Karma Systems

[JourneyThroughHell]

That same goal could've easily been accomplished without the karma system. In fact, blindly accepting what the game thinks is good and bad just makes it worse.

I killed the ghouls, too. Didn't kill the ones who weren't part of the mudering, though, just Roy and the guy who attacked me. The game considered it "bad karma". How? Why is killing that guy bad karma, but shooting Tenpenny in the face, often with no reason, mind you, is quite alright.

You can't foresee the motivations of players' actions with a simple karma system. Life doesn't work like that. Sure, there are things that are monumentaly good and bad - but in a world like Fallout 3, even those get all mashed up. Grading certain actions with a karma system is not only limiting creative thinking, not only disconnecting the player with the character, but if you give rewards based on it, that limits the player's freedom. In a game like Fallout 3, that's fucking unacceptable.

I said this in one of my responses, so I don't blame you for not reading it, but I view the karma system in place of a reputation system. In this sense I might not be evil for what I did because I thought I did the right thing, but all of that is for naught if society thinks I am an evil git. As a result I became some kind of anti-hero cowboy. I know this view wasn't the intention of the developer, but when viewed this way the system takes on a whole different meaning.

I hear New Vegas does this with a faction system, but I haven't had a chance to play it.

Granted. That still won't make it a "good" system, but it does become a lot more reasonable in that light.

 

[Kanlic]

I think the problem with this in game is that none of the items, aside from ammo and weapons and even then only for some characters, are needed. I take everything because I know I am the only one that will use it, it's all there for me to acquire. If I where to play a game where everything is used, dwarf fortress for example, I wouldn't steal. If I stole food, money, or a production item that would be used in a job the end result could easily be starvation.

There are no consequences for stealing in games, only getting caught. That's why all my characters will stay kleptomaniacs.

That's pretty true. I'm paraphrasing Yahtzee when I say that video game actions are more reminiscent of an autistic person who must search every nook and cranny than a person with a real goal. To be honest, Fallout would have more of an impact if everything was time sensitive. Think about how different the game would be.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

I think the best thing to do would be to do away with karma meters entirely and replace them with reputation meters for each of the games factions. Fallout New Vegas took a step in the right direction by including reputation but made the mistake of keeping the karma meter.