Ethics, Privacy, and Trust in Serious Games

Abstract

This chapter presents a set of ethical concepts and related guidelines starting from a historical review perspective leading through to present day work on computer ethics, privacy, and trust. The review forms a basis for a discussion on ethics within serious games including related types such as persuasive games, gamification, and pervasive games. The objective being is to identify common issues and areas of interest where the boundaries between these types of game blur. The result is a set of concepts which specifically explore the gaps which have arisen, for example, in areas such competing values between stakeholders, the effect of serious pervasive games on non-participants, rules of play, transparency, consent, and autonomy. The guidelines contain sets of issues, questions, and examples that aim to alert researchers and practitioners to key concerns.