Ethical issues can form within games merely from fans and audience opinions. Though the issues would not have been intended by the developers, they have to tread carefully and find a way to resolve any major or minor issues brought to their attention.
Legal issues:
- Taking over people's land
- Using comercial music
- Using characters such as celebrities
- Murder
- War
Ethical issues:
- War
- Murder
- Theft
- Prostitution
- Abuse
- Drugs
To avoid these issues, games use their own brands in the games and music. These create a second source of income as you can purchase albums of music from games. An example of a company that uses similar names of brands but not identical is the Sensible Soccer. They used names which sounded like famous footballers, but not their actual names to avoid copy right or the need of permission from the footballer to agree to their character and their features on the game.
Ethical considerations:
Throughout my game you are able to fight other characters and kill them which will cause ethical issues as it classes as murder. However the graphics of the game will not be realistic as it is a fantasy, and the blood for example will not look legit as it does in games such as Grande Theft Auto or Call Of Duty.
As it is fantasy, if you are injured in battle you are able to grow plants which can be cooked into potions to make you well faster and heal injuries. This could be classed as an ethical issue as it is drug use in a sense but will represent and drugs that are legit and they will not be realistic.
No pornographic images will be in my game as it has a general under 18 year old target audience. Therefore will avoid contravening the obscene publications act of 1959.
Copyright Considerations:
The music in my game will cause issues in the creation of my game as we wont be able to create our own music. Also the names of the characters or objects will be similar to other peoples games therefore we have chosen to name them similarly as in Sensible Soccer but not identical to the original names. The name of the actual game will cause a Copyright issue as it is not or original name along with the typography, it has been taken off of Dafont.com therefore we would need to contact the typographer for permission to use including payment of their work. There should be no copyright issues with the characters because we have made all the characters from scratch along with the scenery. We are using a pre made engine as don't have the ability or time to create our own engine. However we are paying to use it and the tools so there should be no issue there. The colours used in the game are original, however iconic of a fantasy game in the fact that the colours are enigmatic similarly in other fantasy genre games such as Skyrim and Fable but this is not a copyright issue because we have created the theme and colours in a unique format that is not identical to any other mainstream game already published.
Liable & Slander Considerations:
This law relates to defamation of characters, when you use an organisation or person image in a way which could cause measurable damage to their reputation in the eyes of the common public. However no characters in my game are of celebrities or famous people therefore this issue doesn't effect my game because it will slander no one. Also the scenery is not of anywhere that already exists so again it will cause no offence to anyone. Finally; no companies or organisations will be used as no brands are needed within the game so this will avoid any liable case being brought against your game.
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