Poll: Best Mass Effect Moral Conundrum

[LawlessSquirrel]

Samara/Morinth is the lowest one? Wow, did I judge that wrong.

My second choice would be the council one, or perhaps Ashley/Kaiden, but for the most part I at least could feel I'd done the right thing. The Samara/Morinth one leaves me feeling guilty no matter what happens.

The Geth one interested me, but I feel no remorse for ordering the rewrite. They're not human, they have their own morals and ethics, and by their standards rewriting was not deemed wrong. I'm not one to impose my morals on another race.

 

[crudus]

The Geth choice. I really had to think what was better. I thought about what is better for everyone. What I would do in that situation and what I would like to have done to me in that situation. I actually put the controller down and ate dinner mulling it over. I honestly would have given the game much more credit as an art if they actually made it so both options gave you renegade points. This wasn't a black or white decision like they make it; it was actually black and black. They were both equally evil[footnote]for lack of a better word[/footnote] things to do in my opinion. Hell, if I was the developer in charge of this and I had to make it so one choice was paragon, I would have made genocide the paragon choice.

The Geth mission prompted a lot more thought for me because it touched on a lot more than its surface suggested, i.e. free will versus biological lives which were at stake.

Oh it touched on a lot more than that. It actually asks things like "what is free will", "what is happiness", "what does it mean to be free", "would you prefer to live in slavery happy or die". The list just goes on. It was definitely one of the best moments in the Mass Effect series (and probably always will be). Sadly it was sullied by their "morality" system.

Ashley vs Kaidan. Although my female adept was romancing Kaidan, giving up Ashley pretty much meant giving up my soldier.

I am actually surprised people answer this. All the people I know who play this game are just like "later Kaiden, you suck".

Saving Ashley and Kaidan was by far the easiest choice out of all of them. Kaidan was such a douche. I had no desire to save him, that and Ashley was just more useful all around.

Yeah, like that.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

What about all the choices I had to make during the suicide mission when I thought any single one could equal death!? It was stressful!

 

[Yellowstone]

Ultimately, I remembered that it was Sovereign that was responsible for changing the Geth's programming, and what he did is more akin to the indoctrination on organics than it is a means of "persuasion." The game and extra credits kept trying to present it as an analog between groups who just held different perspectives, but I did not see it that way. Those Geth did not have a choice to serve Sovereign, and I was freeing them.

I've seen multiple people make this claim, and it's just not true. The game never states that the initial decision on the part of the heretics was made under the influence of Sovereign/Nazara. Nazara offered to help the geth achieve their goal of building a Dyson Sphere that would house all the geth. Most of the geth rejected this aid, while a small percentage accepted it. This choice was freely made, and accepted peacefully by the "true geth." Nazara would go on to manipulate the heretic geth to serve as brainwashed soldiers, and one could use your argument to support rewriting that brainwashing. You can't use it as an argument in favor of editing the choice to follow the Reapers, though.

 

[Asturiel]

Spoiler

Have you seen what happens when you decide to tell the truth? Its very dark.

Spoiler

No I hadn't seen that, I chickend out and took the option that everybody was happy with. But I honestly feel that Bioware punted that by letting people detour it. There was so much good in there if you forced the player to make a meaningful decision. Gah!

EDIT: I'm frankly surprised that people found the Ashley/Kaiden thing hard to do. Ashley was a ***** and a racist (speciesist?) I wasn't sad to see her go.

 

[TilMorrow]

For me it was the decision of whether I should or should not destroy the reapers base after clearing it of all the collectors. On one hand it could be used to further the research Cerberus has on the reapers and potentially used against them in the fight to come but on the other hand Cerberus could use it in ways I could not foresee (remember the Thorian project from ME1?) and possibly do more harm than good and the reapers may recover the base quite easily if they decide to go after it.

I'd say the second biggest conundrum for me is the council's fate decision.

 

[Jfswift]

The Geth choice. I really had to think what was better. I thought about what is better for everyone. What I would do in that situation and what I would like to have done to me in that situation. I actually put the controller down and ate dinner mulling it over. I honestly would have given the game much more credit as an art if they actually made it so both options gave you renegade points. This wasn't a black or white decision like they make it; it was actually black and black. They were both equally evil[footnote]for lack of a better word[/footnote] things to do in my opinion. Hell, if I was the developer in charge of this and I had to make it so one choice was paragon, I would have made genocide the paragon choice.

