokemon via a trade, you need a certain number of gym badges in order to control it.

5. Purity/sanctity: Not really sure if this applies or not. The player is supposed to be a young kid, fresh and morally good, not having committed any crimes. The player can not change this fixed personality. They are always the good guy, and can’t commit any legal crimes (though I suppose, you could deliberately abuse your Pokemon and make them hate you, so that the move “Frustration” becomes more powerful). Outside of the game, however, some people actually cheat and use codes and hacks and abuse bugs in the game in order to advance, get rare Pokemon and items, clone Pokemon and items, and get maximum stats.

All in all, I think the Pokemon games have mechanics that can please anyone. Obviously, the game caters to Achievers the most, as I think it is with many, if not most, games. You can earn all 8 gym badges, defeat the Pokemon League, complete your Pokedex, and champion the Battle Frontier (in the newer versions). There is rather a small map for Explorers, but it is sometimes a challenge to navigate. Also, the Battle Frontier in the newer versions has many battling challenges, some of which include navigating a randomly generated maze. For Socializers, you can trade, battle, and chat with your friends. Killers can attempt to get the most powerful Pokemon and battle other players through several means (wireless, infrared, Wi-fi).

The games that others have mentioned that I think I might enjoy are RuneScape and Oregon Settlers. I am an Achiever, with an occasional wish to explore and a great desire to collect. These games seem to fit my likes.

One of my favorite games to play is Save the Sheriff. On the surface this game seems pretty simple but upon further examination it is evident that parts of the five aspects of morality are embedded in the game. The basic premise of the game is to save the sheriff by dodging several obstacles.

Harm/Care- This is probably one of the main aspects of morality present in this video game. One of the main and most used functions of the player is to kill the snakes and bandits that try to prevent them from advancing. There is definitely a kill or be killed mentality. If the player does not kill or effectively avoid opponents, than they will probably be killed by the bandits and snakes. A player will also gain points every time they kill which definitely adds an incentive to do harm. Care is not as prominent in this game other than in the overall goal of trying to save someone.

Fairness/reciprocity- There is definitely an aspect of reciprocity in this game. Throughout the game the player is given the option to lead a lost bird back to its home. This action would take time, effort, and put the player in more danger, but if the player completes this good deed they will gain a generous amount of points. The game rewards good deeds.

Ingroup/loyalty- There is really no in-group loyalty present in this game. The player works alone and never collaborates with anyone. The only sense of loyalty is towards the sheriff which as an absent character in the game.

Authority/respect- This aspect of morality is not present in the game. The player never encounters anyone who demands authority or respect. Bandits and wild animals are the only interaction available, and these characters are meant to be killed.

Purity/Sanctity- The premise of the game is pure. The main character is playing with the intention of saving a good person from bad people. The only people that the main character kills or hurts are bandits or animals that have the intention of killing first. Although the game may not appear pure because of all the killing, when observed on a deeper level it does have such a component. Even the aspect of rewarding good deeds, such as saving lost birds, reinforces the aspect of purity.

Based on the aspects of morality present in Save the Sheriff I would say that it is a game created for killers and achievers. There are many opportunities to kill opponent for the killers and several point recorded milestones for the achievers.

I almost hate to admit it, but I love to play Angry Birds. On the surface, the game seems to be the very straight-forward killer-type. The goal is to fling birds at pigs in order to kill them. In the end, everyone dies.However is we think about the different aspects of morality as discussed in the Ted Talk we can see the expanse of the moral compass in the game.

Care/Harm- This game focuses almost solely on harm. The objective is the take the allotted amount of birds and fling them at the pigs. The harder the birds hit the pigs, the more likely the chance they die. There are obstacles that prevent direct contact with the pigs, so the birds will hit other objects and die themselves. They also die when they hit the pigs.

Fairness/reciprocity- There is not much fairness in this game. Firstly, there are different kinds of birds. Each possesses a special skill or talent which allows them to hit the pigs easier. For example, there are birds that can accelerate speed, birds that split into other, smaller birds, and birds that explode. The game gives the player three to five birds to start out with, but the player does not get to choose which kinds of birds nor the order in which he/she can throw them. Therefore, there is less fairness between the player and the computer. The game is very computer-based, mostly left up to chance.

Loyalty/in-group- this set of morals is not really applicable to this game. it is generally every man for himself, and there is one man.

Authority/respect- The question of authority and respect apply in this game when there are the greater sized pigs and pigs in armor They are more difficult to kill, therefore have a more dominating pretense in the game. It feels like they have more authority because the player has to work harder to challenge them. In regards to respect, the player gains respect as he/she progresses and advances in the game. The player’s score goes up and other players have to ability to view each others’ scores. In this way, players with higher scores also have authority.

Sanctity/purity- These elements, too, are not highly relevant in the game unless one sees the act of murder as impure– in which case, there are high levels in impurity in Angry Birds.

Therefore, the overarching goals of this game are to kill, to achieve, and to gain respect and authority.

