Am I supposed to feel bad?

[Aean]

I hate games that force you to be totally good or totally evil, mostly because there always end up being 2-3 good options that I think are irrational and 2-3 bad options that make me feel sad and I usually don't go through on.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I don't think you're supposed to necessarily feel bad or good specifically for either option, but so long as you are displaying an emotional response of some kind the devs did their job properly. I normally feel more empathy with a character when I'm playing their good side, but that's just me.

Although to me the best Moral choice systems are the ones where you can sometimes be forced into doing something that really doesn't sit well with you because of previous decisions you made. For example...

Spoiler

In Splinter Cell: Double Agent, after you plant the nuke at the end of the cruise ship mission. The only way for me to avoid frying all the innocents on board whilst still maintaining the JBA's trust in me was to sabotage the bomb but then frame Erica (I think that was her name, it's been a while since I played), meaning she was executed. That was a very difficult decision.

 

[meselfshimself]

In GTA Vice city i used to feel horrible when I ploughed my car in to a motorcylist

 

[baddog117]

I could never blow up Megaton... I just liked Moria too much as she was to ruin her with ghoulification. But even in New Vegas, I always ended up being good. Just makes me feel bad, I blame society!

 

[mageroel]

I played as a total asshole in KotoR 1 & 2, and it was always awesome. The only thing was... I could never pick the dark side stuff when talking to T3-M4 for some reason.. Loved HK's commentaries though.. Ahh the wonders of the origins of the word "meatbag"...

 

[Deadpool062]

The cleansing quest for the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion was sad, but that's really about it imo. That was only sad because each character had their own unique dialogue, and personality. And when they are replaced with random "Murderer's" It really is not the same.

 

[zehydra]

That quest should have had no karma gain or lose, seriously one ending resulted in a large group of innocents being killed.

I think there's a way to let them live there without killing anyone. I saw it on a wiki, haven't done it myself.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Yeah, I do in any game where the people you're letting down have personalities. In games like the first two Fables it doesn't really have any of that, but in games like InFamous 2 (the original too, but nowhere near as much) and Mass Effect it really hits me to a point where sometimes I just stop playing evil and start a new game as a good guy. I really need to remember which is reality, I guess. Heh.
I somehow stomached the entire evil campaign of InFamous 2, but I guess it doesn't hit you that much until the end. I really need to play good again soon to remedy what I did. I'm a horrible person!

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

That quest is one of the best moral moments in ANY game I have ever seen.

I felt bad whichever way I do it because it's all gray and every path you take ends badly.

So yes, you are, but only if you have an emotional attachment to the game.

 

[Kargathia]

Usually I do feel bad for choosing the dark path in games if given a moral choice. But, then I feel better doing so and doing 'good deeds' after because it shows how much human I am. Here is what I am trying to say:

When you normally do good deeds, it's really nice and everything. Deciding to do a dark deed (or evil choice) tends to make you feel guilt or sorrow for that's the game's goal to get a reaction out of you. Once you realize you despise doing such things, and go back doing good.. it shows you've matured in a good sense to make the World primarily a better place. That is also what makes a good story- a character who is flawed, becomes better of him/herself by overcoming temptations and so forth.

But this brings up a thing often overlooked in games: in real life being Good often causes you significant discomfort.
The real life Paragons aren't retiring to their comfortable villas when the world is saved: they're probably living in some ramshackle hut with a wife that hates them because they spent two weeks at home during the last five years.

There are relatively few people who are intentionally evil: most evildoers are simply too apathetic or lazy to do the truly right thing.

But to take it back to gaming: especially when it comes to decisions whether to kill people I'll always choose to keep the character alive.
Not because I'm feeling particularly merciful, but because more often than not there's additional content to be had when you keep him alive, and an extremely low chance of him coming back to significantly bite you in the ass.

