Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.... Have I gone soft?

[DudeistBelieve]

So i boot up the game and everythings fine. I'm slashing through bad guys with the B button like a right sociopath, which is totally how I played Human Revolution by the way. I was looking way forward to so more full on sociopath powertrippin' stabbing my through my problems....

then after the first mission, I mean I saw it a mile away, the terrorist attack happens on the subway. And theres that little kid crying out for his mom who's clearly dead.

Annnnnnnnnd now? I don't want to play anymore.

Like I was thinking at that moment it was gonna segueway me into the next level and I was gonna be killing terrorists in the subway.... nope, next scene is jensen waking up in his apartment 30 hours removed from that very scene.

I imagine I'll pick it up again at some point.... But I want others to pass judgement on my feelings, cause I shut the game off. Have I gone soft?

 

[Saelune]

Soft? Soft how? By not being a sociopath?

Why do you say this like it is a negative?

 

[distortedreality]

I think you've finally realised that this aggression will not stand, man.

You should probably blame Donny.

 

[DeadProxy]

Or the game did a good job poking you in the feels?

You'll get plenty of chances to be a crazy murderer later, don't worry. Just stick to the "aug" lines in the subway. Everytime you use the non-aug lines, guards get in your face and you'll feel like you're hardly human.

 

[Catfood220]

Or the game did a good job poking you in the feels?

You'll get plenty of chances to be a crazy murderer later, don't worry. Just stick to the "aug" lines in the subway. Everytime you use the non-aug lines, guards get in your face and you'll feel like you're hardly human.

I used the non-aug lines all the time out of principle. They aren't going to tell me where I can and can't walk. Plus it is fun whenever the guards have an attitude with Jenson until he shows them his papers and they realize who they are fucking with and their shitty attitude disappears.

 

[DeadProxy]

Or the game did a good job poking you in the feels?

You'll get plenty of chances to be a crazy murderer later, don't worry. Just stick to the "aug" lines in the subway. Everytime you use the non-aug lines, guards get in your face and you'll feel like you're hardly human.

I used the non-aug lines all the time out of principle. They aren't going to tell me where I can and can't walk. Plus it is fun whenever the guards have an attitude with Jenson until he shows them his papers and they realize who they are fucking with and their shitty attitude disappears.

I had fun doing that too, it's great when you can hear the fear creep into their voice, but on my second playthrough, I noticed how much time I was saving by not triggering the scenes. Riding the human train though was awesome, with that stupid lady clutching her kid like I was gonna eat him.

 

[sageoftruth]

A bit of characterization goes a long way. The deaths of guards who do nothing but stalk and shoot at you is peanuts compared to the suffering of an NPC who is given even an inkling of character. So, no I don't think you've gone soft.

 

[happyninja42]

So i boot up the game and everythings fine. I'm slashing through bad guys with the B button like a right sociopath, which is totally how I played Human Revolution by the way. I was looking way forward to so more full on sociopath powertrippin' stabbing my through my problems....

then after the first mission, I mean I saw it a mile away, the terrorist attack happens on the subway. And theres that little kid crying out for his mom who's clearly dead.

Annnnnnnnnd now? I don't want to play anymore.

Like I was thinking at that moment it was gonna segueway me into the next level and I was gonna be killing terrorists in the subway.... nope, next scene is jensen waking up in his apartment 30 hours removed from that very scene.

I imagine I'll pick it up again at some point.... But I want others to pass judgement on my feelings, cause I shut the game off. Have I gone soft?

Why did you turn it off? I mean you don't really give any context as to what emotional state changed for you when that happened.

Were you suddenly feeling like you were playing the very monster they feared you, and all augs, would be? Thus making you not feel like "the good guy"? Did it suddenly bring some kind of "stakes are real" feel to you that you didn't want in your hack n slash game? Why did you shut it off?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

So i boot up the game and everythings fine. I'm slashing through bad guys with the B button like a right sociopath, which is totally how I played Human Revolution by the way. I was looking way forward to so more full on sociopath powertrippin' stabbing my through my problems....

then after the first mission, I mean I saw it a mile away, the terrorist attack happens on the subway. And theres that little kid crying out for his mom who's clearly dead.

