Making Meaning out of Social Harm in Videogames by Aidan Fortier B.A., Dalhousie University, 2014 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Criminology Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Aidan Fortier 2018 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2018 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Aidan Fortier Degree: Master of Arts Title: Making Meaning out of Social Harm in Videogames Examining Committee: Chair: Richard Frank Assistant Professor Bryan Kinney Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Sheri Fabian Supervisor Senior Lecturer Anthony Vickery External Examiner Assistant Teaching Professor Theatre Department University of Victoria Date Defended/Approved: September 14th, 2018 ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract A literature review demonstrates that videogame research has theoretical and empirical relevance to criminology. This thesis explores the construction of meaning around representations of social harm in videogames by answering two research questions: 1) How is social harm represented in videogames? 2) How do players construct meaning around videogame content relating to social harm? Study 1 is a qualitative content analysis of representations of social harm in the popular videogame Skyrim. Themes included crime and punishment, money and power, extrajudicial crime control, legitimacy of violence, and criminalization of race. These findings are contextualized against analogous real-world cultural constructs. Study 2 consists of 18 interviews with players about their experiences interpreting and responding to social harm representations in videogames. Players’ construction of meaning depended on factors including player- character relationship, playstyle, game genre, and play context. Preliminary metrics for measuring these factors are proposed, and implications for future research are discussed. Keywords: videogames; social harm; cultural criminology; media; qualitative research iv Acknowledgements I would like to begin by acknowledging that the lands on which I have lived and worked for the duration of this thesis are the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Songhees (Lekwungen), Esquimalt, and W̱ SÁNEĆ First Nations. I would like to acknowledge my participants, without whose contributions, this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the members of my supervisory committee, Dr. Bryan Kinney and Dr. Sheri Fabian, for their guidance and support. Finally, I would like to thank my friends, family, and colleagues who have helped motivate me throughout this project. This thesis is the product of the efforts of many, and I am grateful to everyone who helped bring it to fruition. v Table of Contents Approval .......................................................................................................................... ii Ethics Statement ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures................................................................................................................. ix List of Acronyms .............................................................................................................. x Glossary ......................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1. Contextualizing Videogames as a Medium ............................................................ 2 1.1.1. Crime, culture, and media .............................................................................. 2 1.1.2. Videogaming: A growing industry and subculture .......................................... 4 1.1.3. Analyzing videogames ................................................................................... 6 1.2. Videogame effects: a review of the literature ......................................................... 7 1.2.1. Videogames and violence .............................................................................. 8 1.2.2. Critiques of the videogames-cause-violence hypothesis .............................. 11 1.3. Theoretical underpinnings ................................................................................... 13 1.3.1. Cultural criminology ..................................................................................... 13 1.3.2. Symbolic interactionism ............................................................................... 14 1.3.3. Social learning theory .................................................................................. 15 1.3.4. Social harm ................................................................................................. 15 1.3.5. Guiding principles ........................................................................................ 16 1.4. Research Goals ................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2. Methods .................................................................................................. 18 2.1. Ethical Considerations ......................................................................................... 18 2.1.1. Approaching content analysis ethically ........................................................ 19 2.1.2. Approaching interviews ethically .................................................................. 20 2.2. Study 1: A Case Study of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ......................................... 22 2.2.1. Why Skyrim? ............................................................................................... 23 2.2.2. Data sources ............................................................................................... 24 2.2.3. Data analysis ............................................................................................... 25 2.3. Study 2: Interviewing Videogame Players ............................................................ 26 2.3.1. Participants .................................................................................................. 26 2.3.2. Interviews .................................................................................................... 27 2.3.3. Data analysis ............................................................................................... 29 2.4. Towards an Integrative View of Videogames ....................................................... 30 Chapter 3. Results .................................................................................................... 31 vi 3.1. Study 1: Skyrim Case Study ................................................................................ 31 3.1.1. Jurisprudence in Skyrim .............................................................................. 31 3.1.2. The golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules .............................. 36 3.1.3. The long arm of the law has extra fingers .................................................... 38 3.1.4. Legitimate use of force ................................................................................ 40 3.1.5. Violence and valour ..................................................................................... 41 3.1.6. Gatekeeping: life on the margins ................................................................. 42 3.2. Study 2: Interviews with Players .......................................................................... 45 3.2.1. Introducing participants ................................................................................ 45 3.2.2. Modelling player-character relationships ...................................................... 47 3.2.3. Interpreting videogame content ................................................................... 51 3.2.4. Responding to videogame content: ludo-moral decision-making.................. 53 3.2.5. The need for targeted research by gameplay context and genre ................. 57 Chapter 4. Discussion .............................................................................................. 59 4.1. Implications of Findings ....................................................................................... 59 4.2. Limitations and Lessons Learned ........................................................................ 64 4.3. Directions for Future Research ............................................................................ 66 4.4. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 67 References ................................................................................................................... 69