User blog comment:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: Russel Van Pelt/@comment-1705775-20191216001322

problem with Jumanji is even when you remove the magical elements of it and replace it with machines you still have moral agency problems because the characters are part of the "game" and thus are doing what the game demands of them.. Van Pelt in the original was literally part of the game (confirmed as a vital part of it, actually, in the series) and he was thus just a part of Jumanji, rather than an independent entity.

I think the whole theme of Jumanji is that the game itself is the debatable enemy and everyone else, even Van Pelt, are just parts of said game.