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.
