Task 4 - Legal and Ethical

Legal and Ethical

There are many legal and ethical problems, with creating a 3D environment. In order to avoid offending a group of people, the design of a 3D environment has to be taken into consideration. The design has to be tailored to adhere to normal social conventions, and more abstract designs such as environments with offensive symbolism and imagery have to be avoided unless done in context. An example of this would be a Nazi themed environment. If it is within a historically based game with the environment being a Nazi occupied city, it would be ethically acceptable. However, Nazi themed environments out of context would be ethically unacceptable and would not make it to a finished product. I would need to ensure that my environment doesn't offend groups of people with its design and that if my environment was to feature designs typically ethically compromising, they are to be made and presented in the right context.

An example of normally offensive symbolism made acceptable via context.

In regards to Legal problems, issues could arrive with building designs. For example, certain buildings cannot be recreated without legal permission. An example of this is with the game Resistance Fall of Man, where the game environment featured a replication of Manchester Cathedral which was recreated without permission. Church leaders found this offensive and called for copyright infringement. This prove as an example of what happens if certain legal obligations are not fulfilled when creating a 3D environment that borrows from other influences be it fictional or real. If I am to base my architecture of real buildings, I need to ensure that it doesn't copy any particular details in order to avoid being legal penalized for copying real architecture.

An indoor shot of Resistance: Fall of Mans recreation of the Manchester Cathedral interior.

Visual References:
http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Berlin
http://culturalinteractivity.com/index.php/listing/manchester-cathedral-in-resistance-fall-of-man-circa-unspecified/

Written References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversy_surrounding_Resistance:_Fall_of_Man