Agenda

Building a sustainable and ethical gaming industry is not just the right thing to do, it is a solid business decision. Research reveals compelling financial incentives for implementing ethical workplace standards in game development. For example, employee burnout in the U.S. is estimated to cost somewhere between $4,000 and $21,000 per worker, per year, while the game industry faces particularly acute burnout challenges given crunch culture. Studios have also been facing fines from the FTC or European Union regulators that have reached hundreds of thousand dollars for exploiting players (e.g. dark patterns) or not protecting them enough in online spaces.

The game industry can experience unsustainable development cycles, legal challenges, and bad retention metrics (e.g. toxicity in online games). This panel will share recent progress in the development of a code of ethics crafted by the Ethical Games initiative that aims to improve workplace, design, and monetization standards that will benefit players, workers, and businesses alike. This initiative is a partnership between Thriving in Games Group (formerly The Fair Play Alliance), KU Leuven's Digital Society Institute (DigiSoc), and includes game UX strategist Celia Hodent, Dr. Rachel Kowert, and developmental psychologist Fran Blumberg as active members. To date, members of the initiative have been refining a code of ethics for the game industry through consultation with game industry leaders, educators, researchers, and regulatory bodies. This panel will share the finalized code of ethics and current efforts compiling a "do's and don'ts" to guide game developers in crafting more ethical and long-term thriving games.

Takeaway

The finalized code of ethics from the Ethical Games initiative. Some guidelines to create more ethical games, for players and for industry workers. Business case for better ethics in our industry.

Intended Audience

This panel is for everyone but industry decision makers will make the most out of it.