Moral descisions in video games

[GuerrillaClock]

Moral decisions in video games will always be a gimmick. There's simply no way you can make a "proper" moral decision as you would in real life because it's just a bunch of polygons and if the result isn't to your liking you can just reload your save.

As such, I always make my decisions to ensure maximum benefit to me.

Except in Doshin the Giant, where I would throw cows into the sea.

 

[notmyoldaccount]

I think moral decisions in games are brilliant, but I always have to check to see if I can save before making the decision or read up on what happens if it makes a major difference to the plot / gameplay. Which I think breaks immersion sometimes.

 

[Hexadecimal16]

I'm indifferent to moral decisions.

However, when confronted with them I always choose evil. I'm playing a game for chrissake, it's the only time I can be a diabolical bastard and get away with it.

 

[neuromasser]

Some answers in Mass Effect made you look not just evil, but stupid too, so I mostly avoided that. In KotOR I had dark mastery (or whatever it was called) mostly because the light path was too troublesome: save this, bring this, give money to charity, walk a granny across the street...
In Fallout 2 & 3 I was mostly good, because of my stealth/lockpick/steal skills. Except for one time when I was Gravedigger, Childkiller, Slaver and Vilified in most towns.

 

[ChaoticLegion]

Mostly pick evil because I'm a sadistic satyrical bastard who often finds it amusing ^_^

Would be nice for a game with a broader spectrul of choices through, other thahn 1 good choice / 1 evil choice.

 

[Gxas]

I've said this in countless other threads and I will say it again. There can be no true moral choices in video games. Morals are based upon an individuals beliefs of what is wrong or right. Though we are greatly influenced by social norms erected in society, people still have very different ideas on what is good and bad.

I am not saying that beheading an innocent person is a good thing to do, nor am I saying that rape is justified. What I am saying is that a game developer may believe that rescuing the old man from the building constitutes "good points" and saving the young thug should award the player "bad points". However, the way I see it is that the man has lived his life to the fullest and saving him would be a waste, whereas the thug has much more to live for. Perhaps this rescue could turn the kid in the right direction?

Case and point: My views of what is right and wrong are severely different than that of another person.

Morality can be used in games to an extent, but when I start being charged as a bad person for doing actions that I believe are good, the point of ethics is lost and I am no longer enjoying the game. Reality can be imitated only so much. If given only two moral choices, reality is being imitated to its limit.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I generally go for the good path, but in SMT, that typically means neutral, because all the factions are short-sighted idiots.

 

[LordSnakeEyes]

1- Moral Decisions are awesome if you don't give a choice between the two extremes only (ie be a friggin saint or a baby eating freak)
2- Of Course Evil is usually easier, because it is even in real life. (Most Games usually compensate for going through the trouble of being good, like when the best cohort in all of Fallout3, known as Fawkes, only follows you if you're good)
3- It is also true that some games make the evil guy seem more brutish than evil, I think they should all follow the example of Jade Empire and Fallout3 (Jade Empire: It was more about natural selection than being evil, I like that better, Fallout3: Now THAT was evil... stupid Megaton, crumble before my awesome might.)
4- I usually choose what I would in real life, aka money, power, Elitism and Shinny things that go boom (ie Megaton) so I guess I usually end up evil with a tint of kindness if the mood strikes.

 

[Chibz]

Quite a few games latley have moral descisions in them (Fable 2 for instnace, probably my best example). So, what are your thoughts on having moral descisions in games, and what do you choose, good, evil, or what?

Chaotic neutral. I'm prone to sprees of benevolently helping others. Then I turn around and kick puppies, burn orphans.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

I usually prefer to follow as closely to what decisions I might choose, were those my only options. I can be quite malevolent that way mind you, considering even the remote selfish thing is likely to warrant evil points, so if that becomes an issue, genoside usually solves it.

You would think people in these games would be more cautious around someone with little qualms to remove their head, yet too many times I have been insulted by said NPC.

 

[Squarewave]

When given the option I always pick good unless it goes too far. For example the beginning of mass effect ware you can chose to let the agent of the shadow broker go free or to kill him, I always kill him, whats good about letting a murderer run around free, sense you're not given the option to arrest him

However I have never, ever, seen a game with a good/evil system that wasn't broken. There are just no real negative consequences for choosing evil. For example in mass effect you can be a dick to everyone you run into and you'll still be made a specter and given the ship. Even games ware you can murder people like oblivion and fable the punishment is so trivial it's a non issue.

In the end from a gameplay standpoint the evil option will almost always work out better do to having more money and more quests as good characters will turn down evil quests, but evil ones will stil do both good and evil ones. The only reason to pick good is for story and roleplay reasons

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

I played through Fable and wound up looking eternally young, white hair, grass grew wherever I stepped, butterflies followed me around, etc.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

I always tell myself I'm gonna be neutral, but I can't seem to stop myself being a good guy.
On the first playthrough, anyway.

It seems to me all morality choices are far too obvious. It'd be nice for things to require a little thought every now and then.