Poll: Have you ever experienced guilt in a game?

[Trifixion]

Oh sure, several times. First one was probably Quest For Glory IV when Toby sacrifices himself to un-undead (I have no idea how else to write that. "De-vampirize?") Tanya. Nothing I could do to prevent it, but still felt pretty bad about it.

The Baldur's Gate series had plenty of guilt-inducing moments here and there...Gorion, Khalid, conversation with the remnants of Amaunator...

Neverwinter Nights...Fenthick, you fucking idiot. I tried to warn you, but...aah, I did the best I could. Still felt a little guilty about what happened. Fortunately, think I redeemed myself by managing to talk Ms. Jiggles-In-Platemail into surrendering later on.

God of War II, accidentally killing Athena at the end. This really isn't a surprise, as guilt is a recurring theme in the classic tales of Greek tragedy.

God Of War 3:

Spoiler

Killing Hephaestus. Sure, he attacked me, but he was only doing it to try to protect his daughter - what else should any father have done in that situation?

 

[ciancon]

Oh those poor colossi. I'm sooo sorry but i had to kill you to continue i the game.

 

[Chechosaurus]

In Mass Effect 2 I felt guilty for

Spoiler

handing over the evidence at Tali's trial and kind of ruining everything for the whole migrant fleet.

 

[SMILEYkyle21]

Incinerating the Companion Cube. I beat the record, damn it.

ohhh how long i tried to outsmart that puzzle and save Companion Cube. i think thats the most ive ever regretted killing anything in a game. who knew a cube could be so awesome. fingers crossed for a reappearance in 2

 

[Washboard]

I felt guilty at the end of bioshock 1 where i got told off for killing a little sister, so much so i went trough and played it again so i'd get the nice ending

 

[Matt-Allan-ca]

haha I hated letting marines die (brute force, halo, etc...) or when a friend would activate invincible marines O.< *twitch*

 

[zhemis]

OMG! I cant read half these Mass Effect 2 posts. I don't want to know yet.

Anywho. I kill a guildmate in Ultima Online in this long drawn out storyline. I felt so terrible about it I think I spent a few million trying to buy forgiveness.

 

[Hapetiitti]

It makes me feel bad every time I kill innocent people, either by accident or in order to accomplish something. Not in games like GTA where the actual point is to comically maim and murder as much as you can to make the top 10, but for example Halo. No matter how stupid and annoying your marine friends are, whenever I accidentally crush them with my warthog / scorpion tank or get them with a "friendly" grenade I proceed to immediately kill myself to reload the last save point out of sheer guilt. I know they're just images and have about as much of a soul or feelings as a line drawn on paper, but I can't help but feel like I'm killing a retarded little dog who's only trying to help me.

However, the most impact a moral choice has ever had on me was in the DLC mission Bring Down the Sky in Mass Effect. I've mentioned this one before.

Spoiler

After I finally caught up with the alien terrorist leader and foiled his attempt to crash his meteor down on the planet and its inhabitants below it turned out he had an escape plan. Holding the two scientists I had been searching for hostage with a bomb he demanded I let him go or let the scientists suffer the consequences. After a LONG evaluation of the situation I decided I had to sacrifice the two in the cell because being the responsible leader I was I simply couldn't take the risk of the terrorist getting away to perhaps repeat his little trick in the future, possibly destroying whole cities full of innocent people. When I heard the bomb go off I felt terrible, even though I knew what I was doing was for the greater good. Having to tell the third scientist his co-workers were killed didn't make me feel any better. This little escapade left me with about 20+ Renegade points (probably twice as much as I had gotten during the entire game up to that point) and mixed bewilderment at how stapled-on downloadable content could make a game feel so much more better.

I actually feel a little left out because I never felt any guilt about incinerating the Companion Cube. I understood that previous test subjects had become very attached to the Cube and just assumed they were all crazy because I sure didn't hear it talking to me. All it was to me was a tool to help me progress, and after incinerating it and hearing GlaDOS' comment about "record time" I couldn't help but feel I had missed something. The Cube was an inanimate object that helped me press buttons and deflect energy pellets, why should I have grown any fonder of it than e.x. my Portal Gun? If it had actually said something or interacted with me in any way it might have been different, but as it is I felt just as bad disintegrating it as I feel chopping firewood.

 

[maninahat]

FABLE 2 POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT


1) Yes, it was in Fable 2, and I had to bring a young woman down into a cave with me. A curse was unleashed that would strip the victim of their youth and beauty. In order to advance the game, I had to decide if it would be me or the young woman. Up to that point I'd been playing the hero, making little meaningless sacrifices here and there, like completing a sidequest and waiving the reward because I'm "one of the good guys".

2) I'd been playing carefully to avoid picking a ton of ugly scars. I remember in Fable 1 it seemed that no matter what you did, by the end of the game you were a gnarled ugly mess and it annoyed me to no end that there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn't going to let the game force me to sacrifice what I'd spent so much time preserving! I'm the only real person here anyway!

3) After the scene was over, and the now-shriveled woman limped away, I felt a twinge of guilt. I realized that even though Fable 2 is pretty light RPG, I actually did invest myself into the roleplay a little bit. I thought of my character as being a noble hero, and from this point on, that heroism would hide just a little bit of cynicism, because when it really came down to sacrificing something that mattered, the hero chickened out.

4) Yes! I would do it again, it's easy to forget what you've done, at least until the next time you're reminded. If I made the character ugly, I'd be annoyed every time I looked at them.

