The philosophy of the metaverse | Ethics and Information Technology

")). The gamer’s dilemma is a puzzle concerning the moral permissibility of two actions p and q we might perform, typically when playing computer games. p describes the performance of the action of virtual murder, which occurs when one character murders another in a virtual environment. In Grand Theft Auto (GTA), a game that simulates the antics of a car thief, players may direct their characters to run over innocent pedestrians and commit virtual murder. Many consider virtual murder to be morally permissible (Pp): it is just a game and no one is actually murdered. This just a game defence of the moral permissibility of virtual murder is also known as the magic circle defence, grounded in the magic circle principle (Nguyen, 2017. Philosophy of games. Philosophy Compass, [...] ### The gamer’s dilemma [...] Not all virtual irrealists are virtual fictionalists. At least some virtual irrealists deny in equal measure that virtual worlds are real and that virtual worlds are fictional (Aarseth, 2007. Doors & perception: Fiction vs. simulation in games. Intermédialités, 9, 35–44.")). Instead, virtual worlds are more analogous to dream worlds and thought experiments. Most virtual fictionalists reason about virtual worlds on the basis of claims that they take to be plausible about the world of video games (Juul, 2005. Half-real: Video games between real rules & fictional worlds. MIT Press."); Tavinor, 2009. The art of videogames. Wiley."); Meskin & Robson, 2012. Fiction & fictional worlds in videogames. In J. R. Sageng, T. M. Larsen, & H. Fossheim (Eds.), The philosophy of computer games (pp.

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