Virtue & strife: Encouraging positive trends in self-concept and societal empathy through competitive multiplayer game design

“Know thyself.” – Socrates Discovering who you are as an individual within the vast multitude of people in the world is a task that takes a lifetime. What we think and what we do as cognitive, creative and social human beings is what makes us different and unique, but fully understanding what that encompasses is a difficult and sometimes fruitless pursuit of self-reflection. For centuries, philosophers, psychologists and many of history’s great thinkers alike have tackled the concept of “self” and contemplated the value of morality versus our inner demons. The goal of my thesis is to explore the relationship between game design and philosophy, and how understanding this relationship can promote a contemplative but non-critical growth in self-concept for players. Using competitive multiplayer game models, distilled iconography and a culmination of several personality tests, I created a video game design document that outlines the rules, general design, character building system and appendices of the hypothetical multiplayer video game, “Virtue & Strife”. I aim to innovate on character building in games as well as addressing several psychological and sociological goals. These goals pertain to the illumination self-awareness, the encouragement of positive self-image, and the spread of empathy and the acceptance of oneself and others. For one example, player characters will be given aspects that they cannot change and are challenged to adapt to