Annnnnnnnnd now? I don't want to play anymore.

Like I was thinking at that moment it was gonna segueway me into the next level and I was gonna be killing terrorists in the subway.... nope, next scene is jensen waking up in his apartment 30 hours removed from that very scene.

I imagine I'll pick it up again at some point.... But I want others to pass judgement on my feelings, cause I shut the game off. Have I gone soft?

Why did you turn it off? I mean you don't really give any context as to what emotional state changed for you when that happened.

Were you suddenly feeling like you were playing the very monster they feared you, and all augs, would be? Thus making you not feel like "the good guy"? Did it suddenly bring some kind of "stakes are real" feel to you that you didn't want in your hack n slash game? Why did you shut it off?

Because the fun novelty of being a sociopath cyborg with blades sticking out of every oriface kinda fell apart when I heard a kid crying of his dead mom. It got way too Simba-Lion King for me.

Ya know the whole slipping into a power fantasy to escape the horrors of the real world, except it stops being a power fantasy when even when Jensen uses his mighty robo-strength to clear the rubble she's still dead.

Soft? Soft how? By not being a sociopath?

Why do you say this like it is a negative?

My previous run through in Human Revolution? I played Jensen as a straight serial killer. There was some mission where I needed a USB drive and this guy had it but he was only going to give it to me if I did a quest for him. I just killed him and took the drive.... eventually I started killing people in the hub world and dragging them back to Jensen's apartment.

After all, they're not real. Hell I've gone through and played COD's NO RUSSIAN while blasting Metallica's for Whom The Bell Tolls.

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

 

[happyninja42]

Because the fun novelty of being a sociopath cyborg with blades sticking out of every oriface kinda fell apart when I heard a kid crying of his dead mom. It got way too Simba-Lion King for me.

Ya know the whole slipping into a power fantasy to escape the horrors of the real world, except it stops being a power fantasy when even when Jensen uses his mighty robo-strength to clear the rubble she's still dead.

So? You were playing a psychotic killer, in your own playthrough you probably would've just shanked her yourself and dragged her corpse back to your lair as a trophy. Why would, in this power fantasy murder spree of yours, another death matter at all? The sadness that her death was not at your own hands? I mean you do realize that all those people you murdered in the other playthrough, and up to that point in the Mankind Divided playthrough, likely had a person like that kid, crying over their corpse. "Why? Why did my daddy get killed by a murder cyborg with a death boner? Whyyyyy?! Daddy! Wake up daddy! Why are you gurgling blood from your every orifice as if someone cracked all your limbs like you were a flesh pinata?" I mean, is your disconnect that clean that it never occurred to you this was happening too?

My previous run through in Human Revolution? I played Jensen as a straight serial killer. There was some mission where I needed a USB drive and this guy had it but he was only going to give it to me if I did a quest for him. I just killed him and took the drive.... eventually I started killing people in the hub world and dragging them back to Jensen's apartment.

After all, they're not real. Hell I've gone through and played COD's NO RUSSIAN while blasting Metallica's for Whom The Bell Tolls.

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

Well then perhaps you could turn it into one of those stories where the villain has a change of heart and decides, instead of killing the entire world, to try and save the people around him?

I dunno. I mean, if you were genuinely having fun making piles of bodies at your apartment with this character, I don't know why seeing someone dead from a blast, (a blast that was in every single trailer for the game I might add), would really bother you.

