This month’s Blogs of the Round Table topic asks the ever-so-fascinating question of whether video games teach socially responsible lessons. Considering that I spent a little too much time dabbling in moral philosophy courses in university, and thus know that there are many different ways to answer this question, I’m going to start by dividing this question into three parts: Can video games teach socially responsible lessons? Do video games teach socially responsible lessons? Should video games teach socially responsible lessons?

My answer to the “can” question is a pretty straightforward “yes”. Video games have as much, if not more potential to convey positive themes and messages as other artistic media. People of the Roger Ebert school of artistic thought would likely disagree with me, citing the presence of interactivity and player input on the story as harmful to the author’s intended didactic goals. Personally, however, I believe that interactivity has tremendous power to teach by example rather than by rote, which I’m pretty sure has been proven to be most effective and personally meaningful, and tailoring said examples to the player’s current worldview and preferences makes it even moreso. For further reading on this particular topic, I highly recommend the book Persuasive Games by Ian Bogost.

But wait! There’s more…