This little choice in the game made me think about the kind of decisions I tend to make in reality as well, decisions that have real-world consequences. I think over time I've learned how to choose to be a bastard on occasion. It does feel good to make charitable acts on occasion, but on a fundamental level, there are very few people whose interests I would be willing to place over my own. And after giving it some consideration, I think I'm going to be ok with being that kind of guy.

Such situations come up quite a lot in Fable 2, but I was too heartless or disinterested to appreciate them: I let prisoners die, I stole some dude's zombie girlfriend, I let thousands of people die just so I could keep my stupid dog (how else could I dig up those stupid chests?), and yes, I made that young girl into an old woman.

 

[Vrex360]

I felt bad in Mass Effect for messing up on the Virmire mission and accidentally getting Kirrihe killed. This was my first playthrough and I had been just so concerned about making sure Wrex lived and that Ashley also lived given that she was my love interest (still is, having beaten Mass Effect 2 now without cheating) and I hadn't expected I would grow a liking to Kirrihe and more importantly when he said 'offer assitance' I wasn't aware this meant actually seeking out and destroying key sites, I just assumed that's what my mission was anyway.
So while Wrex lived and so did Ashley, Kirrihe died and at the time I thought that was supposed to happen, then I play it on a different account and BAM turns out he could have lived.... it annoyed me.

Also, naturally I felt guilt about Kaidan. Of course it was him or Ashley and Ashley was Shepard's woman, so naturally I had to make a choice.

Also, once I let my sick curiosity get the better of me and decided to see the scene where Wrex dies at Virmire only to then reload my last save and do it properly, sure I did reload the last save but I would be scarred by that for life.

Finally I felt a wee bit guilty in Mass Effect 2 for turning down Jack and Tali as love interests, (Miranda not so much as she seemed a little too independant for my taste) the fact is I had entered the game dead set on staying faithful to Ashley and I most certainly did that (in fact I actually felt a little bit of warm emotion in the scene where Shepard gazes longingly at her picture just before the final mission) but at the same time Jack was a very unhappy woman and could have done with someone in her life to love, and Tali was just so sweet though I preferred her more as a close friend (Wow, listen to me, personal relationship problems in a world that doesn't exit... man I feel nerdy).
I think the problem is there was no nice way to say no, I just had to dodge any responses that were obviously romantic and stay as neutral as possible until I got the oppurtunity to say 'Let's just be friends' but of course it's never said like that.
I pissed off Miranda in her confrontation with Jack so she refuses to talk to me, then I have to forcefully say no to Jack and so she just says 'Fuck off' everytime I say hi to her and finally Tali was the only one of whom I could just say 'I appreciate the sentiment but would rather we just be friends'.

Honestly, if there had just been a dialouge option that said:
"I value our friendship but I do not want it to go beyond that for I am in a commited relationship."
That would have made things so much more guilt free.

 

[Meggiepants]

Yes. I may have to see a therapist for my attempt to get all the achievements in Fallout 3. The things they let you do in that game, good lord!

Worst part is, I still failed to get the level 20 evildoer achievement. All that suffering I heaped upon the wasteland, and I didn't have the strength to make it to level 20.

 

[A Raging Emo]

yea, mass effect 1, i let kaiden die. mass effect 2, i killed a lot of people and had a pretty scarred up face. i'd do it again.

I didn't care about Kaiden, to be honest, but only because I never really needed him on Missions, as I usually played as a Biotic.

Was his Backstory good?

 

[ProfessorLayton]

1) Yes I have. Several times. An example would be when in Saints Row 2 I saw a couple sitting on a bench and for some reason I shot the guy right in the face. Then I felt bad, even though they were fake.
2) I have no idea why...
3) Because they weren't doing anything. Normally I only shoot people who are shooting at me, but they weren't doing anything. Then the girl started freaking out and that made me sad.
4) No I wouldn't. I don't normally do it.

Another example would be yesterday I was playing Pokemon SoulSilver and I came up to this girl and talked to her to see what she had to say and she said something along the lines of "Oh, you want to buy something? Hold on.............. ok what do you need?" and I actually felt bad that I made her get out the thing with no intention of buying so I bought two quick balls even though I didn't need them. I know that's what she was programmed to do, but I felt bad for some reason.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Oblivion. I turn around to see where the hell my fan is and he cops an arrow in the head. Drops in front of me. A sad, stupid, ignominious way to go and so sudden.

"I should have saved him" was my instant thought, guilt followed briefly. Had a Batman mourning moment. Then greatsworded the archer.

 

[asgardmothership]

Far Cry 2, when I had to shoot a guy that had his hands up, desert eagle to the face. Even though it wasnt real, to essentially walk into someone's house, shoot them point blank, it was a difficult thing to do, no wonder sniping is so popular.

 

[Korey Von Doom]

I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die, but seriously in a part of Heavy Rain, I felt guilty about something I did, won't say what though cause I don't want to give it away.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Felt guilty about some things I did on purpose and some things which were by accident. Most recently I felt awful when members of my squad died in Mass Effect 2 because I hadn't been good enough to save them.

Actually, almost any game like that. KoToR, KoToR II, I usually try and follow the dark side at least once, but if I can even get past the first few missions without chickening out and quitting then I count it as a good playthrough.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

I accidentally gunned down a fat guy in GTA. With my shotgun. There he was, just walking along, and I just nudged the trigger and then, blam! He was dead. I felt really bad about that, for a good 4 seconds, then I remembered that it's just a game. Also bear in mind, he was in Liberty City, so he probably deserved it.

P.S. Did anyone else miss some interrupts in ME2? You really need to pay attention to those things.