Moral choices in games

Honestly I usually end up taking the "evil" route just because, lets be honest... the bad guys are always cooler. And come on, in a video game its always more fun to destroy the world then to try and save it. I'll save that for real life ;p

As far as that influencing my actions in the real world... I think it goes without saying that anyone over the age of 6 with a half stable mind probably isn't going to do anything irrational or immoral because of a game. Just my thoughts

The problem with moral choice systems is that, all they really boil down to is us acting like a goody two shoes with all the charisma of a beige wet dish rag, or a psychotic killing machine with no redeeming features at all. IE: all they do is force us to one of two extremes.

Personally, i always go good, simply because its more fun for me, and you always get better rewards. If someone has something I desperately need, I'm not above shooting them in the face and taking it, but then doing loads of nice things to get my character back to being uber good.

So I'm good most of the time, but nasty where I have to be,

Breakaway_republic said:

In tabletop RPGS We usually are told "YOU MAY NOT PLAY EITHER A VILLAIN OR ANTI-HERO." [as in no evil characters, not even NEUTRAL evil.] But some people become smegheads and become evil in their choices. Thankfully, the games are usually engineered so that we can't be evil... stress on the USUALLY.

BUUUT... to play an evil character would be quite fun. *Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Boss theme plays as evil Elf goes against a team of bumbling adventurers*

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Points for actually referencing Jazz Jackrabbit, I hadn't heard that title's name in forever.

1) To get the most out of the game (endings, know the full story, etc.) there will be a need to play both good and evil.

2) Playing both Good and Evil will teach you moral lessons. At least it should.

I can only hope that Mass Effect 2 presents more immoral, "Commissar Shepherd" choices. Should I just execute the hapless prisoner and get it over with? Should I shoot the loud ambassador in the knee cap? Should I eject the insubordinate Garrus out of the airlock and into space to watch his Turian blood boil? Decisions . . .

It's interesting how popular the moral compass mechanism has become in role playing games outside the traditional Dungeons & Dragons rule sets. It adds an interesting element to gameplay on top of the traditional 'open world' format that nearly adds a cinematic value to the whole thing. Sort of like Han Solo or Mad Max had those rough edges, we too can the green alien shoot first just to shut him up.

Kharak said:

I can only hope that Mass Effect 2 presents more immoral, "Commissar Shepherd" choices. Should I just execute the hapless prisoner and get it over with? Should I shoot the loud ambassador in the knee cap? Should I eject the insubordinate Garrus out of the airlock and into space to watch his Turian blood boil? Decisions . . .

It's interesting how popular the moral compass mechanism has become in role playing games outside the traditional Dungeons & Dragons rule sets. It adds an interesting element to gameplay on top of the traditional 'open world' format that nearly adds a cinematic value to the whole thing. Sort of like Han Solo or Mad Max had those rough edges, we too can the green alien shoot first just to shut him up.

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Its neat, I'll grant you, but it has some serious issues.

A previous poster touched on this previously, the moral choice systems are so binary its almost insane. Your choices are, in the immortal words of Yahtzee, are always either Mother Teresa or baby eating. There's no "Bad actions with good intentions" it's always either saving a bus load of nuns or blowing it up.

Also, the moral choice system often doesnt have much impact on the game itself. Fable is a good example. I played a game where I systematically slaughtered every town on the map except one AND I took an option at the end of the game that sunk my alignment like a lead weight and all that happened was people ran away from me and I grew huge freaking horns. Beyond that, there was no difference at all in what happened. My choices along the game path changed a little, but overall I still reached the same end with the same stuff and I could still pickup women with a few fart barrages and a Russian hat dance or two.

Someone here aside from me has read Yahtzee?

Well I think Mass Effect and, to an extent, Fallout 3 made admirable attempts at a middle ground. You can, after all, demand extra credits from anyone yet avoid killing them (unless it's for fun or they didn't shut up fast enough). The mercenary option is something that I've always seen as a middle ground between good and evil in games. Fallout 3's alternative endings can even be seen as sublimely gray, and the Enclave certainly see themselves as the good guys.

Though calling the Imperium of Man or Eldar in the Warhammer 40k games 'good guys' is stretching it. When do good guys commit galactic genocide?

Kharak said:

Someone here aside from me has read Yahtzee?

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I watch his Zero Punctuation feature The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation

Well I think Mass Effect and, to an extent, Fallout 3 made admirable attempts at a middle ground. You can, after all, demand extra credits from anyone yet avoid killing them (unless it's for fun or they didn't shut up fast enough). The mercenary option is something that I've always seen as a middle ground between good and evil in games. Fallout 3's alternative endings can even be seen as sublimely gray, and the Enclave certainly see themselves as the good guys.

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Arcanum I think had the best mix of good and evil.

Kharak said:

Someone here aside from me has read Yahtzee?

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Uh yeah! Don't be so pants-on-head....

Regarding the topic, I tend towards good characters, but I think being evil allows you to explore just how much freedom there is in the game. With being good, there's not usually so much choice between being nice, and then being even nicer, which usually just gets you more quest rewards.

With being evil however, there's being evil while staying in the quests, the given evil option. A good RPG however, will allow you to go apeing bonkers bananas psycho, usually in fairly inventive ways. I remember being quite impressed delving into proper RPGs like Fallout (the original one) after years spent playing games like Deus Ex, which, while good, made certain key characters invulnerable at various points to avoid the storyline getting too mucked up.

While one can be a jerk within the framework of the quests, Fallout is one of the few games I've played that allows you to opt to massacre any and every living thing in the game, eschewing quests for pure evil powerlevelling, which I found rather impressive.

The only other game I've liked being evil on is KOTOR, because you're just so overdramatically evil every time I make an evil choice I start giggling, and also you're wielding two red lightsabers and can fill an entire room with lightning.