211: Kill Billy

[Andronicus]

I had a similar experience while playing Farcry 2. I'd always been aware of the various (unfortunately just) herbivores wandering the plains, and sometimes enjoyed trying to sneak up on the odd deer to get a better look, and marveling at the way they would turn and bound gracefully away.
I was one day driving hastily around a cliff face towards my next mission while some silly animal jumped in front of my car and was unceremoniously knocked dead (I checked the wiki afterwards and it says that just touching the car will kill the poor creatures). I was so shocked at the senselessness of the pain I had suddenly caused when I hurriedly hopped out and ran back to find a deer lying glassy-eyed in the grass. I was dumbstruck with shame for amout 10 seconds before I remembered that it was just a game, and I probably wouldn't be sent to some obscure corner of hell for unintentionally murdering an aleady non-living entity within a videogame.
It was still a pretty awful experience.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Brilliant, loved it.

Shocking experience Andronicus.

 

[Lord George]

I learnt my lessons about messing with animals from Zelda, I'd hack at those chickens revelling in their screams and screeches, laughing as I went, but then the chicken would turn, a dark look in its eye, one of darkness and revenge, and with its dark warcry it would summon a hundred thousand chickens to descend from the heavens, blocking out the sun to rip at poor link with there talons, until the screen would darken and I would watch are poor, green, animal hating boy fall to the dust with a sigh. I would reload my lesson learnt, "do not anger the fowl" and from fear I learnt to respect the chicken. Dogs where still fair game though.

 

[PlasticTree]

Well done. Best article I've read for at least a month.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

You make me reflect on the other King's Quest titles, in particular (I don't remember which one exactly) the one where you have to trick the unicorn into becoming bait for the lady (a witch?) in the castle on a mountain. I think the required phrase was 'Shoot horse', and it took me something like an hour to figure out how to shoot the horse with the cupid's bow. When I finally did, and realized that the horse was the bait for a trap, I felt genuinely bad for the horse, since I knew what it's fate had to be. It also brings to mind the scene in the same game (I believe) where you have to dig in the graveyard, and you come across a molded old teddy bear, another item that put solid emotion into my heart, as it was something, much like your goat, that just struck a chord like very few other events could.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

You make me reflect on the other King's Quest titles, in particular (I don't remember which one exactly) the one where you have to trick the unicorn into becoming bait for the lady (a witch?) in the castle on a mountain. I think the required phrase was 'Shoot horse', and it took me something like an hour to figure out how to shoot the horse with the cupid's bow. When I finally did, and realized that the horse was the bait for a trap, I felt genuinely bad for the horse, since I knew what it's fate had to be. It also brings to mind the scene in the same game (I believe) where you have to dig in the graveyard, and you come across a molded old teddy bear, another item that put solid emotion into my heart, as it was something, much like your goat, that just struck a chord like very few other events could.

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella [http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/117/Kings+Quest+IV+-+The+Perils+of+Rosella.html]

Possibly one of my least favourite of the series, some of the puzzles were really difficult to figure out. There were also a few occasions where even when you knew what to do, actually doing it was another matter entirely. Getting the eye from the witches was one, and placing a plank over a chasm... always remember SNSO! (Save Now, Save Often!)

 

[BehattedWanderer]

You make me reflect on the other King's Quest titles, in particular (I don't remember which one exactly) the one where you have to trick the unicorn into becoming bait for the lady (a witch?) in the castle on a mountain. I think the required phrase was 'Shoot horse', and it took me something like an hour to figure out how to shoot the horse with the cupid's bow. When I finally did, and realized that the horse was the bait for a trap, I felt genuinely bad for the horse, since I knew what it's fate had to be. It also brings to mind the scene in the same game (I believe) where you have to dig in the graveyard, and you come across a molded old teddy bear, another item that put solid emotion into my heart, as it was something, much like your goat, that just struck a chord like very few other events could.

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella [http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/117/Kings+Quest+IV+-+The+Perils+of+Rosella.html]

Possibly one of my least favourite of the series, some of the puzzles were really difficult to figure out. There were also a few occasions where even when you knew what to do, actually doing it was another matter entirely. Getting the eye from the witches was one, and placing a plank over a chasm... always remember SNSO! (Save Now, Save Often!)

That's the one, sure enough! I need find a way to play those again-I've only got VI. Thanks for the link, since I can download a few of them there. Now, time to go watch Sir Graham get killed a few times!

 

[UtopiaV1]

I bet you think this is news don't you? Wonder where you could have possibly stole it from...

http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/

Try video 25 or 24, it's one of those (i think), but he's covered this ground before. You probably haven't done it on purpose, but I'm just warning you that you're re-inventing (or in this case re-iterating) the wheel...


EDIT: I've looked, and I can't find the correct video, but I would like to make it perfectly clear that Brendan Main is NOT plagiarising a previous article by another author, merely that this idea that gamers form their own sentimental attachments with video game characters or creatures without outside influence from the games developers themselves is not a new concept.

