Balancing Ethics, Art and Economics: A Qualitative Analysis of Game Designer Perspectives on Monetisation

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between monetisation models, game design and ethical considerations from the perspective of three different small-scale Norwegian game companies: an indie company, a freemium company and a premium company. The aim is to explore critically how small-scale game companies reason and act in the current economy. Interviews with game designers and CEOs form the empirical basis of the analysis. The motives and practices of the informants are categorised according to three ethical schools, namely, deontology, virtue ethics, and utilitarianism. The informants believe that freemium models and free games have made the computer game industry markedly more challenging to monetise. Their views on what is considered ethical monetisation varies between companies, most distinctly between the freemium company and the two others. Informants from the freemium company downplay ethical responsibilities, with reference to the huge number of existing free games and costumers unwilling to pay for games.