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Moral Choices in Video Games: Which path do you choose? [poll]
 
Good  (19/22 votes)
 86%
Bad  (0/22 votes)
 0%
Neutral  (0/22 votes)
 0%
Play it again so I can choose different paths  (3/22 votes)
 14%
 
When you play a game that has "Moral Choices," which path do you choose? I usually go bad first then replay it and choose good.

What about you?

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10/05/14, 04:57  
 
   
 
Zero said:
@Jargon That was one of the silliest lines in those movies. Not that there isn't a legitimate point of view that the Jedi have some ethical issues, but... coming from a dude who just slaughtered a bunch of children, whatever issues he supposedly has with the ethics of Jedi (he never does make it clear, does he?) kind of fall on deaf ears.

#GamerGate
10/06/14, 02:14   
Hmm. Actually that's a pretty damn accurate explanation of gamergate, ha ha.
10/06/14, 02:17   
@Zero

The problem I have with the writing of that line is that his word choice suggests he's capable of thinking outside of himself - language like "my point of view" carries the implication that he understands that there can be different points of view. Not only do we already have the suggestion in the script that "only a Sith deals in absolutes" (which he's plainly not doing here) but, frankly, a guy who has gone to the dark side this completely should be shouting, "Die Infidel," not expressing his hatred of the Jedi as simply an alternative point of view. He sounds like a college kid going through a LaVey-style Satanist phase. "Morality is a point of view, which I will prove by adopting the opposite of your beliefs. My bad is your good. Your bad is my good. Aren't I scary to you?" Which, ok, sorta fits the irritating Anakin we've come to meet in these movies. But from the standpoint of this guy turning into Darth F'n Vader, it's a little too relativistic and open-minded.
10/06/14, 02:50   
Edited: 10/06/14, 02:51
It depends.

On something like inFamous, I'll play twice. Once straight evil, the other straight good. And I normally do evil first to get it out of the way. In most games that have a binary system, the evil path tends to be the mustache twirling, derpy kind of evil. Would you like to drop kick this kitten or heal this puppy? Before you choose, keep in mind that the outcome is probably cosmetic and the good choice requires zero gameplay sacrifice! Blah.

In something like Skyrim, I tend to ignore morality completely and only focus on what I think is fun. If I decide to do a role play intensive run, I'll exercise ridiculous mental gymnastics to justify it. "Sure I'm a GOOD person... but if I don't take over the Dark Brotherhood, someone who's REALLY bad might do it!"

I wish more games had quests like Tenpenny Tower from Fallout 3, or were more like The Witcher, which really should be called "The Witcher: A Series of Bad Choices." OR, I wish that one of the paths in the more binary games required actual sacrifice. Something like Bioshock seems like it would do this, but you can max out everything on the good path; there's no point in harvesting Little Sisters other than being a dick / seeing if it affects the ending, which isn't great.

@kriswright

Not to mention... Vader in the OT isn't mind numbingly stupid, impulsive, and rash. Granted he's got almost two decades to cool down between Ep III and Ep IV, but nothing of what we see in Vader in the OT suggests that he'd be so dumb as to just accept the fact that the Emperor doesn't know how to save Padme despite that being the main reason he turned.
10/06/14, 15:50   
Edited: 10/06/14, 15:53
I pretty much always play as the good guy. In a handful of cases I've gone back and played the other way the next time.
10/06/14, 17:51   
Good, I guess. Actually, have I even PLAYED any of those games...?


Sometimes I use the Damsel in Distress as a human shield in Spelunky...
10/06/14, 18:13   
Good, always. I feel lousy when I pick the bad choice, and when I'm FORCED to (ie. God of War) I nearly feel sick and quit playing. Just doesn't interest me.

I remember in Good and Evil back in the day, I tried SO HARD to do everything the good way, but they made it (literally) impossible at times so I had to rain fire down on everything. I think back then (morals were a little less important to me then) I justified it by deciding the people in those villages had it coming for being jerks.

EDIT: I should say though that in DnD (though I haven't played in many years) I always ended up becoming insane one way or the other. Either ended up in Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good and took it to the highest extreme, breaking the game and making my friends mad. I wasn't TRYING to, I just ended up taking that path...
10/06/14, 22:11   
Edited: 10/06/14, 22:13
@Mop it up

I don't think I have either. Unless you count the original Bioshock with the whole save/harvest the Little Sisters thing.

But hypothetically speaking, in a situation like that, it would simply hinge on what path offered the better 'reward' IMO.

If at the end of the day it doesn't matter one way or the other beyond the story playing out differently, I'd probably take a more organic approach. Like in Bioshock Infinite when I decided all the jerky racist rich people needed to be shot (a lot), but I spared the poor people- Right up until they tried to rob me. Then I shot them too .
10/07/14, 04:44   
@-JKR-

When I played DnD I played as a half-orc bard named Hernan who had a ridiculous Charisma score for a half-orc.

I can't believe his music was actually any good.
10/07/14, 06:11   
I can't remember a time where I made a "moral choice" that was interesting at all. I usually play good, overall. But I wish games threw more interesting dilemmas at players.
10/07/14, 07:19   
I physically could not bring my self to do Dark Side actions in both the Knights of the Old Republic games and The Old Republic MMORPG.
Maby its because I was raised on Christian morals and I can't bring myself to ignore them even in games.
10/09/14, 11:39   
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