I regret using the words "stole it", I should have said "...got inspiration to write your own article..."

 

[DaDude9211]

...
Incidentally, the goat is used to head-butt the troll off the bridge, offering you safe passage across...

Man, for a second I thought the people that make KQ were really deep and intelligent developers... Dang bridge troll, he ruined half the symbolism!

 

[Andy_Panthro]

That's the one, sure enough! I need find a way to play those again-I've only got VI. Thanks for the link, since I can download a few of them there. Now, time to go watch Sir Graham get killed a few times!

I managed to pick up the King's Quest Collection a few years back, so I could play those games again (also got the Space Quest one). I hope they can find their way onto Good Old Games or something, the Quest series of games were some of Sierra's finest efforts.

There is supposed to be a King's Quest IV remake somewhere on the web, but I haven't seen anything new from them for a long while, so it may be dead. It was fan-made, so may have been shut by Vivendi(Activision/Blizzard).

Seems the website is still around, no info on the game though!
http://www.mmgames.org/KQ4/

 

[civver]

Why would you care for the goat? Because it's unique. Those thousands of people you killed were common and forgettable. The goat stands out, the people don't.

 

[Swaki]

i have never felt that close to an npc, in most games i usually send them away or if its not possible send them into the war zone to get them killed or kill them my self.

great article.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I managed to pick up the King's Quest Collection a few years back, so I could play those games again (also got the Space Quest one). I hope they can find their way onto Good Old Games or something, the Quest series of games were some of Sierra's finest efforts.

Annnnnnd...I just ordered the KQ collection, having not been aware that it was made. Sierra did have a really good lineup of games, and some of my favorite retro titles, including the Quest series, and the Lode Runner Games.

There is supposed to be a King's Quest IV remake somewhere on the web, but I haven't seen anything new from them for a long while, so it may be dead. It was fan-made, so may have been shut by Vivendi(Activision/Blizzard).

Seems the website is still around, no info on the game though!
http://www.mmgames.org/KQ4/

I just looked up Vivendi, and good grief do they own a lot. It would be interesting to see the remade games, and hopefully the keep remaking them, or at least remake the older ones so that they're playable on today's systems.

 

[smithy1234]

Well I must say that was a fantastic article, it's amazing that you managed to write a 3 page story about how you felt remorse after killing a pixelated goat. A lot of the concepts you covered were very interesting to me.

It's odd how people can become attached to a simple character in a video game. People begin to form unintended attachments to the environment around them in games. Take for example, Animal Crossing. The entire premise of Animal Crossing is that you have all these little Animal Neighbors who live in this little world. If you don't tidy up this world by planting tree's or pulling weeds then animals begin to move out.

Normally you shouldn't care if some inferior character made of zeros and ones packs their bags to move out of your crummy, weed infested town. But, you do care for some strange reason and when that cute dog with the black spot on its eye named Ponto leaves... It's just heartbreaking...

 

[MNRA]

That was one good read. Thank you sir.

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

A modern day example of this is the dog in Fable 2. At the end of the game it dies for you. And then you have the choice to either bring it back, bring back countless dead or get a million dollars. Needless to say, I brang back the dog, even though by the end of the game he doesn't do much. I just felt to bad to take money or save 1000's of humans. Therefore:

1 cute fluffy animals life > The lives of thousands of innocent humans.

 

[Emperorpeng]

I'll miss you, Dogmeat...you died defending me.

 

[G-Mang]

Video games have historically taught players to assume that action is more beneficial to inaction. Games inherently require the possibility of action to be games. The goat was a rare exception to this. Its significance was determined solely on how it affected your perceived experience, not a game value or effect.

It'd be interesting to see inaction used more as a game option. Generally, if there is an opportunity in a game to either act upon something or do nothing, my instinct is to side with the former, just because the latter is something I'd expect to end in a Game Over, or at least a missed reward. It'd be interesting if the predictability of games got to be fresh enough to where such consequences would not be presumed.

The goat was an opportunity for you to create your own content (perceived meanings and consequences to the choice) without any sort of gameplay interference in your judgement. That's a pretty unique thing in this medium.

 

[salamarian]

Kings quest was the first game I ever played. I started it when I was six and I named the goat "goatertons" because I could.

 

[maxben]

This happened to me in Fallout 3.
There is a super optional, unmarked quest that has the most useless "reward" but it tests you emotionally.
I'm not talking about Megaton, or poisoning the water, I'm talking about the kid kid-napper quest.

1. YOU offer to bring a child to the slavers, they don't ask you.
2. YOU have to find the most vulnerable child, and the moment I started the quest I knew exactly who I needed.
3. I had the child at heart perk so I could convince Bumble that we were going on an adventure without much convincing.

It was the first time in that game that I actually felt horrible for being such an evil bastard, and I did nuke megaton, poison the water supply, and destroyed the Citadel from orbit beforehand.