Let’s begin by presuming that there is a clear line (at least for most players) between our gaming experiences and our ordinary, day-to-day lives.
1. Are there any ethical considerations that you can offer in either support or critique of the experiences of violence and (violent) sex in games such as Grand Theft Auto V, or its contemporary counterparts as these may be familiar to you? Try to be clear here how far your considerations draw consequentialist-utilitarian, deontological, and/or virtue ethics perspectives.
2. Given some of the differences we’ve seen in cultural and national backgrounds as affecting prevailing attitudes toward sexuality and, now, the possible dangers as well as benefits of computer-based games, are any of your responses above in keeping and/or in tension with your own national/cultural background?
Especially if your responses are different from what we might expect or anticipate for someone with your specific national/cultural background, can you offer any reflection, set of experiences, etc., that seem to you to have played an important role in shaping your views as different from those surrounding you?
3. We’ve now seen – in the domain of both pornography* and computer-based games – a central debate (primarily) within feminist circles regarding whether exploration of diverse sexualities and sexual tastes and preferences (including BDSM) serve
to help emancipate especially women from gender roles and prescribed notions of sexuality that subordinate them to the power and preferences of men – for example, as such materials and experiences help women explore and determine for themselves their sexual identities and preferences;
and/or simply to reinforce their subordination and inequality – for example, by endorsing claims that women enjoy rape as sexist fantasies that portray them as not simply “just meat,” but as enjoying such a status.