Take the money and run? An ethical approach to the relation between game research and game industry

This article tries to give some light to the ethical issues concerning the relationship of research and industry in the field of computer game research. No conclusive answers are reached. The ethical issues addressed here concerned basically the independence of academic institutions as a key feature for the quality of research. While the most common ethical approach, consequentialism, seems not to provide meaningful answers to this questions, a deontological approach seems to be a possible option. Nevertheless, much is yet to be done. Perhaps the most important conclusion of this paper is the relevance of independence for the well developing of the discipline.