Fable 2's Alignment System

[Chibz]

Fable 2's alignment system baffles & annoys me most of the time. Why does drinking alcohol or eating meat give you corruption for example?

Eat tofu/vegetable: +good???
Wait. Eating celery is somehow "better" than eating carrots...
Eat meat: +corruption.

So. Was this game made by a militant vegan, or someone who just isn't very smart?

Edit: Fridge logic. Eating meat gives corruption points. Corruption points mess your body up eventually. So eating eating healthy (according to the food & health guide) will eventually cause health problems... What?

 

[Hiname]

Some games simple overdo it with their morality. Eating meat means you support the murder of animals. Therefore your morality sucks. Oh boo hoo. *eyeroll*

Yes, it doesnt make sense, Yes, its a bit overdone system.
... Yet someone your character cannot starve, so why even care eating to begin with. *cough*

Now that I think about it, Wakfu does the same thing.
Populating an area with animals, planting flowers and growing crops of all kind gives Wakfu.(Good)
While harvesting crops, destroying seed or killing animals (for several reasons..) gives Stasis. (Evil)

So yeah, some games make bad moral teachers and will likely Fail in ethic classes.

 

[Chibz]

Some games simple overdo it with their morality. Eating meat means you support the murder of animals. Therefore your morality sucks. Oh boo hoo. *eyeroll*

Yes, it doesnt make sense, Yes, its a bit overdone system.
... Yet someone your character cannot starve, so why even care eating to begin with. *cough*

Now that I think about it, Wakfu does the same thing.
Populating an area with animals, planting flowers and growing crops of all kind gives Wakfu.(Good)
While harvesting crops, destroying seed or killing animals (for several reasons..) gives Stasis. (Evil)

So yeah, some games make bad moral teachers and will likely Fail in ethic classes.

The worst part of it is that I can easily rationalize things. Except for eating crunchy chicks. Eating them SHOULD give you negative morality (mostly because you're eating it while it's alive).

Good/pure character eats meat. Only because they rationalize that a hero who suffers from crippling protein/iron deficiency is one who cannot do any good.

Then again the whole thing reeks of moral absolutism. And a moral absolute is a plaything of people who've never had to experience hardship.

WHOA. Look at the description of the max purity/good appearance.

No scars, tan skin, halo, blue eyes, blonde hair, glowing white teeth

Is... Peter Molyneux ... racist?

 

[Hiname]

A racist man from the UK? Inconsiderable. *starts running*

And.. odd, I don't remind my queen by beign tanned.. she was rather pale in fact..

 

[Chibz]

And.. odd, I don't remind my queen by beign tanned.. she was rather pale in fact..

Are you referring to Fable 2, or Fable 3?

Really fable probably has one of the worst morality systems in any game ever. Eating meat is evil and eating vegetables is good. Also it is perfectly ok to have six different wives and families so long as they never find out about each other.

I was playing a (mostly) neutral character. Or trying to. For example...

Spoiler

In the spire, my refusal to obey was borne out of a petty & childish refusal to listen to someone with that much pull over my actions. No sense of morality, no sense of righteousness.

Got a WHACK of good alignment. But then...

Spoiler

While escaping with Reaver because he betrayed me, I grabbed almost all his stuff I could get my hands on. Got a whack of corruption.

Far as I'm concerned, it's a neutral act. Usually if someone betrayed me, necessary or not, I'd kill them for it. It sets a bad precedent. Especially after what he pulled shortly BEFORE that.

 

[9thRequiem]

Fable 2 does make a difference between Good / Evil vs Pure / Corrupt.
The first alignment is simple. Murdering innocents; clearly evil.
The latter is more about greed. Eating meat is super tasty and yet fattening. Therefore, you're making your body corrupt by eating it. It's not really morality as it is a guide to eating "healthily" (quotes because a diet made of only vegetables is not at all healthy).

That's why live chicks give you evil points, and yet a steak gives corruption points. It's confusing, because it mies up eactly what fits into what some of the time, and no other game does it like that.
Which is why they dropped it for Fable 3.

 

[Rylot]

They wanted items that the player could consume to better control their own alignment towards good or evil, fat or skinny, corrupt or pure. They needed to different items they could justify as pushing the player one direction or another in as simple a matter as possible.