Dark Patterns Meet the Gamer’s Dilemma: Contrasting Morally Objectionable Content with Systems in Video Games

Much of the philosophical discussion of video game ethics is dominated by the literature on the Gamer’s Dilemma, which forces us to focus on the ethics of certain forms of extreme virtual content in video games, such as virtual murder or molestation. While a focus on the ethics of video game content is important, we argue that scrutinizing the ethics of video game systems is needed to properly capture the full range of ethical concerns raised by video games. Drawing on a distinction between intravirtual and extravirtual effects, we identify ethical issues with video game content and, by linking to the dark patterns literature, video game systems.