"I Don't Want To Shoot The Android': Players Translate Real-Life Moral Intuitions to In-Game Decisions in Detroit: Become Human

Title of the Paper

“I Don’t Want To Shoot The Android”: Players Translate Real-Life Moral Intuitions to In-Game Decisions in Detroit: Become Human

Bibliographic Information

• Subject Area: Research on moral decision-making and interactive narratives in games
• Keywords: Interactive narrative, moral decision-making, game design, moral foundations theory, player psychology, character connection, interaction research

Research Background and Problem

• Problems or Challenges Identified by the Authors:

  1. Whether players apply real-life moral intuitions to their decisions in games.
  2. The psychological impact of moral decision-making in games and its influence on character connection remains unclear.
  3. How to design games with moral dilemmas to enhance player experience.

• Why This Problem is Important: Moral decision-making is a crucial aspect of human behavior, with profound implications for game design and player experience. Researching moral decision-making in interactive narratives helps explore how games can evoke emotional and moral engagement from players.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Can real-life moral intuitions translate into the game world?
  2. Many studies focus on quantitative analysis, neglecting an in-depth exploration of player motivations and decision-making processes.
  3. Existing research primarily focuses on simple "good vs. evil" binary choices, with limited attention to the moral implications of complex, multi-linear narratives.

Solution

• Methods or Solutions Proposed by the Authors:

  1. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including semi-structured interviews and quantitative evaluation using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ30).
  2. Designing an experiment with participants (N=19), where they watched a recorded video of the chapter "Meet Kamski" and completed related questionnaires to reflect on their moral decisions.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  1. Introducing a novel two-stage questionnaire to compare participants' moral foundation scores before and after watching the game video.
  2. Combining interview data with questionnaire results to provide a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  1. Recruit eligible participants, screening for those who have played Detroit: Become Human.
  2. Participants first complete the MFQ30 questionnaire based on real-life moral foundations.
  3. Watch a pre-recorded video of the chapter "Meet Kamski," which includes a decision-making scenario involving a moral dilemma.
  4. Complete the MFQ30 questionnaire again from the perspective of the game character Connor.
  5. Conduct semi-structured interviews to explore participants' experiences and perspectives on moral decision-making and character connection in the game.
  6. Use Cronbach's α to assess the reliability of questionnaire data and perform thematic analysis on interview data.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  1. Player Moral Decision-Making Behavior: Most players adhere to real-life moral standards during their first playthrough, but in subsequent playthroughs, they explore morally unconventional choices to delve deeper into the game’s story.
  2. Impact of Character Connection: Emotional connection with game characters significantly influences players' moral choices. For instance, to avoid negative emotions (e.g., guilt), players often choose decisions that benefit the character and their relationships.
  3. Moral Foundations Theory Perspective: Players primarily exhibit real-life moral foundations of "Harm/Care" and "Fairness/Reciprocity" in the game, while dimensions like "Authority" and "Purity" are less emphasized.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  1. Revealing the motivations and emotions behind players' moral decisions through qualitative interviews, making the conclusions more contextually and experientially grounded.
  2. Providing an in-depth analysis of player behavior in complex, multi-linear narrative interactive games.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. Cronbach's α scores for MFQ30 showed insufficient reliability for some dimensions, with only the "Harm" and "Purity" dimensions passing the threshold test. However, the score changes between the "pre" and "post" questionnaires did not reach statistical significance.
  2. Most participants chose to spare the android's life in the game, demonstrating their emphasis on emotional connection with characters and the moral dilemmas presented in the game.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. The small sample size resulted in low reliability for MFQ30; future studies could expand the sample size and explore alternative questionnaire tools.
  2. The study focused on a single game type (interactive narrative); future research could analyze other game genres with moral scenarios, such as first-person shooters.
  3. Current societal contexts (e.g., the pandemic) may have influenced participants' moral responses; future studies could validate the consistency of results under different social environments.

Conclusion

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of how players reflect real-life moral intuitions in interactive narrative games and how their behaviors are influenced by character connection and emotions. The results indicate that moral decision-making design can enhance the gaming experience by mirroring real-world issues and aligning with players' narratives and emotional connections. These findings offer new insights for game design and open new avenues for research on simulating moral dilemmas.