Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a thrid-person stealth shooter with an open world. It picks up from the events of its predecessor, Ground Zeroes, in which the protagonist Snake's organisation's base ("Mother Base") is destroyed and Snake himself is killed, but fails. Metal Gear Solid V begins nine years later, in 1984, in which the player, as Snake, awakens from a coma and, together with the last survivor of the destroyed "Mother Base", forms a new mercenary group, the "Diamond Dogs", with whom they want to take revenge on those responsible for the destruction. The game's task is to rebuild the base and find those responsible. To do this, you are guided through missions that contribute to the continuation of the story and "side-ops" that allow the player to obtain more resources and recruit new soldiers. The game is divided into a prologue and three chapters, which consist of different episodes (missions). Before each mission, the player can choose weapons, partners ("buddies"), gadgets and also the time of deployment. By expanding their base or researching weapons, gadgets and armour, the player increases the possibilities for shaping the course of action during the mission. In addition to managing the base, the player has the task of analysing the mission area during a mission, developing a strategy and ultimately executing it. The approach, i.e. the strategy (from sneaking to open weapon fights), is up to the player, as long as the goal of the mission is achieved at the end. For this purpose, players can first explore the area to be infiltrated and analyse the relative positions of the opponents in order to develop a promising strategy. In addition, the game encourages players not to eliminate enemies, but to recruit them instead.

The research on Metal Gear Solid V. The Phantom Pain focuses on the learning potential of strategic and analytical thinking and the transmission of values and norms. In MGSV, players are guided through the game by means of missions that, due to their complexity and the given freedom of design, have the potential to encourage players to think analytically and strategically. Furthermore, values and norms could be conveyed through the narrative. For example, we are investigating whether and under what conditions players decide to eliminate opponents or to recruit them instead, and to what extent moral considerations play a role in this. Specifically, we are investigating the question of whether players make their decisions in the game on an analytical, strategic or moral basis. For this purpose, we observe test persons while they play the game, analyse their gameplay and interview them about it after the game.