The good, the bad, and the undefined: Ethics in game design from designers' perspectives

The growing cultural and societal relevance of digital games has intensified ethical discussions surrounding game design and the values embedded in games. While prior research has predominantly focused on player experiences and outcomes, comparatively little attention has been paid to how ethical considerations are addressed upstream within everyday game design practices. This study addresses this gap by exploring how professional game designers perceive, interpret, and negotiate ethical issues that may shape the societal impact of digital games. Using a Grounded Theory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 game designers. The analysis generated an emergent theory, Discussing Ethics in Video Games, comprising two interrelated categories: Ethical Issues, including concerns such as violence, representation, and inclusivity, and Ethical Responsibilities, reflecting designers' perceived roles in addressing these concerns within real-world design constraints. The findings indicate that ethical reasoning is embedded in design decision-making and is continuously negotiated alongside creative ambitions, technical limitations, and market pressures. By foregrounding designers' perspectives, this study highlights how ethical considerations at the design stage contribute to shaping the broader social and cultural dimensions of digital games. The proposed conceptual framework may support future academic research on ethical game design and provide industry practitioners with a reflective tool for identifying ethical issues and discussing responsibility during design processes. However, given the limited sample size and the regional concentration of participants, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory rather than generalisable.