Question of the Day, July 10, 2010

The Escapist Staff

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Question of the Day, July 10, 2010



In this week's Game Stash [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/the-game-stash/7800-The-Game-Stash-Virtual-Virtues], Steve Butts takes a look at the state of morality in videogames. Do you like to play the bad guy or the good guy?

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hottsaucekid

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Sep 20, 2009
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The Bad Guy. i mean you can be a good person irl but you cant kill people irl.(well you can but i wouldnt advise it)
 

Kavachi

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Sep 18, 2009
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Mainly the good guy, especially in stuff ike ME, but in some games you are forced to be bad or it is more fun to be bad (like Evil Genius and Overlord).

EDIT: to clarify why I'm good in ME and ME2: I just can't act like an asshole to that many people, the game is too immersive for that and i would feel bad XD Call me a wuss but its true
 

RaphaelsRedemption

Eats With Her Mouth Full
May 3, 2010
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I'm usually good. I can't stand the evilness. I think there is something to do with being corny, as well as liking to have a clear conscience, even in games!
 

Daniel_Rosamilia

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Jan 17, 2008
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Very much dependent on what sort of mood I'm in.
If I feel like mindless fun, I'll go te evil route and murder my way through endless guards a la Fable hacky-slashy-guard-respawny style.
If I want more storyline and questing, I'll be the good guy that makes God look rather neutral.
 

PurpleLeafRave

Hyaaaa!
Feb 22, 2009
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The good guy, because in most games it has the most rewards. In Red Dead Redemption, you got discounts from shops, people respected you more, etc. etc.
The only reward from being bad was more money, but you could make money easily by hunting or doing one of the many mini games, so there was really no point.
 

Onyx Oblivion

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Sep 9, 2008
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Mostly good.

For example, the wasteland in Fallout 3 is empty enough. Why make it even more empty by killing people?

That said, if I can take the "evil without violence", aka "thief" approach, I usually do.

I guess...I'm the noble thief.
 

MakeLoveNotWar

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Jul 8, 2010
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Generally the good guy, because that's just how I am, but just like me I have those evil spurts every now and then. >:D
 

dthvirus

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Oct 2, 2008
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I play the good guy whose only fault is taking everything that isn't nailed down.
 

latenightapplepie

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Nov 9, 2008
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Mostly good. Doing the 'wrong' thing in videogames always seems unnatural to me. Maybe I'm just bad at roleplaying arseholes.
 

Abedeus

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Sep 14, 2008
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Usually good, but sometimes when I like a game (Mass Effect, Devil Survivor) I'll try a second run and an alternative alignment.

Right now I'm about to reinstall Jade Empire and finally go for the Closed Fist ending.
 

Kaymish

The Morally Bankrupt Weasel
Sep 10, 2008
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depends on what i feel like at the time or which direction i want to take the character to take how ever i was disappointed in the lack of neutral option i like playing neutral the most and i don't like being confined to a path just because my alignment says i have to
 

Nocta-Aeterna

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Aug 3, 2009
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Depends. If most of the NPC's are soul-less drones and there is sufficient power in my hands, then I'll most likely be a moustache twirling baddy.

However, I can never bring myself to do anything bad in BioWare games (except being an utter kleptomaniac). I guess I just can't do it when the characters are properly developed.
 

Catchy Slogan

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Good mostly because I don't really feel right being needlesly prickish towards people. I may take one or two 'bad' options, but that either depends on the perspective, or, it just seemed like too much fun not to.
 

Jedamethis

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Jul 24, 2009
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Mostly good.

For example, the wasteland in Fallout 3 is empty enough. Why make it even more empty by killing people?

That said, if I can take the "evil without violence", aka "thief" approach, I usually do.

I guess...I'm the noble thief.
Me too.
Although occasionally I'm the sort of person who has to add "Have I murdered the entire population" to the town-visiting criteria...

But usually I'm only the 'Scourge of Humanity' because I just have to get my hands on that suit...
 

JordanMillward_1

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May 19, 2009
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I prefer the moral grey, mainly because that's how I am in real life, and computer games seem very arbitrary as to what is good or evil, so I end up usually sitting in the middle.
 

RobCoxxy

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Feb 22, 2009
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I follow options I would take. Usually for good reasons, with good results, although I will punch the occasional reporter for her disengenuous assertions, or shoot the odd goon.

But usually I'm all for justice and talking things out properly.

Or arresting perps on APB. :p
 

Cynical skeptic

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Apr 19, 2010
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Whatever seems hardest.

Being the bad guy always comes across as easy. Mostly because you're so limited in the ways you can be "evil" by overly simplistic "moral" systems that are far too vulnerable to even inadvertent exploitation.

To use mass effect as an example, all the renegade choices just seem to be the easy ways out. Short term gains for long term losses, etc.

Then to reach back into near complete obscurity, both black and whites (what the hell is pokemans?) allowed you to regularly sacrifice children for mana and still be 100% good. I mean, heres the situation. God simulator. Encourage excessive overpopulation by creating as many "breeders" as you can get your hand on, then scoop up a bunch of kids from the nurseries, murder them for maximum mana, and maintain 100% "good." I mean, while forcing people to "worship" themselves to death (something else that should be pure evil), you can drop tens of living children onto the sacificial altar, directly in front of up to hundreds of people, and they ... cheer... and you maintain perfect alignment... I mean, if my hand, tower, and creature had fully degenerated into the pure evil forms, (black, corrupted, spikey, etc), that would be understandable. Evil people worshiping an evil god and such. But that was never the case... Just another reason that game was lost to obscurity.