Categorizing Morality Systems Through the Lens of Fallout

Morality systems in computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a characteristic feature of the genre. Although there is plenty of literature studying how players relate to moral choices, only a few studies analyze or compare how specific games represent the player's moral persona. This paper studies how morality systems have been modeled in the Fallout series to keep track of the player's moral profile, categorizing the different techniques used in those systems. A special emphasis is put on how in-game actions affect the PC's moral alignment, as well as how non-player characters (NPCs) react to that beyond the game's scripted narrative. The goal is to provide guidelines that would lead to the development of more comprehensive and detailed morality systems, and where the player could immerse in a virtual world where the NPCs would act more as individual agents, with less reliance on explicitly scripted scenarios

We Give Them the Most Important Thing Possible. We Give Their Dreary Lives Excitement”: Toward a Theoretical Model of Narrative Parasocial Engagement

Video game narratives and characters are some of the most enjoyable and persuasive components of the video game industry. While narratives and character relationships within video games have been examined separately, there is no working model and little research attempting to bridge the connection between narratives and character relationships. This research combines Narrative Paradigm Theory and Parasocial Relationships to understand how narratives and character relationships influence each other in video game environments. This was done through rhetorical field methods, utilizing a focus group and narrative rhetorical analysis on the transcript of the focus group. Results provide a working model coined the Pyramid of Narrative Parasocial Engagement. This model explains how video game players can be rhetorically satisfied and thus persuaded through achieving different levels of video game engagement. The levels of the pyramid include Avatar Identification, Narrative Involvement, Parasocial Relationships, Community Engagement, and Rhetorical Satisfaction. A player must achieve the base level and work their way up the pyramid similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Results further indicate that the level a player achieves on the pyramid influences the level of narrative blending between their video game micro-narrative and their real-life grand narrative, and thus a higher influence to be persuaded in value, belief, or action to the video game’s persuasive goal. This research implies that the Uses and Gratifications model of using media to satisfy needs may not be fully realized as the working model argues players use video games to reach a real community to engage with rather than being content with the narrative and parasocial relationships the game provides. Future research should test the Pyramid of Narrative Parasocial Engagement using other methodologies

Exploration of Atheism as a Diversity Issue and its Implications for Best Practice in Psychotherapy: Trajectories and Strengths

The conceptualization of Atheism has transformed considerably over the past century, making a transition from the taboo to a new movement of outspoken activism underlined by a strong self-identification with systemic nonbelief and sense of pride. Psychological literature has only begun to reflect the larger societal changes in perception and value over the past decade. As such, research has yet to adequately examine Atheism from a cultural perspective, creating an injustice in the psychotherapist’s ability to properly understand and treat patients in a comprehensive manner. Through the examination of trajectories leading to an Atheistic belief set, the application of a strength-based lens, and the dispelling of inaccurate, mythical thought, best practice can be applied in providing psychotherapuetic services to individuals who, at their core, do not believe in the existence of God(s)

Measuring Morality: Moral Frameworks in Videogames

The video game is, as we know, one of the most popular and quickly growing mediums in the United States and the world in whole. Because of its success, the video game industry has been able to use their resources to advance technology of many kinds. Two very important technologies which have been advanced by the game industry are artificial intelligence and graphic design. With advances in the videogame industry constantly increasing the realism of gaming, those who game are finding themselves rapidly transported into new worlds. The Combination of the elements of narrative transportation, character identification, a videogames ability to enable mediated experience create a situation in which players may be able to rapidly learn very complex concepts. This project begins with a classification of videogame moral systems, both on a theoretical and logistic level. Given this understanding of how videogames themselves define moral involvement, the project then seeks to answer how the players understand their own moral involvement in the game by directly involving player/participants in the conversation. The data produced strongly suggests that videogames have great potential to teach even the most complex concepts of right and wrong to players

Corporate Gatekeeper in Ethical Perspective, The

The fallout from the financial crisis continues to inform the development of corporate and securities law, and the new regulatory landscape for economic activity within the United States is beginning to take form. This evolutionary process, however, has been anything but stable or certain. As might be expected, in concert with such momentous change in law and policy, recriminations for and associated investigations of past activity continue to affect competent regulators as well as market participants. Nevertheless, while many of the underlying causes of the financial crisis are now better understood by both policy makers and scholars, the question remains – given where we were, where do we go from here? While a definitive answer to such a question remains elusive, an additional perspective on the ethical issues of relevance to corporate and securities law may be helpful in considering the possible alternatives. In particular, the ethical rules of corporate gatekeepers in conflicts of interest scenarios are worthy of further consideration and discussion. This article presents the argument that cases involving conflicts of interest in the corporate and securities law space may be viewed as primarily calling into question the ethical rules of the corporate gatekeeper. In support of such an argument, this article sets forth a framework for conflicts of interest scenarios that takes into account four categories of legal rules – activity rules, disclosure rules, liability rules and ethical rules. In adopting such a framework, this article will elaborate on an ethical perspective will be elaborated to address the ongoing development of corporate and securities law. Further, this article proposes further analysis in relation to disclosure rules on conflicts of interest policies for Compensation Committees as mandated by Section 952 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This article is the second in a series that explores the intersection of corporate law and legal ethics. Specifically, the present discussion concerns the foundations in doctrine and theory that may apply to issues of conflicts of interest within the ambit of corporate and securities law. Accordingly, the subject matter for discussion includes both rules of the professions – or first order ethical rules – and rules as may be prescribed by the competent authority – that is, second-order ethical rules

