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Re:Video game execution watched by 325K players by coldtea on Sunday May 10, 2015 @10:09AM (#9519942)
Would a game with black slaves in a present day setting be OK? With white owners reffering to them as n..., et al?

It might raise some moral questions, right?

Well, in the same way slavery has been abolished in the US (well, after taking like another 100+ years for Jim Crow laws and seggregation to end in their official form), and such things leave a bad taste in people, other countries have also abolished the death penalty, and see capital punishment in a similar light...

Re:Video game execution watched by 325K players by zaroth on Sunday May 10, 2015 @12:35PM (#9520400)
So this is the standard question of whether some speech can be worse than other speech, which is of course true, raising the question, should we legally distinguish them, which of course, we do.

I think a game may incorporate any otherwise illegal or immoral acts without itself raising any moral questions, to the extent that we don't see the actions in the game paralleling actions the player would otherwise commit IRL. Mass murder in a video game isn't seen as soothing the yearning of millions of otherwise mass murders, so there's very little moral angst. Of course it may cross some gray line which makes it hate speech and illegal to sell in certain jurisdictions, but otherwise you are free to not buy it, or organize a boycott of it, and to a great extent this is already happening and perhaps even to some extent actually reducing the commercial market for such games.

To the extent that indie or non-profit games integrate objectionable material, policing the game is no different than policing what I write in my own journal. We do certainly regulate the sale and in extraordinary circumstances even the possession of such material.

Re:Video game execution watched by 325K players by comrh on Sunday May 10, 2015 @04:26PM (#9521182)
There is slavery in the Warcraft lore, the humans enslaved the Orcs. Surely such a specific example as yours would raise serious questions, but what about the Orcs?
Re:Video game execution watched by 325K players by coldtea on Sunday May 10, 2015 @04:38PM (#9521206)
Well, it's always about the specifics too. After all executions are also in tons of movies and books (and perhaps games), that doesn't mean it's the same everywhere.