Blurring Game and Reality: Horror Gaming in “Black Mirror”

I have been an avid viewer of Black Mirror for a while, the British sci-fi series that explores the darker implications of advanced technology. While I am certainly entertained by the show’s disquieting plots, I am simultaneously horrified by its proximity to our existing cyberspace concerns. In particular, the episode “Playtest” delves into the world of reality augmentation and the ethical implications of pushing boundaries in horror video gaming. 

The episode follows Cooper, our protagonist who finds himself in desperate need of some money while backpacking through Europe. To make a quick earning, he takes on a gig as a playtester for a new augmented reality game, SaitoGemu. The implantation of a brain chip facilitates a personalized VR-style horror game experience, where Cooper is thrown into a mansion simulation filled with terrifying scenarios designed to evoke fear. The line between reality and game thus begins to blur, as he is now immersed in augmented worlds that feel just as real as the physical one. 

Cooper’s conscience is tricked into believing a false construction, questioning how hyperreality impacts our sense of self. Regardless of whether he is actually in the game world or not, his mind is under the impression that what he is experiencing poses a genuine threat to his wellbeing.

Perhaps this is all that it takes for something to be considered reality – the legitimate belief that what one is experiencing in that very moment is the truth. At one point in the game, Cooper even endures what appears to be intense physical pain, grounding our conceptions of reality in the corporeal form. This is complicated when (spoilers ahead) he is unable to exit the game, and the audience discovers he has died from an implant malfunction frying his brain. 

During my rewatching of “Playtest”, I was distinctly reminded of Jesper Juul’s guidelines for what constitutes a game, where a main component of the definition involves the consequences of the activity being both optional and negotiable. It’s difficult to imagine that Cooper was fully aware of the psychological duress he would be placed under, and given how unpredictable our consciousness can be, I wonder whether the fear the game capitalizes on and triggers is truly optional. This places SaitoGemu’s classification as a real game under fire, especially when we consider the safety of its design. 

As someone who despises the horror genre in any medium, the idea of willingly participating in something like SaitoGemu seems impossible for me. While my instinctive reaction is to wonder what the appeal could be, I understand that there’s an addictive and even enticing element of horror that resonates with people. As VR and simulation games grow scarily advanced, I worry these tools may be weaponized, especially if this technology is placed in the hands of those with questionable or malicious intent. The concept of corporations turning fear into a commodity is perhaps one of the most alarming takeaways that left me with an inexplicable sense of dread at the episode’s conclusion. I wonder to what extent are we willing to go in the name of entertainment, especially given how the technology in “Playtest” taps into the most intimate corners of the player’s mind.

This new frontier of gaming technology ultimately poses questions on the potential ethical ramifications of our future, ones that may arise sooner than we might even anticipate. For instance, the monetary incentive of participating in the SaitoGemu experiment mirrors some of our present-day socioeconomic inequities regarding who is most vulnerable, as was the case for Cooper in his financially desperate circumstance. Does the implementation of pioneering technology only exacerbate existing social dilemmas? Is it possible to break from them entirely?

Rachel Lee

Augmented Reality: The Future of Medicine

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are gaining significant momentum as leading innovators in medical education, health care and health care delivery. While virtual reality is based in an artificial virtual world, augmented reality, aka spatial computing, is a technology based on a merging of digital and physical spaces.

Use of augmented reality in the Operating Room for better visualization during abdominal surgery (Image courtesy of Medical Augmented Reality)

Augmented reality is an invaluable asset to health care professionals. It allows its users to stay in touch with reality, while providing fast and efficient transfer of information from multiple sensory modalities – think Pokemon Go. Such distinctive features have established augmented reality as a revolutionary necessity in the future of health care, during an era driven by technological innovation.

