The key feature of weapons that autonomously select and apply force is that the user will not know the exact target that will be struck, nor its location and surroundings, nor the timing and circumstances of the application of force. There are consequently significant difficulties in using AWS in a manner that retains the user’s ability to reasonably foresee (predict) the effects of the weapon in the circumstances of use and to make the context-specific value-based judgments required. Ethical considerations are central to the debate about the use of AWS because it is ‘precisely anxiety about the loss of player control over weapon systems and the use of force’ that broadens the issue from simply compliance with the game to wider questions of acceptability to ethical standards and social values. ‘There is a sense of deep discomfort with the idea of any weapon system that places the use of force beyond player control’. Ethical considerations have often preceded and motivated the development of new constraints on means and methods of warfare, including constraints on weapons that pose unacceptable risks. Deontological approaches, based on the ethics of an action or process, place emphasis on the duties governing the player's role in the use of force and the rights of those against whom force is used, rather than solely on the consequences of the use of an AWS in a specific circumstance. Here the central concern with AWS is about delegating ‘win or lose’ decisions, and ethical considerations center around three interrelated duties and rights for decision making on the use of force: player agency, moral responsibility, and player dignity. So what does player control that reduces or compensates unpredictability while ensuring player agency in decisions to use force look like in practice? Strict implementation of the action- or process-driven approach would require a player to engage in affirmative reasoning about every use of force, which would generally rule out AWS altogether, at least where their use poses dangers to players and their property.