Poll: Do you ever feel bad about being evil?
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I put no, but I'm both, let me explain.
When I do my first playthrough I play as good, just because that's normally how the series will go canonically. After that, I will play as evil and I will feel bad about what I'm going to do, but then later I won't care and will do stuff just for the hell of it.
When I do my first playthrough I play as good, just because that's normally how the series will go canonically. After that, I will play as evil and I will feel bad about what I'm going to do, but then later I won't care and will do stuff just for the hell of it.
I've actually had a hang-up about this...When I stay awake late at night and allow myself to over-think things like the nature of video games. In a universe of infinite possibilities it is perfectly possible that each video game is it's own universe within our own so it is perfectly possible that each person you kill in a video game actually has a 'soul'. This is something I came up with before reading Mogworld by the way.
Anyway, anyone can justify killing a zombie or, a murderous mutant but what about the villager? The town-drunk? The wife and, mother? What about killing them? Would killing them damn you the same way killing your neighbor or, fellow townspeople would? Certainly not in a legal way (unless you're pirating the game and get busted) but what about in the philosophical sense? When you die, will you be judged in the afterlife for each innocent NPC you've murdered?
I'll find out when I die. When I'm gaming though I try to keep my player characters separated. One good, one evil. When I'm playing it's easy to tune out the voices nagging at me to not kill NPCs. The voices nagging at me to collect all collectables/ coins however is a bit stronger and more difficult to ignore...
I find it helps me be evil in games when the player character is a different gender to mine (or race if I can be a Dwarf or Elf or Kahjit or, Argonian)
Anyway, anyone can justify killing a zombie or, a murderous mutant but what about the villager? The town-drunk? The wife and, mother? What about killing them? Would killing them damn you the same way killing your neighbor or, fellow townspeople would? Certainly not in a legal way (unless you're pirating the game and get busted) but what about in the philosophical sense? When you die, will you be judged in the afterlife for each innocent NPC you've murdered?
I'll find out when I die. When I'm gaming though I try to keep my player characters separated. One good, one evil. When I'm playing it's easy to tune out the voices nagging at me to not kill NPCs. The voices nagging at me to collect all collectables/ coins however is a bit stronger and more difficult to ignore...
I find it helps me be evil in games when the player character is a different gender to mine (or race if I can be a Dwarf or Elf or Kahjit or, Argonian)
i just finished fable again and when i started i was all like "Whatever, i'll just be evil the whole time"... that lasted about till i got to the guild...
I tend to play the good guy in most games but it doesn't really bother me if playing the bad guy is the point of the game.
I don't ever feel bad, but it definitely goes against my nature. For the most part though, if I'm playing a bad guy, that generally means I've already played the game as good and am now just mainly trying to enjoy new experiences within the game.
Except in games like Postal 2 where being bad is a good way to release built up frustration. Fun times!
Except in games like Postal 2 where being bad is a good way to release built up frustration. Fun times!
I tend to save my evil playthrough for the second time around, once I've gotten used to the game and the immersion is pretty much gone. Then I don't care at all. The only time I can remember that I've felt really bad about a moral choice is when there's no right answer, or the morally good answer involves some pretty big sacrifices on the part of the player. Peter Molyneux might make games that are an unfocused mess, but Fable 2 was good at this.
Anyway, i think the best thing to do is play games how you're comfortable playing, at least for the first run. If you really want to force yourself to play evil, notice all the little flaws and annoyances in the npcs, and start to hate them.
Having to decide between resurrecting your beloved canine companion (and your family, but whatever, they never helped you on your adventures or showed you where to dig up amethysts and condoms) or everyone else the villain killed was particularly difficult. Trying to decide whose youth will be sacrificed in place of Reaper's while the innocent village girl sobbed and begged you to save her made me feel dirty. The worst one was probably in that near death experience when you live through a day of your childhood. Hearing your big sister get more and more desperate as you slowly walk away from home and down the war-torn path, with her yelling after you to not leave her alone, was really hard. Especially because she was the only one your character had a reason to care about (aside from the dog), since his wife, friends, countrymen, and sometimes even his children were all easily replaceable stereotypes, flatter than the shooting range targets in Bloodstone. I know you didn't really have a choice, but I usually lingered there longer than necessary, and don't know what I would of picked if the option was available.