All I can say is, maybe you should change the nature of your power fantasy to the one that I usually indulge, which is the "someone to save the day when in reality nobody would probably be able to help". And you can actually help people, instead of making blood sprinklers with their corpses on your balcony. I personally find that to be very escapist in nature, but that's me.

bottom line, I can't make you stop feeling bad about playing a psychopath, and I'm not really sure if that's something you should aim for as a person you know?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Because the fun novelty of being a sociopath cyborg with blades sticking out of every oriface kinda fell apart when I heard a kid crying of his dead mom. It got way too Simba-Lion King for me.

Ya know the whole slipping into a power fantasy to escape the horrors of the real world, except it stops being a power fantasy when even when Jensen uses his mighty robo-strength to clear the rubble she's still dead.

So? You were playing a psychotic killer, in your own playthrough you probably would've just shanked her yourself and dragged her corpse back to your lair as a trophy. Why would, in this power fantasy murder spree of yours, another death matter at all? The sadness that her death was not at your own hands? I mean you do realize that all those people you murdered in the other playthrough, and up to that point in the Mankind Divided playthrough, likely had a person like that kid, crying over their corpse. "Why? Why did my daddy get killed by a murder cyborg with a death boner? Whyyyyy?! Daddy! Wake up daddy! Why are you gurgling blood from your every orifice as if someone cracked all your limbs like you were a flesh pinata?" I mean, is your disconnect that clean that it never occurred to you this was happening too?

My previous run through in Human Revolution? I played Jensen as a straight serial killer. There was some mission where I needed a USB drive and this guy had it but he was only going to give it to me if I did a quest for him. I just killed him and took the drive.... eventually I started killing people in the hub world and dragging them back to Jensen's apartment.

After all, they're not real. Hell I've gone through and played COD's NO RUSSIAN while blasting Metallica's for Whom The Bell Tolls.

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

Well then perhaps you could turn it into one of those stories where the villain has a change of heart and decides, instead of killing the entire world, to try and save the people around him?

I dunno. I mean, if you were genuinely having fun making piles of bodies at your apartment with this character, I don't know why seeing someone dead from a blast, (a blast that was in every single trailer for the game I might add), would really bother you.

All I can say is, maybe you should change the nature of your power fantasy to the one that I usually indulge, which is the "someone to save the day when in reality nobody would probably be able to help". And you can actually help people, instead of making blood sprinklers with their corpses on your balcony. I personally find that to be very escapist in nature, but that's me.

bottom line, I can't make you stop feeling bad about playing a psychopath, and I'm not really sure if that's something you should aim for as a person you know?

That be an interesting way to role play it, be a monster with a sudden conscious.

I still find it weird it struck a cord with me as powerful as it did.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

So i boot up the game and everythings fine. I'm slashing through bad guys with the B button like a right sociopath, which is totally how I played Human Revolution by the way. I was looking way forward to so more full on sociopath powertrippin' stabbing my through my problems....

then after the first mission, I mean I saw it a mile away, the terrorist attack happens on the subway. And theres that little kid crying out for his mom who's clearly dead.

Annnnnnnnnd now? I don't want to play anymore.

Like I was thinking at that moment it was gonna segueway me into the next level and I was gonna be killing terrorists in the subway.... nope, next scene is jensen waking up in his apartment 30 hours removed from that very scene.

I imagine I'll pick it up again at some point.... But I want others to pass judgement on my feelings, cause I shut the game off. Have I gone soft?

Why did you turn it off? I mean you don't really give any context as to what emotional state changed for you when that happened.

Were you suddenly feeling like you were playing the very monster they feared you, and all augs, would be? Thus making you not feel like "the good guy"? Did it suddenly bring some kind of "stakes are real" feel to you that you didn't want in your hack n slash game? Why did you shut it off?

Because the fun novelty of being a sociopath cyborg with blades sticking out of every oriface kinda fell apart when I heard a kid crying of his dead mom. It got way too Simba-Lion King for me.

Ya know the whole slipping into a power fantasy to escape the horrors of the real world, except it stops being a power fantasy when even when Jensen uses his mighty robo-strength to clear the rubble she's still dead.

