kbrickley
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 13, 2012
- Messages
- 7,514
http://www.dorkly.com/article/56575/5-mistakes-every-videogame-with-a-morality-system-makes
Dorkly has an interesting article on the mistakes that games with morality systems make. I agree with most of their points. I am not a fan of playing evil myself (even in games I don't like some of the choices that are required to play evil) ... it would definitely be interesting to see some games take a more Zen approach and reward neutrality rather than either extreme (although that would probably be tough to program and unpopular with players who seem to like the extremes).
I have liked how some games approached the whole morality equation though:
Fallout 3 - I didn't like the choices you had to make to be evil but they were definitely there and the game actually had a reward for neutrality (you didn't have the bounty hunters chasing you that the two extremes had)
Bioshock - the choice between "harvesting" or "rescuing" the Little Sisters was stark and actually had game play implications ... "harvesting" gave you a front end bump so you could gain powers quicker ... "rescuing" had a slower progression requiring more care at the beginning (but balancing out eventually) while offering unique rewards and a significantly different end game
What do folks think about videogame morality systems ... Good? ... Bad? ... Ugly?
Dorkly has an interesting article on the mistakes that games with morality systems make. I agree with most of their points. I am not a fan of playing evil myself (even in games I don't like some of the choices that are required to play evil) ... it would definitely be interesting to see some games take a more Zen approach and reward neutrality rather than either extreme (although that would probably be tough to program and unpopular with players who seem to like the extremes).
I have liked how some games approached the whole morality equation though:
Fallout 3 - I didn't like the choices you had to make to be evil but they were definitely there and the game actually had a reward for neutrality (you didn't have the bounty hunters chasing you that the two extremes had)
Bioshock - the choice between "harvesting" or "rescuing" the Little Sisters was stark and actually had game play implications ... "harvesting" gave you a front end bump so you could gain powers quicker ... "rescuing" had a slower progression requiring more care at the beginning (but balancing out eventually) while offering unique rewards and a significantly different end game
What do folks think about videogame morality systems ... Good? ... Bad? ... Ugly?