judgment chicken

A Game of AI Ethics and Chickens

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What is Judgment Chicken?

Why is this game called Judgment Chicken?

"Judgment Chicken" might refer to a chicken who sits in judgment of the actions of the humans around her. Alternatively, it might refer to a chicken who bestows the gift of good judgment on those people fortunate enough to encounter her.

Chickens have sometimes been used as a foil in both folk philosophy and physical comedy. But, perhaps unexpectedly, chickens have also featured in legal discussions. They have served as a metaphor in discussions of technology policy and law, and the definition of a "chicken" was the subject of a(n in)famous case in contract law - a case so well-known to generations of first year law students that it has spawned musical tributes.

However, the original Judgment Chicken that inspired this game was a doodle on a brick wall of a now relocated iconic Seattle coffee house. Judgment Chicken silently motivated the users of the table that she guarded to work diligently, reminding them that "Judgment Chicken watches." Although the original Judgment Chicken is no more, the concept of "friendly supervision" in cafes has now become a viable business model.

Clucky the AI Ethics CyberChicken, the helpful star of the Judgment Chicken game, is named in honor of Clippy, one of the original digital assistants. The much maligned (and maybe misunderstood) paperclip character in Microsoft Office during the 1990s was killed off, resurrected, and killed off a second time. Though no longer featured as a digital assistant in Microsoft products, Clippy nevertheless retains a cult following and, ultimately, he triumphantly returned in sticker pack form in 2021. If you would like your own Clucky the Cyberchicken (minus the personalized vest and excellent ethics judgment), a version is available here.

What's the history of branching-narrative games?

Branching-narrative games hold a seminal place in video game and Congressional history. In 1975, William Crowther created Adventure, or Colossal Cave Adventure, the first ever branching-narrative game.[i] As the first of the genre, it was entirely text-based.[ii] Today, almost 50 years later, the branching-narrative genre has progressed immensely. Recent titles in the genre have not only been greater in scope, but used photorealistic graphics allowing actors to appear in their own likenesses. Celebrity cameos in videogames are nothing new,[iii] but recent celebrity involvement in these games has become more serious. Noteworthy examples include Lin Shaye, David Arquette,[iv] and Academy-Award winner Rami Malek[v].

With half a century of development in the genre, it is worth looking back to see how we got from Adventure to where we are today. After Adventure came Zork. Like Adventure, Zork was a text-based branching-narrative game. However, Adventure was limited to simplistic commands, such as “attack troll,” while Zork allowed more complexity, such as “attack troll with sword.”[vi] Today this also might seem simplistic, but it was a large step forward at the time.

Then, in 1980, came the first adventure game with graphics. That game was Mystery House, a horror game created by Roberta and Ken Williams.[vii] The graphics in question were merely white lines on a black background, but this was revolutionary for the genre. Later that same year, Roberta and Ken Williams released the first ever full-color adventure game, Wizard and the Princess.[viii]

In 1983, the first interactive movie video game arrived in arcades with Dragon’s Lair.[ix] Despite being an interactive movie, it was fairly linear.[x] However, it began the full-motion video fad that eventually led to 1992’s Night Trap, a branching-narrative FMV horror game that became the topic of Congressional hearings, and, as a result, the creation of the ESRB video game rating system.[xi]

Due to the limitations of the early internet, online games were not very popular at first, and the vast majority of games came on physical media. The first online branching narrative game was the serial, text-based game Uncle Roger by Judy Malloy beginning in 1986 and concluding in 1987.[xii] This serial, now called episodic format, has more recently been popularized in the branching-narrative genre by developers such as Telltale Games and Dontnod.[xiii]

Over time, other genres of video games became more popular and branching-narrative games fell by the wayside. That is not to say they were not still being created; they were, and some of them were even being nominated for awards,[xiv] but they were certainly less popular than they once were. It was not until 2012 when Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Season One came out that the genre was given fresh life and popularity.[xv] The Walking Dead put emphasis on narrative, and, notably, gave players ominous messages after certain choices, stating that characters will remember what the player just did.[xvi] This made players put more thought into their actions lest they face unintended consequences. Even if those consequences were oversold in The Walking Dead, this led to future games in the genre where that is less true.[xvii]

