Wednesday 26 September, 2018

Hitman has a hyper-realistic arts style that allows for the actions of the players to carry more weight. The game begins with the player taking control of a bald man who is going to some human testing trial. Human trials are usually un-ethical, but this game take the unethical to a whole other level when I found out that my objective was to kill. Gameplay starts when the player is told to go through the test, which is a scenario, where I must kill man without being detected. The player is put at ease when they are told that this is all a simulation, but the thought still crosses my mind that it might be something more then that. What if I am actually killing people in the game? On top of that you control a character with no moral restraint, willing to do these actions without even batting an eye. Seeing this made killing these people seem a little easier but also made me realize that now in my eyes these peoples live hold less value. My first 30 minutes of gameplay were very eye opening to these facts.

Good job Peter! You raise an interesting, very much meta point. If it’s not really a simulation and the character is actually killing people does that make the task worse? How does that compare to the fact that this situation is in a game that you’re playing? Is playing a game about killing someone morally different from playing a game about running a simulation about killing someone?