Soft? Soft how? By not being a sociopath?

Why do you say this like it is a negative?

My previous run through in Human Revolution? I played Jensen as a straight serial killer. There was some mission where I needed a USB drive and this guy had it but he was only going to give it to me if I did a quest for him. I just killed him and took the drive.... eventually I started killing people in the hub world and dragging them back to Jensen's apartment.

After all, they're not real. Hell I've gone through and played COD's NO RUSSIAN while blasting Metallica's for Whom The Bell Tolls.

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

One of those USB guys could've been the father of that kid crying for his dead mom though too, you know?

Anyways, consider it a plus that a game was able to turn off your virtual sociopath autopilot mode. For example, there's a good chance your sinister interpretation of the No Russian thing was probably the exact opposite that devs intended people to have while playing, but oh well. That's their bad for not building any meaningful context to the violence beforehand.

Being desensitized to violence and/or being amused by it in a black humor, tongue-in-cheek sort of way is one thing, but it's when people get off on it like

that could make videogames a good profiling tool. Gotta look for the warning signs.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

snip

That be an interesting way to role play it, be a monster with a sudden conscious.

I still find it weird it struck a cord with me as powerful as it did.

I'd say just hang on to the game in this manner if I were you. Resume play as if you had a sudden realization that all the killing isn't necessary. It can take effort to play the fully evil sociopath.

There are so many options in games where it's blatantly evil, just for the sake of it (rather than say, convenience, such as for the USB stick). It actually takes a conscious effort for me to stick to my resolve to be the absolute abominable, insufferable asshole the world has ever seen - yet I stick to it as long as I can. Because I usually start out a game with that fixed in mind - I'm either going all good or all bad, because middle of the road is usually boring unless you are playing distinct D&D alignments.

It's good to be self-aware, to see where your principles lie, and how you feel about certain scenarios. The disconnect is what makes you realize who you are. Hang on to them, because subconsciously those reactions are a minute representation of how you would(should?) feel upon hearing someone do those things in real life. Fuck me, I'm sounding like a psycho-analyst right now but you know what I mean. Better than to sit there questioning yourself, why am I doing this? Am I really fantasizing about ripping innocent people to shreds? Or does this game just make it look cool?

Edit: reworded first paragraph to summarize what I'm trying to say better

 

[DudeistBelieve]

snip

That be an interesting way to role play it, be a monster with a sudden conscious.

I still find it weird it struck a cord with me as powerful as it did.

I'd say just hang on to the game in this manner if I were you. Resume play as if you had a sudden realization that all the killing isn't necessary. It can take effort to play the fully evil sociopath.

There are so many options in games where it's blatantly evil, just for the sake of it (rather than say, convenience, such as for the USB stick). It actually takes a conscious effort for me to stick to my resolve to be the absolute abominable, insufferable asshole the world has ever seen - yet I stick to it as long as I can. Because I usually start out a game with that fixed in mind - I'm either going all good or all bad, because middle of the road is usually boring unless you are playing distinct D&D alignments.

It's good to be self-aware, to see where your principles lie, and how you feel about certain scenarios. The disconnect is what makes you realize who you are. Hang on to them, because subconsciously those reactions are a minute representation of how you would(should?) feel upon hearing someone do those things in real life. Fuck me, I'm sounding like a psycho-analyst right now but you know what I mean. Better than to sit there questioning yourself, why am I doing this? Am I really fantasizing about ripping innocent people to shreds? Or does this game just make it look cool?

Edit: reworded first paragraph to summarize what I'm trying to say better

I mean I don't need to pyscho analyze... remember that part of wreck it ralph where he sees the kids bullying the girl? ya know, you can be cruel to people as much as you want, do unto others, but children are vulnerable and off limits.

Ya know... it's one thing blow off steam cause you feel fucked over by society. It's another if that "blowing off steam" hurts a kid, ya know?

Or maybe I don't know. and maybe I'd be okay not knowing.