The impact of the branching-narrative genre cannot be overstated. Video games from all genres now often include elements of branching-narrative. As of June of 2022, 6,180 video games on the online storefront Steam have been tagged with “Choices Matter,” signifying that in some way, they have a branching-narrative element.[xviii] Adventure inspired the creation of games like Life is Strange and Detroit: Become Human, which planted the seeds for games like The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe that poke fun at the genre. Branching-narrative is an ever-evolving genre, and, clearly, it is here to stay. Judgment Chicken contributes to this proud gaming tradition.

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[i] Video Game History Timeline – 1970s, Nat’l Mus. Of Play (last visited on June 9, 2022), https://www.museumofplay.org/video_games/.

[ii] Id.

[iii] Shaq Fu, IMDB (last visited on June 9, 2022), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301836/.

[iv] The Quarry, IMDB (last visited on June 9, 2022), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18815410/.

[v] Until Dawn, IMDB (last visited on June 9, 2022), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2742544/.

[vi] Bob Liddil, Zork, The Great Underground Empire, Byte Magazine (Feb. 1981), https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-02/page/n263/mode/2up?view=theater.

[vii] Boba Fatt, Feature: The 52 Most Important Video Games of All Time, GamePro (Apr. 25, 2007), https://web.archive.org/web/20070520142756/http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/international/games/features/110028.shtml.

[viii] Justin McElroy, Royal With Cheese: A King’s Quest Primer, Polygon (July 28, 2015), https://www.polygon.com/2015/7/28/9023667/kings-quest-history.

[ix] Mark Langshaw, Dragon’s Lair retrospective: How the quick time event was born, Digital Spy (Aug. 30, 2014), https://www.digitalspy.com/videogames/retro-gaming/a593480/dragons-lair-retrospective-how-the-quick-time-event-was-born/.

[x] Id.

[xi] Night Trap, IMDB (last visited on June 17, 2022), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105000/; Jeff Grubb, Night Trap, the cheesy FMV horror game that riled Congress, is back, VentureBeat (Apr. 25, 2017, https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/25/night-trap-the-cheesy-horror-game-that-riled-congress-is-back/.

[xii] Uncle Roger – World Wide Web Edition, Narrabse (last visited on June 17, 2022), https://www.narrabase.net/uncleroger/partytop.html.

[xiii] Brady Akins, 8 Of The Greatest Episodic Video Games, The Gamer (Aug. 15, 2021), https://www.thegamer.com/best-episodic-games/.

[xiv] Indigo Prophecy Awards, IMDB (Last visited on June 17, 2022), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476990/awards/?ref_=tt_awd.

[xv] Mathew Byrd, The Walking Dead: The False Promises of Telltale’s Masterpiece, Den of Geek (Sep. 24, 2018), https://www.denofgeek.com/games/the-walking-dead-false-promises-telltale/.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Steam Search Narrow by tag Choices Matter, Steam (last visited on June 17, 2022), https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=6426.

selective focus photography of black chi

Judgment Chicken is a branching-narrative game where you are the co-founder of a machine learning startup. As a co-founder, you will need to make ethical judgments in various scenarios involving artificial intelligence/ machine learning.

How do you play?

Hit PLAY and pick from one of the game chapters.

Watch the video clip that sets up each business dilemma
Select from two possible paths with various outcomes.
To assist you in making informed choices, Clucky the Cyberchicken, a helpful rubber chicken with a strong moral compass (and a stylish personalized vest), will sometimes offer you pointers to similar real-world scenarios and potentially relevant ideas from the study of ethics and law.

Your goal is to avoid scenarios that end badly. In other words, you will be faced with choices where some paths will inflict harm on yourself and others -- and those suboptimal choices could land you in prison, cause bankruptcy, and destroy your and your company's reputation.