Anyway, i think the best thing to do is play games how you're comfortable playing, at least for the first run. If you really want to force yourself to play evil, notice all the little flaws and annoyances in the npcs, and start to hate them.
Sometimes I wish I could when the main characters are completely stupid, but when I'm actually given the option to be good or evil, killing them/torturing them/methodically hunting down and killing their entire family is usually not a choice.
I have trouble being evil when there are actual consequences to my actions (the game shows me the people's lives that I've ruined). If they don't and being evil has no actual impact on the game world, I don't care because it's just a way to change what move set I have.
I have trouble being evil when there are actual consequences to my actions (the game shows me the people's lives that I've ruined). If they don't and being evil has no actual impact on the game world, I don't care because it's just a way to change what move set I have.
I do if I actually care about the game or characters. I can't be evil, if they get upset at me for doing it either.
I think the only other time I'm ever "evil" in a game was in Prototype. Come on now, your already playing a bastard in the game, might as well fill the role properly.
I think the only other time I'm ever "evil" in a game was in Prototype. Come on now, your already playing a bastard in the game, might as well fill the role properly.
I always feel horrible when I'm evil 
I generally always play the good guy because I have almost this phobic fear of seeing the other people react to just how mean I am.
In games like Mass Effect I generally use the Renegade options when someone really deserves a verbal (or sometimes, physical) lashing.
I generally always play the good guy because I have almost this phobic fear of seeing the other people react to just how mean I am.In games like Mass Effect I generally use the Renegade options when someone really deserves a verbal (or sometimes, physical) lashing.
I start off with good intentions. I genuinely want to play the "good guy" in whatever game i'm playing. Then something happens and I just can't do it anymore and random pixel people end up being shot/stabbed/blown up because i've been pushed over the edge by an irritating NPC.
Fallout 3. I coped when I met Moira Brown even though her voice grated on me like sandpaper on my testicles. I managed to cope with my patronising dad when I found him because hey, it's Liam Neeson, how can you stay mad at him? I even coped with the arsehole BoS when they proclaimed themselves my "saviour" and then proceeded to get their arses handed to them by a super mutant behemoth while I had to pull them out of the shit. But I couldn't cope with those little bastards in Little Lamplight. I tried, believe me I tried. A little gathering of children trying to keep safe in the wasteland but they were annoying as fuck, "open the gate little bastards", no? Okay then, off to download a mod and back I come on a minigun rampage, who's laughing now little shits, eh?
Then recently with Deus Ex. Pritchard just grates on me whenever he speaks. I tried to do a no kill playthrough. First I accidentally reprogram a turret to enemies instead of offline and it kills 4 guards. Then Pritchard starts with bullshit so I kill a few more people pretending they were him. Then I get to a point where I realise he's not such an arse so I kill more people for him acting like an arse for no reason.
In closing. I have no problem being the "bad guy", I do it quite a lot.
And killing pixels is fun.
Fallout 3. I coped when I met Moira Brown even though her voice grated on me like sandpaper on my testicles. I managed to cope with my patronising dad when I found him because hey, it's Liam Neeson, how can you stay mad at him? I even coped with the arsehole BoS when they proclaimed themselves my "saviour" and then proceeded to get their arses handed to them by a super mutant behemoth while I had to pull them out of the shit. But I couldn't cope with those little bastards in Little Lamplight. I tried, believe me I tried. A little gathering of children trying to keep safe in the wasteland but they were annoying as fuck, "open the gate little bastards", no? Okay then, off to download a mod and back I come on a minigun rampage, who's laughing now little shits, eh?
Then recently with Deus Ex. Pritchard just grates on me whenever he speaks. I tried to do a no kill playthrough. First I accidentally reprogram a turret to enemies instead of offline and it kills 4 guards. Then Pritchard starts with bullshit so I kill a few more people pretending they were him. Then I get to a point where I realise he's not such an arse so I kill more people for him acting like an arse for no reason.
In closing. I have no problem being the "bad guy", I do it quite a lot.
And killing pixels is fun.
Yeah. Sometimes it keeps me up at night. I want to stop, but the things is I can't figure out a better way to...
Oh, in GAMES.
No, not really.
Oh, in GAMES.
No, not really.