Living in the Age of Innocence

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Skyrim), despite its liberal violence, does not allow depicted children to die, by fault of the player's character (or avatar), NPCs (non-player characters) or the environment. Because of this, a player going by the name of Kharmah published a mod, 'Killable Children', on the Steam Workshop that disposes of this restriction. Needless to say, this caused quite a controversy, with supporters of its release pointing out improved realism and freedom for the player, and others raising morals and ethics against it.

The ingame killing of children, with the special status their real-life counterparts enjoy, is a contentious issue for many computer game developers, who are well concerned about their business and social standing. In forming an opinion on it, two matters should be considered:

1. Whether the killing of real-life children is unethical
2. Whether the killing of ingame children raises material real-life consequences.

Especially heinous
Almost anyone of sound mind would agree that killing a fellow human being is immoral. In reaching that conclusion, it may be raised that life is sacred, that every human being has a natural right to it from birth, that every member of Homo sapiens has a duty to further the species, or that one's automatic dignity and self-worth is to be respected. Indeed, virtually all governments on Earth outlaw homicidal acts, be it murder, manslaughter or (in many cases) assisting in suicide. With unnatural adult death depicted so frequently in print, cinematographic film and computer games and that of children rather rare, one may wonder what makes the latter an exception.

Computer Games as Literature

Despite the bad press that video (computer) games get, they still are a multimedia text type. Utilising all five components of media (text, still images, audio, animation and video), they combine them along with interactivity in a way rarely seen with other forms of literature. This combination gives it great potential for immersive and effective storytelling.

Considering that, I will treat computer games as fictional literature and engage in a summary kind of literary analysis. To help with this, I will pretend to try to convince a public library to include some examples as part of their collections. Please note that, because of strict licensing requirements, this is often not actually practical, despite a strong supporting case!

Standard form
As part of maintaining its collection, this library solicits suggestions from the public for works that should be added to or removed from it. It does so through a form a member of the public fills out. Thus, my 'literary analysis' will take the form (mind the pun) of a filled form. As the form may have been designed with more traditional text types in mind, some questions will take some interpreting:

To Commit a Crime

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Skyrim) (and probably other computer games in that title), depending on the situation, a certain action may or may not be considered a crime:

• Picking an item up may or may not be considered theft.
• Attacking an actor may or may not be considered assault.
• Killing an actor may or may not be considered murder.

Except in cases with bugs (such as livestock's being able to report crimes), is there any rhyme or reason as to when a crime is recognised? Considering real-life positive law, there may well be.

Law of nature vs. law of the people
In real-life jurisprudence, any given law may be given authority by any of two sources:

• Natural law, which is the law as set by nature and comprehended by reason and justice. If a given law does not possess the authority of natural law, it simply does not feel just or right for it to be enforced. Such a sense of unjustness is strong for people with a developed sense of ethics.
• Positive law, which is the law given authority by the institution of government. If a citizen violates a law with this authority, they can be punished by the government (e.g. fine, imprisonment); where a law does not possess this authority, the government will simply refuse to enforce it, even if a citizen violates such a law.

A Day in the Life of a Dead Dragon

I am sorry, Elder Dragon, for slaying you, but you were terrorising the village of Riverwood and there was not much else that I could do. With the right to self-defense I am allowed to deploy as much force as necessary, but who knew it would need to be of lethal quantity?

Will you forgive me, enslaver of all mortal races? 'No', you contest? How about I make it up to you; let me keep you company for a day. Hopefully you will find it in (what remains of) your heart to do so, if you are not as mortified of the incident as you are right now.

9am
You know what, dragon? No matter how hard I try, I cannot avoid absorbing a dragon's soul, and yours is no exception. Alas, you are stripped of what makes yourself you, and yes, I probably should apologise for that too...

What is this? You took out a Whiterun Guard? Shame on you, dragon; what did he ever do to you, besides attempting to bring you down himself? Perhaps my absorbing your very essence can serve as just punishment for such a heinous act of murder.

The village has started gathering, obviously transfixed by the sight of your skeleton. They have never seen a dragon before, and I cannot blame them; your kind has been absent from the face of Tamriel for centuries, after all. Perhaps you can spend your crippled days in a museum? That way, the citizens of Skyrim can afford their spectacle, and you enjoy the luxury of being polished. How is that for a deal?