Gaming Guilt

[Heatseeker]

I have just recently started playing Elite Beat Agents on DS (if you're unfamiliar with it, it's a fun rhythm where you're part of a squad of 3 guys in suits and funky hair dos performing dances to sometimes awesome, sometimes horrible music to save the day at the request of your over excited boss Command Kahn and you should all play it)

Anyway in one of the scenarios (number 12) there is a little girl and her daddy is going away just before Christmas and all she wants as a present is a girlfriend for her (presumably male) bear and for her daddy to be home for "Xmas" as she calls it. But of course her father dies in an accident and she wont accept it, it actually really moved me. Anyway you and the Elite Beat Agents have to dance along to "You're The Inspiration" by Chicago (a love ballad) but, if you don't get a good rating each of the 3 sections of the story it's truly heart breaking. First they find out he was keeping pictures of half naked men in his diary, then the cake they make for him hits the girl's in the face then she has a dream where she she's the ghost of her father but he just keeps walking away! AND if you completely fail the song, the father never comes back and the mother and daughter grow up depressed, move away from their house and kill themselves (i made that last part up but it's really what the game makes you feel like!)
If you do complete the song perfectly they realise he really loved them and the father comes back as a ghost and finally gives the little girl and bear and it's very nice and Hallmark and happy.

NEVERTHELESS it was one of the most moving experiences in a game and nearly made me cry but also guilty cause I just couldn't make the little girl's daddy come back and she was so darn sad! D':

Now I've played Bioshock and I didn't feel one ounce of guilt for those little sister as I killed every last one but with this, I played through over and over again just to make it perfect for the little girl.

So that's my story, in a long winded way, but I was just wondering if anyone else has had a gaming experience that was particularly moving/emotional/tragic and/or made them profoundly guilty.

 

[Uskis]

It's not quite the same thing, but while playing Halo and Halo 2, i wowed not to let my NPC marines die and therefore would replay any checkpoint if any marine died. I don't know why, but maybe the fact that you play as a genetic modified super soldier made me feel like not just letting everybody else die. I felt an urge to protect them in a way.. with great power comes great responsibility I guess

 

[Girlysprite]

Heatseeker, I know exactly how you feel! I have EBA too...luckily, the song I keep failing on is the one with the rich bitches, so it's not that bad to let them wash away, hungrey. But hell, sometimes I 'misplayed' EBA songs to see how the fail scenes would work out...but the only song I didnt misplay was the girl song.

I just couldn't do it.

Another game that gives me some guilt was neverwinter nights, one of the expansion packs. A womans house is taken over by kobolts. Her husband is dead and her baby is still in there. You get in there to fetch the baby. Now, if the baby gets killed, you can be really cold and say to her something like 'well, he died. but I still want that weddin ring of yours as reward for the effort'.
Then she tosses the rong at you, cries, runs off, and commits suicide (actually, I think she actually even does that last part'. Though I must say, the guilt for this one isn't as bad as the little girl scenario of EBA.

 

[General Ma Chao]

I think Three Panel Soul did a comic about this. Here it is.

http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2007-02-16

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

I don't really feel guilt, I just don't like assholes, and so if I'm playing a "dark side" character, I get mad at him/her for being an asshole, just like I would at anyone else. Then I vent my anger by deliberately walking them into boss battles or hordes of enemies, putting down the controller, and just watching them die.

If I'm not trying to be mean, then, yeah, I have to go back and replay it, where I might just let it slide otherwise.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Played Sailor Moon the RPG and loved it.
Cried when Cait Sith sacrificed himself.(FF7) And nearly burst into tears when Tifa meets up with Cloud again.
Swore heavily at the end of HL2.

Just a big softy really.

Oh and I cannot bear to hear certain female characters cry. Really. I have to switch the sound off and/or reload.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I don't really feel guilt, I just don't like assholes, and so if I'm playing a "dark side" character, I get mad at him/her for being an asshole, just like I would at anyone else. Then I vent my anger by deliberately walking them into boss battles or hordes of enemies, putting down the controller, and just watching them die.

yeah playing evil is hard, most ppl think it's just being a dick, which it's not. much like ppl think that being good is having good thoughts and acting all happy

i really don't have much guilt playing a game, if one of my teammates happens to die cause they're dumb, it's their fault. hell more often than not i shot them for being dumb, just annoys me when you fail the mission cause of it

 

[Kogarian]

It's not quite the same thing, but while playing Halo and Halo 2, i wowed not to let my NPC marines die and therefore would replay any checkpoint if any marine died. I don't know why, but maybe the fact that you play as a genetic modified super soldier made me feel like not just letting everybody else die. I felt an urge to protect them in a way.. with great power comes great responsibility I guess

I play the same way. Even on multiplayer, if several of my comrades are about to be killed because they're trying to get more ammo and heal up, I'll rush into the enemy forces to buy them some time, throwing everything I've got at the enemy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Akatsuki_slave]

I never felt guilty in any game except Link to the Past when the flute boy turns into a tree. I felt bad telling his dad his son wasn't going to come home. Otherwise, I'm good.

Oh, and I love playing the bad guys. If given the choice to be good or bad, I'll go bad in a heart beat. I don't like assholes, unless it's me that gets to be one. Okay, that's a lie. I like assholes. Um, that just sounds wrong. . . .

 

[stompy]

I don't usually feel guilt towards characters, 'cos I don't usually play games that have a lot of emotion, but in those RPGS where you can choose to be good or bad (and done well eg. ME), I found myself feeling guilty at certain scenes, such as:

<spoiler=Mass Effect Spoilers>Killing Ashley or Kaiden was a real kick in the balls, as was, for some reason, if you convince Saren to suicide: His last words made me feel uneasy, simply because they go against all I've known of him.

- A procrastinator

 

[teh_snakerer]

-snip-

 

[PhoenixFlame]

I would feel mildly guilty whenever I did something decidedly "evil" in Knights of the Old Republic.

I would then correctly conclude that it was probably the last meal I ate giving me indigestion and I would feel immediately better, allowing me to go on my merry way of lightsabering innocents and force lightning the bejeezus out of goodie-goodie Jedi.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I felt guilty playing Jade Empire, when

Spoiler

you have the choice to give Kia Min the two herbs for the poultice, one of which heals her, and the other of which is a painkiller. I gave her the painkiller, and then she later died because of it.

Major guilt trip. Major.

 

[babyblues]

I can't be evil in any RPG. I just can't.