So i boot up the game and everythings fine. I'm slashing through bad guys with the B button like a right sociopath, which is totally how I played Human Revolution by the way. I was looking way forward to so more full on sociopath powertrippin' stabbing my through my problems....

then after the first mission, I mean I saw it a mile away, the terrorist attack happens on the subway. And theres that little kid crying out for his mom who's clearly dead.

Annnnnnnnnd now? I don't want to play anymore.

Like I was thinking at that moment it was gonna segueway me into the next level and I was gonna be killing terrorists in the subway.... nope, next scene is jensen waking up in his apartment 30 hours removed from that very scene.

I imagine I'll pick it up again at some point.... But I want others to pass judgement on my feelings, cause I shut the game off. Have I gone soft?

Why did you turn it off? I mean you don't really give any context as to what emotional state changed for you when that happened.

Were you suddenly feeling like you were playing the very monster they feared you, and all augs, would be? Thus making you not feel like "the good guy"? Did it suddenly bring some kind of "stakes are real" feel to you that you didn't want in your hack n slash game? Why did you shut it off?

Because the fun novelty of being a sociopath cyborg with blades sticking out of every oriface kinda fell apart when I heard a kid crying of his dead mom. It got way too Simba-Lion King for me.

Ya know the whole slipping into a power fantasy to escape the horrors of the real world, except it stops being a power fantasy when even when Jensen uses his mighty robo-strength to clear the rubble she's still dead.

Soft? Soft how? By not being a sociopath?

Why do you say this like it is a negative?

My previous run through in Human Revolution? I played Jensen as a straight serial killer. There was some mission where I needed a USB drive and this guy had it but he was only going to give it to me if I did a quest for him. I just killed him and took the drive.... eventually I started killing people in the hub world and dragging them back to Jensen's apartment.

After all, they're not real. Hell I've gone through and played COD's NO RUSSIAN while blasting Metallica's for Whom The Bell Tolls.

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

One of those USB guys could've been the father of that kid crying for his dead mom though too, you know?

Anyways, consider it a plus that a game was able to turn off your virtual sociopath autopilot mode. For example, there's a good chance your sinister interpretation of the No Russian thing was probably the exact opposite that devs intended people to have while playing, but oh well. That's their bad for not building any meaningful context to the violence beforehand.

Being desensitized to violence and/or being amused by it in a black humor, tongue-in-cheek sort of way is one thing, but it's when people get off on it like

that could make videogames a good profiling tool. Gotta look for the warning signs.

hey. Some times you want to role play a villain. theres nothing wrong with that.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

So the game was able to pull your emotional strings. Isn't that a good thing?

Can't say i experienced anything similar... well maybe in Hotline Miami; after beating each level the blood-pumping soundtrack fades away and instead that somber tune starts. One time when that happened i looked at the level map, and the carnage i was responsible for and thought to myself "Jesus, that's kinda fucked up".
But nothing like killing the game for me.
Then again i usually play as Goody-Two-Shoes and only switch to murderous psycho when i'm bored or get frustrated.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

So I am a bit shocked that a video game actually got me to feel upset enough to the point I didn't want to keep playing.

A bit of advice? Don't play Spec Ops the Line, if this scene made you wanna stop playing.

Gut punch after gut punch after gut punch, and then a sock right to the jaw. If you like games to challenge you emotionally, like me, you'll love it. If you don't...Well, you won't enjoy the game.

Anyway, back to Deus Ex.

The subway scene didn't super get to me, but it made me go "Welp, this game's gonna be darker than the last. Alright, now I really wanna find out who did this, decent hook, game". Honestly, as soon as I hear the kid call for his mom, I assumed tragically dead instantly. That's how this kind of writing goes.

And man, there's been several other heart tugging moments for me so far. I haven't even gotten to the Golem City segment and I've already had one sidequest in particular tug a few arteries loose. ;_; THAT hurt. Way more than the thing with the kid.