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From carrots to carnage: Digital dilemmas of vegetarian gamers
University of Skövde, School of Informatics.
2024 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 15 credits / 22,5 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Virtual animal violence is a subject that has garnered relatively little attention in the greater discussion of general violence in video games. The subject of virtual animal violence offers avenues for examining moral ambiguities of play from a perhaps novel perspective. This thesis specifically examines the experiences of vegetarians when committing acts of virtual violence towards animals. Vegetarians as a group have historically been overlooked in terms of Games User Research (GUR), as is demonstrated by the small body of research pertaining to them. To study this group, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants. Through inductive content analysis this thesis aimed to deepen our understanding of moral ambiguity and broaden the discussion of video game violence. The analysis showed that vegetarian players experience varied degrees of emotional distress and moral dissonance when harming virtual animals. Themes and concepts were identified that encapsulate what vegetarian players experience with regards to morals and emotion. This thesis concludes that a negative emotional effect on players when harming virtual animals is present. However, it is not significant enough for the player’s overall gaming experience to be seen as negative. The analysis also revealed potential research avenues for future studies.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. , p. 33
Keywords [en]
Virtual animal violence, play, moral ambiguity, GUR
National Category
Information Systems, Social aspects
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-24471OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-24471DiVA, id: diva2:1894150
Subject / course
Informationsteknologi
Educational program
Games user experience - magisterprogram
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Examiners
Available from: 2024-09-02 Created: 2024-09-02 Last updated: 2025-09-29Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf