Morality in LEGO Harry Potter

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.