Moral Philosophies Mechanised in Fallout: New Vegas

Sammanfattning: This thesis is aimed at game designers and had the goal of investigating how moral philosophies exist within the role-playing game Fallout: New Vegas. By using close reading as a method the study analyses through a moral philosophical lens how Fallout: New Vegas mechanises moral philosophy and what advantages and disadvantages it holds. The study indicates that Fallout: New Vegas mechanises moral philosophy through a symbiosis of two morality systems: its karma system as well as its reputation system for the factions. The karma system is found to be inconsistent and utilises different moral philosophies. The reputation system has the different moral philosophies of the factions, though all have some aspect of consequentialism. The study concludes that the inconsistencies of the karma system could be solved by focusing on one moral philosophy. It is however possible that the karma system is inconsistent on purpose and that it may not be optimal to base a moral system on only one moral philosophy: depending on the purpose of the system. The conclusion also indicates that future research should be conducted to see how players interact with the moral systems of Fallout: New Vegas and to see how immersion can affect a player's moral choices in different games.