Let's talk ethics...

Hi Everybody. I’ve been consistently coming back to this site for about 5 or so years now and I’ve silently been a part of the general community for even longer. I debated making an account because of the topic I’d like to bring up in this discussion. Do you guys think that the idea conveyed in the art and some of the games is realistically a little unethical? I don’t mean to discourage; I think the games made are great and the art can be fantastic. I’m talking about the games or art that are focused more on being a feeder to an unwelcoming person; or vore even (personally I’m a bit put off by vore but everybody has their tastes). I’m not saying the material in the games or art are bad, far from it. I’m asking if you think the actions we make in the games would be appropriate in real life. I’d just like to hear everybody’s thoughts on the ethics.

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No, they would not. Forcing or manipulating a non-fictional person into gaining weight is unethical.

(Can be super hot in fiction, though.)

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This discussion always boils down to two basic camps. People that can accept that fantasy is exactly that, and people that seem to have a hard time distinguishing between the two. Its in a similar vein of “action games me act violently,” which I’m not going to entertain.

In the end, a lot of the actions taken in the games here in real life would either not be possible, or would quickly become a legal issue, which is why I don’t really understand the point in pondering on it. Partaking in these situations in a virtual setting doesn’t say anything about the person, it doesn’t imply anything about them, and it doesn’t mean they’re going to emulate that in real life. This is setting aside things like child pornography, since those are, by dent of existing, unethical.

The virtual world of games can be used to look at things that we enjoy, and things that are uncomfortable, things that are unethical or unpleasant. That doesn’t mean the author of those games endorses either, it means that those are parts of the world they crafted, and too often people fail to distinguish that too. “Well if this was real” is a pointless argument (not one I’m trying to say you are making here, mind you), but its one I’ve certainly seen, because this isn’t real life, they’re video games. And yes, that means that the subject matter can be ethically questionable, but making it or partaking in it in the virtual sense has no bearing on one’s ethics.

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Real talk, I don’t think about the ethical situations between adults in pure fiction. Sure, is walking up to someone, and fucking stuffing them down your gob just for the sake of pure unadulterated gluttony unethical? Yeah, but it’s also completely fictitious and physically impossible in the realm of reality, so I don’t really care, as it’s fiction. Is giving someone Pavlov-esque training to make them stuff themselves completely silly, to the point of nigh on blob status unethical if you don’t get consent beforehand? Yeah. But it’s fiction, and a fantasy, so I don’t think it particularly matters, as in almost all of these situations, if the writer so chooses that individual can regain their normal form. In truth, I don’t think you can really give ethical weight to these type of actions, especially in the context of them being for purely fantasy value, and getting off.

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“Do you guys think that the idea conveyed in the art and some of the games is realistically a little unethical?”
2vague4me
“I’m asking if you think the actions we make in the games would be appropriate in real life.”
Did you just ask me if it would be “appropriate” to swallow someone whole?
I wonder if BDSM communities ever have threads like this. Probably.

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Real world = No don’t do this shit
Games/fantasies = Yes, you can do this shit

Simple as that.

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In kink media I think ethics are less concerning because a lot of this shit is impossible to do in real life. Even if noncon kink media “inspired” you to do something noncon irl, it wouldn’t be a true cause and effect. Not sure if that came across correctly, sorry :-p

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So I completely agree with the comments made so far.

Vore in media doesn’t really require ethics because it is an impossible concept like @leviathon56, @naeggchub pointed out.

I’m definitely not a part of the “people who play video games are inevitably going to cause violence” types of onlookers like kilif had mentioned. I’ve been in the community for a while and I grasp that even though I enjoy larger women I’m not going to go and intentionally make someone gain weight.

I didn’t mean to insinuate that any of you wouldn’t understand these ethics. I totally agree that it’s just media and ethics shouldn’t be considered when the media doesn’t harm anyone. I worded the topic poorly but I just like picking people’s brains for their viewpoints so I was curious what everyone would say. :+1:

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Video games are fantasy, pure and simple. A lot of games exist simply to allow you to live out actions that you couldn’t and/or wouldn’t do in real life. In reality, I’d never dream of stealing a car or blowing someones head off with a shotgun, but I’ve done it in Grand Theft Auto, along with countless thousands of others. As long as you can distinguish between fantasy and real life, ethics don’t really matter. If some element of a game doesn’t appeal to you then simply don’t play it.

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nope, vore is canibalism irl and weight gain is bad for too much people and doctors (if you are under the normal weight is welcome) and u know why think that heart attacks, knes damage, depresion (made for the same people what think weight gain is horrible and a skeleton is sexy), diabetes etc. and the people dont think what the diabetes can cach you whitout by overweight, or heart attacks can come to anyone, the weight ever was apoint like a problem and they believe it because is true… sometimes and all thier life thinked fat=healt problems and no ones of them tried to think why some people whit normal weight have diabetes, or problems like that and other fats can live normally whitout them

In terms of fetish games posted here, I think there is nothing too questionable unless you look in the unclaimed games list, which has Free Cities which is an awful game ethically and not really a game with weight gain content. A lot of real weight gain games I have played are too abstract, cartoony, lighthearted or consensual to really care about ethics.

Kilif’s statement is really dumb and it’s sad that most of you think it’s true. I guess you probably would be pro-gamer gate then and some other rubbish. There are those dumb older people who say that video games cause violence and such, but they are not being ethical, they are just using video games as ammunition for their goals, such as hurting their children and trying to return to the old days for no reason.

