Poll: Do you need an established good vs evil in your games?

[Grunt_Man11]

For the moral choice system to get out of the stagnant pool it seems to have fallen into it needs to do a few things.

1) Get away from the pure "good and evil" choices, (more gray areas).
2) Get rid of the morality meters. How good or bad something is usually pretty subjective with only a few exceptions.
3) Base how positively, negative, or neutrally your choices are perceived on a more individual basis.

Scenario:

Your female character is at the bar of a tavern, and some guy comes in and starts hitting on her in a very ungentlemanly manner. You are given four options for your character's response:

Choice 1 - Show interest. (Have your character show some possible interest. This can be lead to an actual relationship with the putz, or you can just be stringing him along just so you can shoot him down later.)
Choice 2 - Not interested. (Your character just attempts to politely tell him she's not interested, duh.)
Choice 3 - Slap him. (Again, it obvious. Your character gives the typical slap across the face.)
Choice 4 - Face to bar. (Your character grabs the guy's head and slams it into the bar, hard.)

Say you pick choice number 4. Your character's, or your, action has the following consequences for the other NPCs in the tavern.

A couple of waitresses laugh at the schmuck's misfortune at your hands. (He was a bit of a sleaze.)
One guy at a table literally cheers. (Highlight of his day.)
The person sitting at the other end of the bar gets scared and quickly leaves.
Another female patron is disgusted you would be so brutish.
The bartender is pissed that you dented his bar and got blood on it.
And the jerk you owned is in a lot of pain and no longer attracted to your character.

I know that's complicated, but so is morality. The only way the moral choice in game can be truly, 100%, meaningful is if it can reflect the complexity of real morality.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I like the way it was in Fallout: New Vegas where all the options were very grey and you decided who to ally with depending on their views.

Although personally I think the independent path is the worst and would result in utter anarchy.

Same Here. New Vegas did it very well, indeed.

I think story-driven RPG's should have Grey morality because it can add great Depth to the plot and decisions. In less story-driven games, I couldn't care less.

 

[Shanecooper]

"Good vs. Evil" is alright, but I prefer "Them vs. Us". The problem is, more often than not, morality comes down to "Stupid vs. Slightly eviler stupid".

 

[Jandau]

I think both are valid and can be enjoyed on their own merits. They both serve as different storytelling tools and I don't see one inherently superior to the other. Also, it's not one or the other, there's a lot of middle ground between them.