3/26/2018
On the Forbes website, Erick Kain (2016) published an article responding to another article called “Murder in VR Should Be Illegal” posted on Motherboard. Nowadays, many VR games allow their players to play the role of criminals in the games and experience the thrill of committing crimes in the virtual world. The author of “Murder in VR Should Be Illegal”, Angela Buckingham (2016) states that virtual reality (VR) games with violence may have the potential to make people more aggressive and naturalize violent behavior in the real world. She believes that it is necessary to address murders in VR with real-world laws before something goes too wrong. Erick Kain (2016), on the other hand, denies her point by claiming that killing people in VR games does not create the urge to murder people in real life. In his article, he explains that, according to his personal experience, there is no game on the market that can provide an experience of violence that feels real. Based on the VR games that he has played so far, almost all of the combat parts are wooden and inaccurate, which creates no sense of reality to him. He also emphasizes that because the virtual world is virtual, everyone can tell whether he is in reality or in a virtual space and to use the laws of the real world to constrain the virtual world is simply to deprive players of their choice of entertainment. Although the idea of criminalizing murder in the virtual world is a little overwhelming, I think Buckingham’s worry about the violence in VR games is necessary for the good of the whole society. The VR industry needs to pay close attention to violence-related VR games about how they might change people’s behavior and notice their responsibility of making regulations when necessary.
First of all, although the current VR devices on the market are still unable to achieve the functions that can perfectly reproduce a real murder in the game, the change is only a matter of time. According to Joe Durbin (2017)’s interview with Dante Buckley who is the creator Onward, Buckley states that Onward, as the most popular VR shooter game at the moment, is using realism as a selling point. In order to provide the player with a highly immersive experience, his development team reproduces the details of the killing process as realistic as possible in the game. Although he has not taken any measures against the violence in his game yet, he believes that in the very near future, when the graphics quality of VR games reaches a certain level, he would probably be responsible for some consequences of violence in the real world caused by his own game. In fact, Erick Kain (2016) has also published an article about how video games would not promote people’s crimes. He mentions similar points in the article — that is, violence in the game is completely different from violence in the real world since the virtual violence doesn’t feel real to him based on his previous experiences in actual fights. He thinks that violence in physical reality is much more intensive than the virtual violence on the screen. Therefore, no one would associate crimes in the game with real life. I disagree with his idea because VR games are no longer like 2D video games anymore. One of the compelling characteristics of VR technology is its ability to provide players with a deeply immersive experience. As VR technology can simulate more and more human perceptions, it means that it has an increasing influence on the human brain.
People can adapt to the virtual body at an unimaginable speed. Becca Caddy (2016) cites an experiment called rubber hand illusion in her essay about how VR could change people’s behaviors in reality. Specifically, this experiment found that as long as the subjects were given accurate stimulation, they would soon accept that this rubber hand is part of their body and be able to freely control it. This experiment is just the perfect example that can demonstrate how real the feeling VR can bring people. Therefore, when the player is able to immerse deeply in a virtual body and all the important senses can synchronize with the virtual body, violence may feel real, regardless of whether the user is a victim or perpetrator of that violence. Therefore, the VR experience has a great chance to lead to changes in human behavior in real life.
More importantly, the impact of VR on people is not only physical but also psychological. Joe Durbin (2017) also interviews Arshya Vahabzadeh M.D., who is the Chief Medical Officer at a VR startup called Brain Power and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and asks him whether VR games will lead to real-life psychiatric afflictions similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to Vahabzadeh, the causes of PTSD are usually from a direct witness of death or bloody violence in reality and do not include exposure to the digital screen. However, VR technology is changing this fact. Vahabzadeh believes that the high degree of immersion and interaction embedded in VR has the ability to stimulate many senses accurately (including sight, hearing, smell, and touch, etc.) One day, it may create a virtual world real enough that people cannot tell its difference with the real world. In this way, the VR experience is likely to be able to rewrite the structure of the fear center in the brain and cause symptoms like PTSD (Joe Durbin, 2017). In fact, many people have reported recently that they have suffered sexual harassment in the virtual world. Even if the victim only received visual and auditory stimuli, I do not think that their psychological harm will be less than being sexually harassed in the reality.
The ethical darkness of VR is far bigger than what we can imagine. Giles Fraser (2015) discussed a drama called Nether in his article. The play tells the story of a pedophile named Pappas who built an exclusive fantasy space in the virtual world and created an 11-year-old girl who lived with her inside. If this thing happens in the real world, is this completely acceptable since the girl is virtual? I do not think so. With the increasing development of VR technology, people become progressively more immersed in more realistic experiences, and the boundaries between the virtual world and the real world gradually become more blurred. Developers in the VR industry need to carefully consider whether their products will cause irreparable harm to some people before starting to develop it. If the answer to the question of harm is yes, it is necessary to establish some rules and regulations that can avoid those terrible situations.
References
Buckingham. A. (November 28, 2016). Murder in VR Should Be Illegal. MOTHERBOARD. Retrieved from https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aekaxk/should-murder-in-vr-be-illegal
Caddy. B. (December 20, 2016). Too real: Fighting sexual harassment, abuse and violence in virtual worlds. Wareable. Retrieved from https://www.wareable.com/vr/vr-ethics-sexual-harassment-abuse-violence-888 Durbin. J. (March 16, 2017). When Does Virtual Reality Violence Get Too Real? UPLOAD. Retrieved from https://uploadvr.com/is-it-okay-to-kill-in-vr/
Fraser. G. (Mar 6, 2015). Virtual-reality paedophilia is not victimless or harmless. The Gaudian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/mar/06/virtual-reality-paedophilia-not-harmless-victimless
Kain. E. (November 29, 2016). The Latest Call For VR Censorship Is Utterly Ridiculous. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/11/29/no-murder-in-vr-shouldnt-be-illegal-because-it-isnt-murder/#5de9e17f666a
Kain. E. (November 4, 2016). No, For The Millionth Time, Video Games Don’t Cause Real World Violence. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/11/04/no-for-the-millionth-time-video-games-dont-cause-real-world-violence/#301997435ffd