The argument about ethics in video games boils down to four camps - 1. Those who don’t want to give any weight to fiction entertainment. 2. Those who are just cranky old people or news stations chasing headlines and both usually trying to demonize younger generations. 3. Typically academics (usually pertaining to things such as sociology and feminism) who realize that people are influenced by fiction more than they want to admit. 4. People who make games with meaning and don’t appreciate people pretending they have none just because braindead games also exist.

In this thread, I don’t think it’s really worth going into those four perspectives too deeply because the subject matter we deal with is generally morally fine. There is not much (or any) content here involving violent force feeding for example, as the weight gain fetish community generally hates the idea of it and would ostracize for it. This topic makes it feel like you are saying being fat is morally wrong which is something I highly disagree with as depicting fat people in a desirable/positive light is beneficial in a world that hates fat people, but sadly a lot of people into the fantasy also seem to be hateful, saying they wouldn’t deal with it at all in real life as if it was some totally outlandish thing to be with fat people or gain weight. People are just raised to have such a big misunderstanding around the effects of obesity because of the World Health Organization and other scientific sources being very biased and uninformative and instead so many things scientific and societal are immediately focused around weight loss…

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Free Cities absolutely does have WG content, and even has one of the societal trend thingies be for fetishizing fatness and raw obesity. I wouldn’t recommend playing the vanilla game, though, it’s been dead for a long time; the modded version has about 10x the content, and solves a lot of the game’s shortcomings.

Anyway, to the thread topic:
It’s inappropriate and arguably unethical to forcefeed someone against their interests, throwing them into future health problems and such, even if they eventually begin to like it.
I personally think most non-con things, even forcefeeding, are bordering on kinda rapey anyway, and I’m pretty sure the law in most countries have some legal jargon to describe “making someone eat until they nearly burst every day” in a single word.

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Ooh, also in Free Cities, if you make a Hedonism society, your rival will fetishize skinny people and that will eventually spur a little war between the two of you.
Fat vs skinny, and your arcology can literally have a fat lady painted on its armor.

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You really need to explain what about the idea is “dumb”, not just say it is and certainly not just go around speculating about what other people think and name calling (dumb, cranky, hateful, biased, etc.). Please review the Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree rule.

As for scientific evidence, is there a correlation between excess weight and some negative health outcomes? - yes there is. But correlation is not causation, and it is most definitely unethical to experiment on people so causation cannot be proved unless the precise pathway can be identified.

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There is not much (or any) content here involving violent force feeding for example, as the weight gain fetish community generally hates the idea of it and would ostracize for it.

There is a bunch of non-con forced weight gain, and bad ends featuring such themes are a staple of the genre at this point. I’m not sure which games you’ve been playing, but there’s an audience actively into both force feeding and the health issues resulting from it.

This topic makes it feel like you are saying being fat is morally wrong

There is a gigantic difference in saying that “being fat” is morally wrong, versus “encouraging or forcing obesity” being morally wrong.

People are just raised to have such a big misunderstanding around the effects of obesity because of the World Health Organization and other scientific sources being very biased and uninformative and instead so many things scientific and societal are immediately focused around weight loss…

Obesity is a leading cause for a number of crippling health issues, being linked to a myriad of problems that are cardiovascular, respiratory, and more. Becoming obese is one of the worst things you can do to your body’s health. This isn’t a disputed topic within the medical community, nearly every doctor on the planet would tell you this, with full support from all the research that has been conducted.

As a whole do I think that there are some ethical issues within the scene? Maybe. A lot of what we see in this fiction would certainly never be appropriate in a real-life situation. I think the only morally justifiable way to practice the fetish is with someone who consents, with full awareness of what they are getting into.

However I think you’re going to be very hard pressed to find most people remarking upon ethical issues considering we all have a vested interest in these games, and likely have supported them in some way. I personally tend to lean towards the opinion that what we do here is ultimately a lot more innocent than what the average person (inadvertently) supports through regular porn consumption, and while there’s an argument to be made against supporting games featuring unwilling weight gain, the foundations of those arguments seem like they would at the moment be shaky at best.

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You are wrong about health aspects. The professionals on this subject don’t care about the truth. And as for non-consent content, okay I didn’t know about that. I still was among those who didn’t have a big problem with it and I guess it is kind of expected to be explored, but not if it is violent.

If something fictional causes you to do something in reality, that’s on you. You fully carry the blame. It didn’t “make you do it,” you made you do it. Excusing yourself of that blame because something fantastic “inspired” you to do it means you’re engaging in some seriously intellectually dishonest territory and cannot accept the responsibility of your actions.

Fiction can inspire us. It can make us feel things that are completely new and wonderful, it can make us angry or think about the world in a different light. But it cannot literally make us to do anything. We are in control of our actions, and the person that would make the argument that we, as a whole, are not, are assuming everyone has the lack of self control they have and painting with the broadest bush they can. This, again, is intellectually dishonest.

But I don’t know why I’m bothering because

You’re not interested in this discussion, all you want to do is wield buzzwords like a weapon and argue against a strawman.

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Don’t you think that moving the goalpost makes the position seem a little bit weak?

“There’s no way anyone here would condone FORCED weight gain”
“Okay nevermind that’s actually fine, but we would never have VIOLENT forced weight gain!”

And by the way, I can name games that have violent elements here as well. Scenarios that could only be described as outright abusive if considered from an ethical point of view.

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So, are people still treating fantasies and games as actual events?
I thought everyone understood how to separate fiction from reality.

I think bringing up Gamergate out of the blue at all, especially in the context of being a spooky boogeyman was probably a bigger red flag that he’s trolling or not worth talking to, TBH, especially long after the iron has gone cold in 2020.

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