Thought Experiments - Mission Design

Trolley Problem - Mission Design 

The trolley problem is a moral situation presented to a person regarding what choice they should make within a short amount of time. The idea being either one or more people die being struck by a train but it’s up to the person in control on the track switching mechanic to make the decision and if they don’t someone will still die. As simple as this idea is to judge a person’s moral choice and ethics it would be harder hitting to have a situation play out that mirrors the idea of the trolley problem without making it obvious.

With this brief focusing on thought experiments, our group game plays on the shoulders of a potential new employee of a government agency that hires it employees though simulations that test their ethical choices and the outcomes from them. One of these simulations will be the trolley problem dilemma.

However, instead of just placing the player in front of the train track switcher and letting them decide where the train goes, and who or however may people die, they will play out a situation that develops in front of them and through prompts will make decisions on the fly whilst feeling like they must as part of a story. Think of it like a level out of a story driven game though the eyes of a first-person character.

The mission will take place on a busy street leading down to a train platform on a late afternoon in Chicago. There will be hundreds of pedestrians walking about going about their lives not paying attention to the player one bit. This is to make the player feel as if they blend in just like everyone else and not some special person on a set mission. As the player enters the platform a situation will unfold where a child falls onto the opposing tracks with their mother following behind as they try reach for them. A group of men on the players side follow suit and jump down to help assist the mother and child off only to be caught in the rumblings of the tracks as a train approaches. The 8.45 workers commuter train that passes through without stopping. The player will then be instructed by a platform worker to stop the train using the emergency button next to them but after realising it doesn’t work see a tracks switch mechanism up ahead. The player will run to the switch only to find the tracks only switch between the two lines the stranded people find themselves in. The moral situation has now fully unfolded, and the player must decide before the train chooses for them. Do the mother and child die? Or do the 3 men who risked their lives to help perish? Dependant on the choice made the rest of the game will be reconstructed. Upon making the decision the players character will look away and the simulation ended to be greeted by the government agent running the simulations simply making some notes before running the next sim.