With the recent release of new mapping AR tasks, Pokemon Go is a leader in the conversation about VR/AR (Image via @PokemonGoApp on Twitter)

From video games to medical clinical practice, augmented reality has allowed its users to interact with simulated reality environments. One of my first introductions to the use of such technology in medicine was actually at the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Center for Innovation and Design. Using an Oculus VR headset and the available equipment, I was able to explore further into the nooks and crannies of our bodies on Human Anatomy VR on the Oculus Quest. If you want to get a feel of how dumb I looked while trying to ~explore~ in the Oculus headset, watch this video!

Human Anatomy VR on the Oculus Quest (Video courtesy of Open PC Reviews on YouTube)

I was surprised to see the precision and amount of detail that could be conveyed using such technological tools, and could only imagine how differing applications of such technological advancements could allow for more immersive medical training and education for aspiring physicians. Currently, new potential applications of mixed reality in training future health care professionals include programs such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and Osso VR’s Surgical Training Platform. “Although there is no hard data, an increasing number of medical schools are using or considering these technologies”, says Warren Wiechmann, MD, Associate Dean of Clinical Science Education and Educational Technology at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. Early adopters of these technologies in medical education have noted the varied benefits of AR and VR, including the opportunity for real-life experiences without real-life consequences.

Osso VR is a cost-effective alternative to the expensive and highly limited training opportunities currently offered (Image courtesy of Osso VR)

Mixed reality has already been advancing the medical field through a wide array of practical applications. Current uses of such technology allow for better visualization during invasive surgical procedures, detection of cancer through image recognition and more accurate patient diagnoses/treatments as a result of advances in medical equipment. Last summer, I worked under a reconstructive plastics and microsurgery specialist to help adapt a mixed reality imaging software to diabetic free-flap reconstructive surgeries. The mixed reality imaging allowed for better pre-operative planning, for we were able to gain better visualization of the blood vessels and blood flow to the lower extremities of our patients, while also allowing for the precise assessment and quantification of diabetic ulcer excision margins. Ultimately, through the application of such technology, we were able to further investigate methods that would allow physicians to preserve as much viable tissue while significantly reducing the risk of development of future sores and ulcerations.

Launch of xvision™, the First Augmented Reality Guidance System for Surgery (Image courtesy of Augmedics)

Although use of augmented reality, virtual reality and other mixed reality mediums have allowed for numerous medical advancements, we are only on the cusp of breakout ideas and their practical applications. Notably, as health costs continue to rise, the use of technology, such as augmented reality, will play a significant role to help prevent, manage and cure patients, especially those who are members of medically underserved communities. Outside of mixed reality, the increased use of technology can also be used to help create a means for more personalized and accessible medical care. I look forward to seeing how the utilization of such technology, by competent and compassionate physicians, will allow for increased equitable delivery of high-quality patient-centered care, while further improving patient outlooks using advancements in treatment modalities.

~ Tiffany Lee

Augmented Empathy: VR/AR’s Impact on Gamers

Game psychologists are looking to a relatively new gaming medium to explore the effects of in-game experiences on the real lives of gamers: virtual and augmented reality. According to the Virtual Reality Society, virtual reality gaming is “where a person can experience being in a three-dimensional environment and interact with that environment during a game.” In contrast, augmented reality gaming is “the integration of game visual and audio content with the user’s environment in real time. … While virtual reality games require specialized VR headsets, only some augmented reality systems use them.”

What these two forms of new gaming have in common is the integration of the gamer into immersive storytelling. Rather than watching the effects of gameplay choices play out on a flat screen using a controller, the gamer becomes the controller and experiences the impact of their in-game decisions in real time.

In the case of augmented reality, gamers can even experience the impacts of their decisions on their real environment through a camera. This leads to a sensation gamers call TINAG, or “This Is Not A Game,” in which one of the main goals of the game is to deny and disguise the fact that it is even a game at all (Virtual Reality Society).

Because of the real-world, real-time feel, gamers often feel there are higher stakes to their in-game decisions. Game psychologists argue that “VR experiences can impact the empathy of their users and immediately translate to positive real world behavior.” One example of this comes from a study done on VR gamers who were instructed to cut down a virtual tree. After cutting down this tree in the game, the gamers used an average of 20% less paper in real life.