Edit: On a slightly unrelated note: even though it's not a true "morality" path I certainly most enjoyed my (female) sarcastic playthrough of DA2. If more games gave me the option of being either good, evil, or a cynic twat then I'd always pick the latter. It's just more fun that way, and it seems more natural than shitting rainbows and unicorns at every step / eating babies for breakfast.

 

[Booze Zombie]

With Roy from Fallout 3 specifically, the game pulls a dick move with him and I really didn't feel bad murdering him.

I play my own set of morals in most games, generally I help people, if steal here and there, lie a bit...

 

[hardRAWKR]

Once my team in Left 4 Dead 2 was pissing me off so I killed all of them, they all left the game, and I felt terrible about it. Not because I had let my teammates down, but because I had killed friendly pixels.

 

[DementedSheep]

Occasionally but usually not. I tend to feel bad when instead of you screwing over a random NPC you only just met or killing a bunch of people you never even see, you hurt a major character who you actually have a reason to like. In Bioshock 2 killing the little sisters didn?t really make me feel bad but

Spoiler

for some random reason Eleanor following in your footsteps did

Tho sometimes I have issues plying evil just because the options are stupid and dose not even help you or would fuck you over later so there is not point.

 

[Gaijud]

My reaction generally depends on whether or not the game implements a morality system. If it is present, I will usually play the most evil jerk I can imagine. It's kinda sad that this kind of thing is still present in games, and it dilutes the emotional connection by literally keeping score.

I have a much stronger emotional response when I am left to my own devices and can be mean to the people I dislike, and vice versa. Since some people mentioned it before, in DX:HR when...

Spoiler

when you are given the choice to save Faridah, even though I was playing a mostly evil character and was consistently going for a stealth approach, I saved her because I wanted to. I was attached to the character rather than bound to some arbitrary moral system.

 

[Death God]

I try being evil but I always feel weird about it and I usually make it up and choose only the good options. So, your not weird for feeling bad, it just means that you dislike the idea of even pretending to be bad.

 

[WickedSkin]

I rarely play bad guy in games like mass effect or fallout 3. But pretty much have to, to experience all game content in a moral-choiceish game. FYI Roy is a total dick, don't feel to bad about killing him.

Anyway it's just games so you don't have to feel weird when you do nasty things like killing (nasty) people

 

[00slash00]

i most games i dont feel bad because the moral choices are so comically stupid. do you give the bum some money, or stab him in the face? The only time i ever felt bad was in the witcher

 

[Dogstile]

That quest should have had no karma gain or lose, seriously one ending resulted in a large group of innocents being killed.

So? You helped some people out believing you were going to have everyone be all chummy and they betrayed your trust. You've still done the "right" thing and tried to help. Its not your fault they betrayed them.

OT:

I never feel bad in games. One character got a nutshot off me and I got the "twang" all males feel when they see a nutshot.

Aside from that, nada.

 

[tobi the good boy]

I always feel to bad choosing the evil options in games, with Mass Effect being the only game where I've gotten at least somewhat far without stopping, mostly because a lot of Shepard's evil dialogue is hilarious bad:

What the hell? I can't tell if that's really him, it can't be...

On topic though, deciding between Roman and uh... the ginger lady in GTA4 was depressing after finding out what the consequences for your choice was.

The Hanar preacher on the Citadel, It is an amazing moment indeed.

OT: I usually play evil because I enjoy seeing what will happen because of my actions

 

[skywalkerlion]

I very rarely play the 'bad guy' in games like inFamous, Fable, Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.

It's very hard for me to break my hardwired 'be a good guy' attitude.

The only one I have no problem with is playing a renegade in Mass Effect, mostly because renegade Shepard is still a good guy, but his methods are just ethically questionable.

Same here. When I tried playing a douchebag in Fallout 3 I literally winced everytime I chose a douchebag dialogue option. But when I play Mass Effect renegade is all I can play, cause it seems like Paragon is just too lenient on everything. Personally, I love sparta kicking aliens out of office buildings. And headbutting reporters.