*shrug* To be fair, Kaidan isn't exactly very likeable. I wouldn't bother trying to romance him had I chosen the female path. He's rude to Ashley early in the game although he does redeem himself but defending a girl in his training class (in his past). I made my choice based mostly on the fact that I had used Ashley for the majority of the game and it's pointless to get rid of her when she's so useful as a soldier.

I agree on the Geth decision as being quite large. I hesitated there, not sure of what to do. I honestly don't remember which decision I went with anymore. I believe I chose to reprogram them since neither decision was exactly appealing (what was interesting is that I had Tali with me at this point and she actually was appalled by this until Legion spoke up, convincing her that his race had a different view on morals really.) I mean to be fair, Legion goes by his own sense of morals. Is it right to apply a human sense to his race?

The biggest decision in my opinion was at the end of the first game when you had to make a decision as to whether you should wait for the other fleets to arrive or move in with the human fleet (at great loss of life) to save the council and prevent the Reaper from transmitting out. This was the first time ever in a game that I actually stopped in my tracks, deliberating for quite some time over what to do. In the end I decided that the council was necesesary for galactic stability and stopping the Reaper was a high priority for everyone. Had I waited for the other races to arrive it might have had time to transmit out for help so all races including human would be in trouble (it's too bad the game wasn't structured so this scenario actually could happen, I mean with the Reaper actually calling out to get help if you waited too long).

Anyway I just don't want to come across as shallow like in my last response. I wish more games were like Mass Effect really.

 

[Dendio]

There's potential for real character development which isn't there with Morinth. Morinth will never change, she's an addict. Everything she does is merely to feed her addiction.

Morinth opened up the least of all the characters in ME2. As a result i think she has a lot of potential as far as character development. When I went into Me2 i wanted my crew from Me1. Now going into Me3 I want my Me2 crew. After the way Me2 opened, I dont know what to expect from me3

 

[Loop Stricken]

I'll be honest, I never had to think about making any of these choices. And I was always ALWAYS going to rewrite the geth instead of destroy them.

Geth are cool.

 

[TWRule]

Ultimately, I remembered that it was Sovereign that was responsible for changing the Geth's programming, and what he did is more akin to the indoctrination on organics than it is a means of "persuasion." The game and extra credits kept trying to present it as an analog between groups who just held different perspectives, but I did not see it that way. Those Geth did not have a choice to serve Sovereign, and I was freeing them.

I've seen multiple people make this claim, and it's just not true. The game never states that the initial decision on the part of the heretics was made under the influence of Sovereign/Nazara. Nazara offered to help the geth achieve their goal of building a Dyson Sphere that would house all the geth. Most of the geth rejected this aid, while a small percentage accepted it. This choice was freely made, and accepted peacefully by the "true geth." Nazara would go on to manipulate the heretic geth to serve as brainwashed soldiers, and one could use your argument to support rewriting that brainwashing. You can't use it as an argument in favor of editing the choice to follow the Reapers, though.

Yes, to clarify, I would't have rewritten the Geth if their differing way of thinking had been of their own free will. All I remember specifically about Sovereign's interaction with the Geth was that he changed some fundamental logic process which forced them to come to a certain conclusion (which I thought also involved worshiping the Reapers as Gods, but maybe I'm mistaken). In any case, it was only that change that I hoped to address by rewriting them - it was not my intention to prevent them from ever deciding (of their own free will) to follow the reapers again.

 

[War Pony]

A little lengthy.

Spoiler: Mass Effect choices, mostly

I think the first time I played through I let the Rachni queen go, hoping that she wasn't lying her royal tits off about being peaceful. The Council lecturing me on letting her go made me feel like I suddenly donned a dunce cap. Now on current playthroughs I let her go for the sake of an army.

The first time I played I sent Ashley with Kirrahe because I figured, "Hey, you wanna go so damned badly? Then GO." But I backtracked to Kaiden with the bomb because I thought I was making absolutely sure the bomb was going to go off. Now it's a far more selfish choice of whoever I'm romancing, or going to whoever the AA tower because the cutscene that plays after the boss fight looks more... "appropriate."

I abandoned the Council on the first playthrough because I thought, "Sorry, your positions will be refilled AFTER THE GALAXY IS SAVED." Turns out that 1) After another playthrough, this time saving the Council, the game looks the same and 2) In ME 2, a human council is created on the Citadel, not another turian, asari, and salarian voted in or whatever the process is, and the human council wants ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. I save the Council every time I play ME now, regardless of alignment.