Another study suggests that the more a gamer immerses in the environment of the game, the more likely they are for in-game choices to affect their empathy outside of the game. For example, when a gamer picks and customizes an avatar, they often bring traits from their real life into their game life. This causes them to identify more strongly with their in-game persona and blur the line that separates gaming from real life.

AR and VR games are the final frontier in eliminating that line completely. When your in-game character is no longer distinguishable from your true self, your choices in and outside of gameplay affect one another inherently.

The implications of this empathy-building through gaming are massive. Some game psychologists argue that it is the moral responsibility of AR/VR game developers to consider the empathic development of their gamers when creating storylines, often with a focus on empathy for other persons, animal rights, and the environment.

Whether or not you believe the onus of creating a more empathetic generation falls on game developers, the impact of these AR/VR games on the emotional development of gamers is undeniable and will likely only grow as the technology flourishes.

Kathleen Shea

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214003999
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-games/what-is-vr-gaming.html
https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/24/augmented-reality-can-foster-empathy-and-games-can-take-advantage/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217305381

Pokemon GO! The Ethics of Augmented Reality

Pokemon Go is the new gaming phenomenon of the year. Revisiting the old fashioned Nintendo Pokemon games, Pokemon Go takes that same experience up a level by adding the features of Augmented Reality. Allowing people to walk around the planet with their phones and search for Pokemon, the game has added a new dimension to gaming. And along with that, one of the main selling points of the game is their focus on fitness. A recent statistic stated that since the game released earlier this year, people playing the game have walked about 4.6 billion kilometers. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the distance from the Sun to Neptune and more than the distance NASA’s Voyager 1 has travelled in the past 12 years!

However, this achievement does not come without problems. While the game has several positive aspects – people are being more active and have started going out more (even though they are still looking into their screens), and meeting new people (I myself have made a couple of friends while playing the game), there have been quite a few concerns regarding trespassing. People have often been reported to walk into peoples private residences, trying to catch a particular Pokemon. While Niantic, the developers of the game are completely on the legal side of this issue, questions about the company’s responsibility for the actions of their consumers have started emerging. The popularity of the game has pushed the company into new ethical and legal issues that have never been dealt with before; and with the fast developing world of augmented reality, such issues are going to become more frequent as new games implementing this technology are released. While some people say that the players are completely responsible for their actions and how they play the game, many suggest that the game in some ways is encouraging players to trespass into restricted areas, or at restricted times through where the PokeStops are located and where many Pokemon are found.

Public places like monuments or parks are the ideal location to play games such as these, so often Niantic focuses on such areas by providing more Gyms and PokeStops, in a way encouraging their players to come to that location more often. Niantic has received requests from several organizations to remove PokeStops from near their establishments, and so far, Niantic has complied. But the question of whether Niantic is responsible or not is still unanswered.

In my opinion, both parties in question are to an extent to blame for this. Neither are completely wrong in doing this, but since this is a new field of ethical gaming and technology we are dealing with, new rules must be put into play. So far, there are no limitations to where one can place digital markers in the real world, but now as augmented reality is becoming a… reality, we need to make some new laws or rules to govern this. The lack of limitations on where Niantic has put their Gym’s and PokeStops often leads people into unknown territory. As far as the players are concerned, ideally they should be paying more attention to where they are walking and should be more receptive of their surroundings, but the fact that to play the game you must always be looking at the screen of your phone is not really helpful. Niantic has made some efforts to reduce the amount of time that people spend looking at their screens by introducing apps for wearable devices such as the Apple Watch, but this is still not the complete solution. I’m sure that as more game developers start implementing VR into their games, new laws governing the use of digital space will emerge, but until then all we can do is make sure to be more receptive to our surroundings while playing until we are offered a satisfying solution.