Heh. It's not as if I don't know that people do things that help others. I just want people to stop claiming that it's selfless. The person who makes the sacrifice is never completely selfless. I mean, if you help somebody, do you feel good about yourself afterwards? That's a nice feeling, isn't it? Hey, here's another person who needs help! Ah, I can almost taste the improved self-esteem already...
About Fable... In a game, there's less people looking over your shoulder and saying "Stop that! Stop murdering him!" You pretty much have more freedom in a game, and your character is generally strong enough to survive all of the retaliation from NPCs. If in Fable, you played as a normal person and not a Hero, if your character did not have the potential to become a combat monster and didn't know magic, and if there was more in the way of retribution for your acts, you'd be a lot more cautious with him.
That's pretty much how it is in life. You do what you can get away with. When the only real outcome of your actions is different loot and alternate scripted NPC reactions, what incentive do you have *not* to do what gets you the best rewards, other than a decision to role-play a certain alignment? It's not as if it matters, does it? After all, it's only a game... You could always just play through again and stay Good.
Sure, you might find the idea of stealing abhorrent now, but what if there were no real repercussions? If all you had to do after killing a few people was wait a minute or two for that single Wanted star to disappear? If you could get double the Experience Points, more money and better loot from a quest, if only you would sell one of your NPC companions into slavery? I mean, it's not as if you *used* that one. It's not as if you *needed* them to complete the game.
When it all comes down to it, people obey the law because they don't want to face the consequences. That's pretty much all it is. You might consider yourself a good person, but if you could get away with something and there wouldn't be any real consequences, chances are you'd do it. Walking into someone's house and opening the chest in the corner, taking all their worldly possessions and valuables just so you can heal yourself by 50 HP the next time you were low on health? That's theft. Then again, it's the owner's fault. Those fantasy types are so trusting, always leaving their doors unlocked. I mean, anybody could walk in!
Slaughtering your way through the wilderness, slaying bears and wolves left and right? That's genocide. But hey, they're only random encounters! Who's keeping track, eh? After all, you need the Experience from their corpses in order to increase your Level high enough to stop the bad guy from destroying the planet, don't you? If you don't stop him, he'll destroy the planet and all of the humans and animals along... with... it. Ah. Oops. You'd save him the bother, though, if it meant you could reach Level 100, though, wouldn't you?
Sure, people like Jack Thompson and that Mass Erect guy whose name escapes me at the moment see the actions that players engage in as proof that they're going to act that way in the real world. They've got the wrong end of the stick entirely. It's not that players *are* going to act that way in real life. No, it's that they are *not* going to act that way in real life, as it's much, much safer to do it in a computer game.
Everybody's capable of it. Everybody would do it if there were no repercussions. It's just who we are. The Law makes it illegal in real life, but anything goes in gaming. I suppose that's one of the reasons why people meta-game RPGs, isn't it?
"What can I do to get the greatest rewards?"
"What problems will I face along the way?"
"If I do this evil act now, can I still earn enough Light Side Points to give me back my Light Side Mastery?"
"Okay, doing this gets me a discount on all of the stores in the game. However, none of the stores will ever have anything useful. Doing this, however, gets me money, more Experience and better loot. Which action do I take? Man, this is a difficult decision."
It's all about what you get in return, from the 'altruist' who wants to be seen as a good person for their deeds to the meta-gamer admiring the new armour he acquired through betrayal.
