Poll: Moral Choices

[Kombatkid123]

Whenever I play a game like Infamous or Bioshock, I always play good. I can't really bring myself to play bad....I mean I do sometimes for a Trophy on PS3, but after that I go back to good. I guess I can't bring myself to ripping a sea slug out of a Little Sister's stomach Is this just me or is there someone else out there who feels the same way?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I usually go for the un-immersive "which makes me more powerful and has better rewards?" path.

Which is oddly the GOOD path in most games I play.

If rewards are equal or unknown, good.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Depends on the game/gameplay.

Star Wars - evil, always evil!
Most others - three run throughs, one of each, or two if there's no benefit to being neutral (inFamous, my one sole gripe)

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I always play according to my own belief on ethics. I follow the philosophy that if a greater happiness is created in the long run, generally harsh actions in the present are justified. So generally evil, depending on what the game bases evl on. I also generally play through both perfectly good and perfectly evil also.

 

[Zhukov]

I just go with whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

This inevitably results in predominantly saintly behaviour, with occasional dips into the dark side when someone manages to severely piss off my little on-screen persona.

 

[Kombatkid123]

I guess in games like Fallout I try to stay neutral so I don't get slapped around by groups like the Regulators (if bad) or the Talon Company (if good). But I don't kill people, I would steal small things or something to get a bit of infamy, or donate to the church. When I come across a major moral decision, I always go good though

 

[Kahunaburger]

Evil is almost always incredibly poorly written. The only exception I can think of for this is PS:T.

 

[Vaco Deus]

First playthough I usually go with the answer I would choose if I were in the situation.

The 2nd+ playthroughs I change it up just to see what happens

 

[TheIronRuler]

Whenever I play a game like Infamous or Bioshock, I always play good. I can't really bring myself to play bad....I mean I do sometimes for a Trophy on PS3, but after that I go back to good. I guess I can't bring myself to ripping a sea slug out of a Little Sister's stomach Is this just me or is there someone else out there who feels the same way?

Morality in gaes is usually shit, designed to make very different and has two very contrasted routes.
You can be extremly evil or extremly kind in Bioshock in orde to get the best experince.
That's just wrong.
On the other hand, The Witcher 2 offers great choices between shades of gray and usually lets us plan the course of our game. Buy The Witcher 2.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I usually go for the un-immersive "which makes me more powerful and has better rewards?" path.

Which is oddly the GOOD path in most games I play.

If rewards are equal or unknown, good.

anything outside of a star wars game i would agree with

god the sith always get the best fucking toys/buffs/powers...

 

[Kahunaburger]

Witcher 2 offers great choices between shades of gray and usually lets us plan the course of our game. Buy The Witcher 2.

/Thread.

Choices + consequences > Fable-style morality systems. (Unless your game is PS:T or MegaTen haha - those actually have good morality systems.)

 

[Condor219]

People want to make choices that are positive. Sure, it's fun to go around in inFamous and destroy people and cars to your hearts desire, but in places where you're the "hero" and "protagonist" of a game, you're sort of expected to make "heroic" and "good" decisions. If you don't it kind of feels wrong. It feels out of character. You're trumpeting to the world I AM AN ENORMOUS ASS, something you don't want anybody you're going to root for, going to grow attached to over a long period of time, to say, or to be. And, by extension, if anybody around you calls you a senseless ass, it's also jarring.

That, and there's a collective sense that being good is "harder" because it involves restraint, and there's a mindset that doing the more difficult thing will be more rewarding, both in having fun with the game and in actual upgrades.

Personally, I always play "good" on my first playthroughs, because more or less I have a "good" outlook on general human interaction.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I always play according to my own belief on ethics. I follow the philosophy that if a greater happiness is created in the long run, generally harsh actions in the present are justified. So generally evil, depending on what the game bases evl on. I also generally play through both perfectly good and perfectly evil also.

Ah, a Utilitarian. I believe much the same, which meant handing the base to TIM. Though even I cannot kill the Little Sisters.

 

[GamerAddict7796]

Well Fallout 3 I think too the future.
I COULD kill everyone in this town and steal their stuff OR could help them and let them GIVE me their stuff AND get good karma...
Not really a hard choice

 

[electric_warrior]

I wonder if there'll be any moral content in Skyrim? I hope not, Oblivion got by fine without it.

Moral choices are okay, but a little overused.

 

[Bags159]

I almost always choose good unless there's a huge advantage to being bad.

 

[Cheesus333]

I'm playing 'Evil' on Fallout 3 at the moment, and short of killing innocents I just can't do it. Sure, I can massacre wantonly with the best of them and do so with brutal, malicious, sadistic glee, but I can't select a conversational option that would hurt their virtual feelings.

Maybe it's cause 50 calibre explosive decapitations don't warrant such emotional, personal consequences.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I just go with whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

This inevitably results in predominantly saintly behaviour, with occasional dips into the dark side when someone manages to severely piss off my little on-screen persona.

This.

At least for a first run though a game, I always tend toward the intelligent choice in any given situation. Whatever morality system is dominant usually isn't pushed on the player in such open-choice games heavily enough to actually make an impact on gameplay. This reduces moral decisions to cost/benefit analysis exercises - with a varied level of emotional decision motivators depending on the depth of the writing and overall immersion.

I'm the type of person who replays these games from different angles later on, after experiencing the world and knowing where to start from, from the start, like an actual person in that world would. My first plays are always the quirky, memorable ones that required the most consideration from different standpoints at once.