The first time I played the first one I was pretty much, "Have at him, Garrus." As for now, Garrus in the first one depends on my alignment, but I always let him kill Sidonis in the second one because I found the most disturbing thing in the game to be fighting off mercs amongst the twelve bodies of Garrus' old team.

Spoiler: Mass Effect 2

The rewriting/destroying the geth thing came off as a "I think I can use them as an army if they're all like Legion" excuse and rewrote them. Now it just depends on alignment.

The genophage one is actually the most difficult for me in a different way, because no matter how I play, I always tell Mordin that the genophage was right, but to keep the work for a severe "JUST IN CASE" moment. The krogan do not need the genophage cure. They have proven capable of destroying a planet in 300 years after introduction if left to their own devices. This loyalty mission breaks roleplaying for me.

The first time I played through the game I didn't have enough Paragon points to choose. When I do, I never choose Morinth. Ever. It was pretty cut and dry for me. I felt that it would only be a matter of time before I start losing crew to the succubus.

As for destroying the Collector base, I destroyed it the first time and every time after that. The line TIM makes of assuring "human dominance" in the galaxy makes my skin crawl.

In short, the choice in Mass Effect that actually put the game on pause and make me think had to be saving the Rachni queen. The one I made the quickest and without remorse was abandoning the Council because I was more than willing to sacrifice three lives for the rest of the galaxy.

In Mass Effect 2, I'm always actually struggling with rewriting or destroying the heretics because I don't know the consequences it'll have. What use would rewriting them be if the quarians decide to go to war with them? The easiest choice for me would be Samara and Morinth.

 

[Dendio]

Choosing whether or not to save the council was easy for me. I had to go through the entire game hearing two things. " The reaper threat has been dismissed" and " make sure you;re prepared to make hard choices". When it came time to make the choice. There was no way i was gonna have the human fleet give their lives to save the very people who ignored my warning all game long. It was the councils turn to live with the tough decision...muahaha

 

[PwnSt0nes]

i spent about 30 mins on the geth decision. i rewrote them. I thought it might give me more robot friends in the future. and who doesnt want robot friends? ^.^

 

[NaramSuen]

I didn't really give the decision to re-write the Geth heretic a second thought. I was actually kind of surprised when I saw them make such a big deal out of it on Extra Credits. The genophage on the other hand, I found a little more problematic. The Korgans may a bunch of blood thirsty thugs who dress up their barbarity in a cloak of tradition, but they deserve the right to determine their own future.

 

[Sorain]

none of the above.

The decision that took me the longest was the side quest in ME 1 on the citidel concerning the unborn child who could have a crippling life long deisease, for which there is treatment, but there is also a genetic alteration treatment, (with a low chacnce of doing something WORSE) that would prevent it. I actually had to stop and seriusly weigh both sides for a couple of hours. I got off the game and asked a couple of people their view on it. Eventually I sided with the 'go for the gene treatment.' option because I would never want to inflict avoidable harm on someone that lasts their entire lifetime. Of course, there is a risk, there is risk in any action, and inaction is an action of its own.

In comparison, the Rachni,the reaper base, and a couple of others were easy decisions. (I actually CHANGED my decision on Garrus's loyality mission in ME2, because fuck it, if it was me, I would kill that guy by inches!) The geth problem was intresting, but it was 'ensalve or destroy' and my stance on that was long ago decided in favor of destroy. The genophage cure was a pretty impressive one, but ultimately I couldn't deny them the data, however horribly it was attained. ( I have benifited in real life from medical advances based on Natzi experiemental data from the holocaust, and would be a hypocrit to deny that to others. My paragon sheppard would deny it, but I the person would not. Thats why I have a renegade, a paragon, and a 'if it was my decision' save.) oh, and FETH THE COUNCIL! I WARNED THEM!

 

[Jarvaelison]

Choosing who to save, Ashley or Kaiden, definitely had me thinking for the longest time in front of my T.V. Since I wasn't romancing one there was no real preference - the decision was hard because I didn't want to sacrifice anyone in my crew. Since it wasn't a moral "paragon/renegade" black-and-white situation, it forced me to decide which one of my crew members I found more expendable. It was tough for me, in the end I flipped a coin - my lucky half-dollar =P