The Challenge

The gaming industry often prioritizes engagement and monetization over player well-being, especially in online/live-service games. This project aimed to explore how ethical design practices could be integrated into game experiences without disrupting core gameplay or business models.

The Approach

I analyzed current game design trends and identified areas for improvement in terms of player well-being. The research focused on four ethical pathways:

1. Marketplace integrity

2. Policy and rating board evolution

3. Power of self-regulation

4. Transformation of game experience and mechanics
   
   

Several popular games were used as case studies or platforms for 'Good-Game' concept implementations, including Cyberpunk 2077, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 2042.

Key Insights

Determining the pathways amongst other insights involved extensive Reddit conversations and discord game-nights. The "social value" of games turned out to be a multi-layered metric that primarily rooted from player attitude towards the game and its community. This led to further interventions.

• Players are receptive to ethical design practices that promote well-being within games

• Integrating ethical considerations into existing game narratives offers a practical approach for the industry

• Game assets and elements have the potential to create significant social impact beyond supporting the story

• Innovation and responsible AI adoption can create more context-aware and responsive games

Solutions

Intent-based gaming sessions
Addressing player engagement by exploring a concept based on Spotify’s enhanced playlist feature. The game curates a session based on the player’s intent. Players could embark on these runs solo or with friends and, upon completion, receive bonus XP to encourage wrapping up their session. Moreover, the game cleverly generates a new tailored run for the next day, incentivizing players to step away and return later. The solution tackles it through a system-driven solution as opposed to being a game mechanic.

AI-powered interactive skins
Focused on player’s mental health in competitive scenarios. Many games push our skills to the limits against other players. This is when toxicity becomes inevitable. These interactive AI-powered skins would surface disruptive behavior and empower the players to report it while also educating them, not to forget training the AI models for accuracy over time. This project was also a stab at balancing business needs and player health. Not too disruptive, just repurposing what they have into something meaningful. It creates a fair ground where game assets become an influence of safety.

NPCs as support system
This project became a highlight of GGWP. It reimagines NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) to be more than just support in the storyline, a voice of reason. Combined with a few key metrics like session duration, number of retries, and a few others that the game already tracks, NPCs could easily incentivize disengagement or suggest a less intense activity by conversing with the player. The difference here is that unlike screen time or parental controls, this is drastically less disruptive and less likely to be ignored.