Enacting immorality within gamespace: Where should we draw the line and why?

This chapter considers three arguments for the selective prohibition of representations of violent or otherwise taboo actions within video games (known as symbolic taboo activities). These arguments are based on harm, meaningful expression, and player motivation, respectively. It shows how each argument is problematic. It introduces constructive ecumenical expressivism, which seeks to explain how objectified moral norms are constructed and therefore what is involved in demarcating one type of enactment immoral and another not. Such a normative position is concerned more with how, within a given society, selective prohibition is established, and therefore how that society determines where the line ought to be drawn regarding symbolic taboo activities, than it is with the application of some form of moral absolutism to virtual enactments.