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The Baby Game's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Popular winner | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What work(s) of philosophy does your piece take as its primary source(s)?
Mill, John Stewart. Utilitarianism.
Please tell us about your piece.
A roleplaying game about the consequences of consequentialism.
What other sources have you used in your piece?
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-089
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Comments
I really like this game. The set-up is easy to understand and I can see how students can have a lot of fun with this. The Calamity Table is hilarious, it must have been really fun to come up with the different calamities. And, lest not forget the design of the document, it's neat, minimalist and stylish. (I feel embarrassed for putting zero effort into design of my own game manual)
I'm thinking a bit about the restrictions you impose on the consequentialists. Is there a particular reason why you decided to have these restrictions? After all, if they are supposed to be true consequentialists (i.e. not rule consequentialists) then they should make the parents give up the baby by any means necessary, right? But perhaps it's about preventing the game and the players become a bit hostile towards the parents?
I'm glad you like it! You are right about the Consequentialists--but actually, I set it up that way so that the Loving Parents are given an opportunity to make their decision for purely consequentialist rather than self-interested reasons. If they choose to be, the Loving Parents are the real consequentialists--or not, if they hold out!
This is really cool! Especially like that you gave folks the opportunity to recreate it in-class. Do you have any experiences playing it with students that you would like to share? I'm curious to hear which argument(s), if any, a consequentialist gave convinced Loving Parents to give up Baby.
It's certainly a lively classroom experience! The Calamity Table is a result of play-testing an earlier version with students that did not include that mechanic. In that version, I let the Baby Eaters come up with all of the consequences themselves, which was fun for them, but I found they escalated too quickly. Then the Loving Parents would become nihilistic... the world is already ruined, it's not like it can get any worse, et cetera... Another thing I found interesting was that some of the arguments students found most compelling were not, strictly speaking, consequentialist arguments; many of them had to do with what an unsacrificed Baby would think of the Loving Parents' decisions and of themselves when they grew old enough to comprehend what their parents had let happen.
I appreciate the production quality and clarity of your document. As you indicate in the teacher's supplement, the game could be used or adapted to explore a number of different ethical theories in addition to Mill's utilitarianism. Divine command theory in particular comes to my mind, considering Plato's Euthyphro and Kierkegaard's discussion of the binding of Isaac in Fear and Trembling.
Do you think the consequentialists' arguments may change or even challenge each other depending on their particular readings of Mill and/or consequentialism in general? I wonder what the responses to various calamities would look like with one "rule consequentialist" and one "act consequentialist," for example.
Thanks! I think your connection to divine command theory is particularly fun. Brings a whole new meaning to the problem of evil. Interesting point about different understandings of consequentialism; I don't introduce my students to those distinctions in much depth, since I use the game in a very general intro class, not a class devoted to ethics in particular, but if I did, it would be a great follow-up activity to make them reflect on how adhering to one reading or the other might change their conduct in the game.
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