Exploring The Effects Of Policies On Military Readiness

The purpose of this study was to identify factors of military policies that are counterproductive to III Marine Expeditionary Force’s (MEF) organizational readiness. The III MEF/Marine Corps Installation Pacific (MCIPAC) Liberty Regulations of Japan and Battalion Order (BnO) 11000.1C Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) Regulation are two governing policies to which Marines and Sailors attached to III MEF and MCIPAC commands are subjected. The following research questions were formulated utilizing the Zero-Defect Theory and the Theory of Humanism as a conceptual foundation: How does perception toward the III MEF/MCIPAC liberty and BEQ regulation influence personal acceptance and adherence to these policies; to what degree does the development of coping strategies affect personnel adherence toward the III MEF/MCIPAC liberty and BEQ regulation; what factor(s) contribute to personnel obeying guidelines set forth within the III MEF/MCIPAC liberty and BEQ regulation; what factor(s) contribute to personnel disobeying guidelines set forth within the III MEF/MCIPAC liberty and BEQ regulation; and what factor(s) contribute to improving the perception of the overall quality of life for service members? Twelve participants volunteered to partake in a structured interview concerning different aspects of life and living on Okinawa. The context of these questions encompassed aspects of their working environment, command culture and climate, subjective feelings toward the freedoms and living accommodations on Okinawa, and the effect(s) all combined condition have on their performance. The findings suggest the III MEF Liberty and BEQ regulation is linked to III MEF’s operational readiness; however, the application of these policies is part of a larger schematic that works with the environment, military culture, and psychosomatics to motivate human behavior. Overall, this study provides a blueprint to apply policies that are considered a cultural apparatus that is steeped in a values base system that is objective, promotes autonomy, and encourages self-actualization. Recommendations for further research include developing research questions that are specific to the research inquiry, adding a quantitative aspect to data collected, and garner a larger sample size reflective of the population

Design Guidelines for Video Games to Achieve an Understanding of Care

The ability to care is a core aspect of being human. Despite its fundamental value, care has historically been systematically and culturally devalued and neglected as a field of practice. It is only in the past several decades, driven by a new generation of philosophers and studies in the domain of healthcare has care ethics been slowly recognized as an area of opportunity and its complexity worthy of academic discussion. In parallel to this development, the domain of video games has emerged. In particular, a type of video game that provides an immersive, simulated, and open-ended experience for players, where the primary design goals are to promote a believable world with freedom for players to express themselves while subject to the consequences of their actions. While care ethics and video game design may seem quite removed from each other, this research will explore the convergence of care ethics and game design and demonstrate the opportunity in connecting these two domains. Using the method of design patterns, guidelines are proposed that encourage the design of immersive, simulated, and open-ended video games that promote an understanding of care by players

The Isom Report - Fall 2022

The official newsletter of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/isom_report/1012/thumbnail.jp

Friends of Bill F. : alcohol, recovery, and social progress in southern fiction

In “Friends of Bill F.: Alcohol, Recovery, and Social Progress in Southern Fiction,” I argue that many southern writers use the trope of drunkenness to investigate the South’s often hesitant stance toward social change. The overwhelming presence of hard drinking in southern fiction is so ubiquitous that it becomes nearly invisible, and what distinguishes twentieth century southern literary representations of alcohol from their antecedents is how overconsumption reflects a dis-ease in both the individual drinker and the region as a whole. Emerging from the concept of diseased drinking is the idea of recovery, and by foregrounding recovery language alongside depictions of addiction, these texts privilege drinking-recovery as the metaphor through which to signify how southerners confronted progress. My intervention into the discourse of the South and modernity traces the literary contours of alcoholism alongside the emerging Sobriety Movement that became popularized with the rise of Alcoholics Anonymous, to suggest that recovery from alcoholism perhaps anticipates individual and social progress. I argue that progress remained conceptually problematic for writers like William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and Cormac McCarthy who saw the South’s tepid relationship to social change as hypocritical

The Rhetoric of Rape-Revenge Films: Analyzing Violent Female Portrayals in Media from a Narrative Perspective of Standpoint Feminism

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)In this study, narrative analysis, informed by the perspective of standpoint feminism, is applied to movies featuring female protagonists throughout the past five decades of the “rape and revenge” genre of filmmaking to understand the extent to which probability and fidelity function in these five films to create empathy for the victims of sexual violence. Narrative criticism is used to assess motives behind stories told in media texts, while standpoint feminism illuminates epistemological implications to cultivate intersectional viewpoints. This study provides a narrative analysis through standpoint feminism of five films that each consider female portrayals of violence as a central part of its plot. Each film represents their respective time frames over the past five decades, falls under the criteria of what constitutes a “rape and revenge” film, have been viewed overall by mainstream audiences as films that are relatively well known, and portrays women as protagonists in the plot lines. Using the theoretical insights of narrative criticism, this study investigates the common themes observed in the films that fit these specific criteria to illuminate violent female portrayals in film and identify the extent to which probability and fidelity function in these five films to create empathy for the victims of sexual violence. Standpoint feminism provides the framework to reveal the broader cultural implications of violent rhetoric in gendered media portrayals of films from the past five decades featuring female protagonists