Trevor Grant Hedberg
The Fallout games are well known for allowing players the freedom to make in-game choices that are morally questionable or morally bad. Players sometimes use this freedom to attempt “Kill Everything” playthroughs, in which the central overarching goal is to complete the game while wiping out as many non-player characters as possible. This chapter examines the ethics of attempting a Kill Everything run in one of the Fallout games. Specifically, it evaluates three reasons one might offer for thinking that it is wrong to play these video games in such a brutally violent manner: (1) playing videogames that glamorize violence makes a person more likely to commit violent acts, (2) playing videogames in a way that devalues the simulated lives of humanlike entities in the virtual world demonstrates disrespect for human life, and (3) playing video games in ways that simulate vicious behavior risks corrupting a person's character in a morally objectionable way. The first two reasons are unpersuasive: concerns about how playing violent video games could increase violent behavior hinge on contentious empirical claims, and non-player characters are not the kinds of entities that can be disrespected. The potential corruption of one's character provides a much stronger moral objection to Kill Everything playthroughs, but the player's behavior may still not be wrong if their motives for playing the game that way remain consistent with the cultivation of virtue, such as wanting to further explore the game's narrative or exercise their problem-solving skills.