One game I enjoy playing is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. This game is a first person shooter game taking place during a fictional world in the middle of World War III. This game heavily emphasizes harm/care and loyalty because it takes place in middle of a war. The main objective in every game mode is ultimately to survive. There three game modes are Spec Ops, Story, and Multiplayer. The Story and Multiplayer modes focus more on harm while the Spec Ops mode focuses on loyalty.

Story mode is a single player mode and the player has the ability to follow the narrative created by the game developers. This appeals the explorers because hidden Easter eggs are scattered throughout various game stages. Achievers also would enjoy this game mode because achievements can be unlocked by beating the game on various difficulties. Although the story mode provides each kind of gamer with their own objective, they still have to kill hordes of enemies throughout the progression of the mode. I mentioned before that this game takes place during a war so the ultimate objective is to survive. No matter how matter how much you may want to explore or get achievements, at some point you will have to kill (harm) in order to progress.

The other game with an emphasis on harm/care is Multiplayer. Multiplayer is a unique game mode in this game. Prior to Modern Warfare 3, multiplayer game modes favored killers because awards and achievements were based on kills. When this game came out, it created new achievement systems that also rewarded people who supported others and did in game achievements. The introduction of this increased the morality aspect of care in the game. Players were encouraged to have a choice in whether to focus on killing or aiding teammates.

The last game mode is the Spec Ops game mode: it focuses on loyalty which appeals to socializers. In the Spec Ops game mode there are survival maps that place two players on a team and force them to battle computer enemies. The player still has to kill enemies but through voice chat they can choose to talk with their partner to coordinate attacks or relax with a casual conversation in-between battles. This game mode encourages loyalty to your teammate because without them you will not be allowed to continue. If they are knocked down then you have thirty seconds to revive them or the mission is failed.

This game includes no explicit references to fairness, authority, or purity. Purity is completely vacant (as in most war-based games). Fairness may implicitly be seen in how the multiplayer game mode doesn’t only reward people for killing. The new rewards system makes the game fair by rewarding people bases on what they are good at (killing, achievements, caring for others). Authority may only be seen in the rankings. Naturally, if a player see’s another player who is ranked below them they may think their skills are superior and they deserve respect on the battlefield. This happens a lot when I play with my group of friends. We all look up to the friend who (literally) is always the top player in every online game with lobbies of sixteen players.

Based on the games other students played, I would most likely enjoy them. The game I played is very versatile in regards to gamer needs: It has something for just about everyone. On some days I may be complete garbage and my killing skills may be nonexistent. In that case, I may like to work in a team functioning as the support person or “medic”. One game another student wrote about was RuneScape. Beena mentions the main elements are “combat and murder” but she also says that a player is able to walk through cities with their friends and “slay chickens”. If I also lacked skills in killing while I played Beena’s Runescape, I may slay a chicken while walking through a town with my friend. As long as a game gives me versatility in which style I want to play, I will most likely enjoy it.

Morality is everywhere in RuneScape, the fantasy MMORPG that I used to play with my friends in middle school. Then, we all got hooked on MySpace and stopped playing RuneScape. Those were the days.

We would get on RuneScape after school to chat among each other with our nifty usernames and avatars, often playing in the same World and walking through the town together, often stopping to slay a chicken, deposit money in the bank or pursue a trade for a quest.

Looking back on RuneScape, at thirteen years old, I never recognized the major elements of the game: combat and murder. Possibly the largest element of morality in RuneScape is the harm/care feature. Killing is essentially the game – whether it’s killing chickens or killing other players. When dead, and often in a pool of blood, there lies an amount of gold or items possessed by the victim. Unlike in World of Warcraft, looting is allowed, diminishing the value of fairness/reciprocity: if you don’t immediately collect your treasure, tough luck – it can be easily taken by another player.

It’s a simple formula that allows no further movement in the game without some aspect of murder. Even if you don’t want to complete quests or be social in the game, without a food supply, you lose life points and eventually die. To even walk around in the game, murder of at least small chickens is necessary. And to increase success and levels, you must kill larger and larger things – including people.

Authority ranks into the heavy combat element in the game. Those who are stronger with more life points (gained by the consumption of food or drinks) obviously perform better when trying to kill, and players at higher levels will annihilate their victims easily. The lesson? Make sure you take on someone that’s your own size or smaller, because otherwise, it could fare badly for you. Also present are authority figures who distribute quests and are alienated because they are machine operated, and some of the only people in the world that are machine operated.

The purity element is not prevalent in the game as a good or bad factor, but more in the ironic element of the cycles of death and rebirth. You die because, typically, because you are not strong enough to tackle the other player. You are then reborn and keep skill points but lose some articles that you have with you because of your death. And then you continue to kill – just the way you died – and keep hoping to survive. It turns the entire game into a rather hideous cycle of murder.

It’s through this cycle that the essence of loyalty and in-group success becomes seriously diminished in the game. RuneScape functions as a purely individualistic game, fueling the mentality that you can be successful by killing alone – though killing will help the “achievers” side by furthering quests and the “social” side by spurring interactions and trades with others. For RuneScape, harm is the main moral function at stake – a dark purpose of the game that I didn’t realize when I was younger that’s perfect for killers.