Morality In Gaming
When we play a game do the choices we make truly matter to us?
Moral choice in gaming
Morality In Gaming
When we play a game do the choices we make truly matter to us?
Would many of you be willing to play something that truly challenges you, not just in the conventional ways, but also emotionally and spiritually?
I would relish the opportunity to pit my real-life "boring square" persona against the fiend that sometimes emerges in the games I play
in a way that would teach me more about my dark alter-ego.
=|This space for rent|=
beating up hookers is fun,... but would you do it if the graphics become so real it looks like real person? The movie Brain scan comes to mind,,,,,
Rock and Roll aint noise pollution
I saved all the lil Sister during my first playthrough of bioshock
I most often find that when playing along my own set of moral and ethical rules i end up the atypical goody goody. This happened especially in older roleplaying games where things are black or white. In more modern titles, though still good, i did not become the shining light as in so many other, older, titles. Heavy Rain is one of my personal favorites also, evoking very strong emotional reactions from my own in-game actions. Read Here
I do think that game where there is no good or bad but merely shades of grey could well reflect the players own moral standings. In Bioware's Dragon Age Origins there is a point where u, the player, have to decide who dies, the mother or the son. Neither of which has the potential to give a larger benefit that the other. This particular question had me mauling over it for almost a day.
In the upcoming Deus Ex Human Revolutions it will once again be possible to go through the entire game without killing a single person. There in lies a deep moral choice, will you choose to slay henchmen by the thousands or spare the lowly security guard his fate, choosing instead to simply stun him or slip by completely.
Certain aspects manifest themselves - the characters in the game are my enemy. They therefore die. If I am given the choice to spare them, I usually don't.
This comes back to most peoples fantasy of being evil - particularly if you're not in real life. The choice to be the merciless bastard you wish you could be for a day.
On the other hand, I don't know if I'm the only one - I never harm animals in games, even though I know they're nothing but pixels and paint, it's just not something I would ever do in real life. (Another moment that had me stop for a second was during COD WaW, I didn't want to shoot the soldiers surrendering - but the AI went and did it for me anyway.)
Well there is allways the option of going multiple routs and doing thing differently each time around.
Tachyon: The Fringe, a space sim, is a simple example. At one point in the game you get to choose if you wanna go with the Corprates and make the entire galaxy rich, or you can go with the colonial rebels and fight for indipendance, or you can do one, and than go back and do the other.
Black and White. I had three games running at the same time at one point. One where I would do every as good as possible, another utterly and completely evil, and another neutral-ish.
Fallout, the little bit that I played at friends place, I was mostly playing it good, and than I blew up Megaton.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I would routinely kill lone stalkers because I like his gun/need ammo, but in the same breath I would allways help injured stalkers, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Basicly thats what games are for, to give a safe outlet for your fantacies, even if thier utterly cruel and twisted. The greatest good is that there not being acted out on real people.
Last edited by Raven Gold; 09-06-2010 at 02:14 PM.
The singularity is about to explode! Weapons are at maximum.
Biggest was in the first Fable. Finished the game completely evil horns, got the sword and then after credits went on a redemption path. Sold all my stuff, donated to the good temple, bible style, only wore the apprentice robes. Interesting experiment.
See, I don't mind killing oke like that, well because it's fun (in the game) and I'm lazy and not always lus to figure out how to bypass the dude. But when it's moral choices that I might actually face in life (I'm probably never going to have to decide to off some bad guys or not in real life) then it becomes more interesting.Originally Posted by OmegaFenix22
Another thing I also have is my wife for instance when playing Red Dead, she refuses to kill any animals and gets upset when I do!! Small things, but merely illustrates the point that people all have different morals when gaming.
Sound like a Catholic
Rock and Roll aint noise pollution
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