I just had a rather interesting discussion with a friend about morality in games, basically the overall discussion was about multiple playthroughs, my friend out of curiousity would play through once as good once as evil (good would be his primary choice though). On the other hand I apply my own real world morals to videogames, and I would never pick choices which went against them.
So what about you?
Do you apply real world morals to videogames?
Or do you see your actions in videogames completely seperate from the real world?
Morality System
Concept »
Moral dilemmas presented to the player that often have a significant effect on the story or other characters.
Real life morals applied to video games?
I'm really nice guy in real life. Can't remember the last time i was angry at someone, just a couple of days ago i bought this cool poster, framed it and gave it to a friend of mine. Wasn't his birthday or any other special occasion, just thought he'd really like it. So i consider myself to be pretty considerate and good person.
But in games where you can choose your moral path i usually follow very gray-dark path (possible threatening, extorsion, shooting innocents etc.), but at key decision making points i'll usually do the right thing.
Doing morally gray & dark things in real life just goes against my nature, but in a video game it's much easier and much more tempting to morally hop over that fence and try the dark side for a change.
I tend to alternate between good and evil between games just for a different experience. It's easy for me to separate my real life values and morals when playing video games much like if I were an actor and the role called for the character I was playing to be evil. It's all about entertainment. Just wish that decisions were more gray areas other than the "Jesus or Hitler?" trap most games fall into.
Well more than morals I apply what I would like to do to that person but cant in real life :P , if I applied my videogame morals on to Real life , you would see me in the news all the time , but in videogame I feel kinda of wrong when I do bad deeds to innocents , like the playthrough on Knight of the old republic , I didnt wanted to be a Jedi but a sith , but didnt felt good doing bad stuff to people for the sake of it , but in what other way could my character look bad ass without being one?
I'm a pretty nice guy in real life, and go out of my way not to be a dick (unless you piss me off, that is). In games I tend to go evil on my first playthrough (for games like Fallout) and good on my second.
" Can't think of a game where an ethically sound person can express his morals completely through a game, considering how virtually all games focus on killing other beings. "Yeah I was about to say playing a game completely morally is boring. You even speed and drive recklessly in something so innocent as a racing game.
But in regards to whether I pick good or evil choices... It's usually whatever's going to profit me the most in the end, or is the most fun. Like in Mass Effect 2, I was doing nice things for a lot of people, and never actually screwing people over, but I was always snarky about it, and whenever I had an entertaining looking renegade moment coming up, I'd do it. LIke kicking that guy out the window. That was pretty funny.
I actually tend to play the good role 95% of the time.. in choices and character. It's hard for me to do something rotten for some reason.. except in GTA, and "stealing" in Bethesda games.
hmm, I don't really believe in following morals.
I generally try to be decent and fair to people in real life because that's what serves me best.
In games, there are often people that will attack me just for being, so my real life outlook rarely if ever seems to work out in games...
I generally play an asshole in games, but someone who has a code. No killing innocents, no killing women and children (chicks who are attacking me are fair game though). If I break my little "code" I tend to enjoy the game far less or I just reload because I didn't play it right. That said, I usually end up killing a lot of people who aren't necessarily villains.
I'm always the hero,bringer of light,savior of humanity in every game that's not a SMT RPG.
In those I'm neutral.
I usually apply real life morals. That doesn't mean I'm always nice. In games like Mass Effect, often the renegade choice is not evil. It's just a tougher approach.
" I just had a rather interesting discussion with a friend about morality in games, basically the overall discussion was about multiple playthroughs, my friend out of curiousity would play through once as good once as evil (good would be his primary choice though). On the other hand I apply my own real world morals to videogames, and I would never pick choices which went against them. So what about you? Do you apply real world morals to videogames? Or do you see your actions in videogames completely seperate from the real world? "
Morality in gaming is a real misstep in my opinion, what does Forced morality give you? Sure, they get to design some scripted events to put upon you when you press 'A' for good or 'Triangle' for bad, it's something that can't even be implemented well because the design is still linear, Moral decisions are deeply personal ones, they are choices, and that is what should be implemented in Games, not a forced button press, but if Developers could just do away with the 'good' and 'evil' Gauge (which is more of a crutch than anything) and just give you flat choice, and letting your morals kick in and decide what you want to do in real time, no "press a to kill this dude" then wouldn't that be a better solution?
I don't wan't to spend my free time being Judged by people, Let alone people I know, why should Games be different?
Why are games different,
And the Good and evil thing is so Contrived as well, being as most of us live in the Grey area of life which I suppose is a real hard thing to try and achieve in a Videogame,
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