Choices! (and how they ruin my gaming life)

[malakian]

Right guys. I'm going to come out with it, I have a problem. That's hard for me to admit, you know, being borderline perfect.

Anyhow. As we all know, these days the gaming world is expanding to places that never it dare tread before. Prostitutes and drugs are on the milder side of what you can indulge in; blowing up settlements full of holocaust survivors with a nuke is just one choice of many in the gaming world today that really makes you think 'the princess might be in another castle, but this bad mother doesn't care. I came to set up home in this one.'

Let's take an example of what I mean. Knights of the Old Republic astounded me, and the experience I had with it was second to none. The world was vibrant and the decisions were interesting. The problem is, for me they weren't decisions. I had already decided them - I was doing the right thing. It's inherent for me...I don't desire power for anything more than living well and doing good. In short, my personality is that of a liberal bed wetter.

'So what, you can always pick the good choice', you might be thinking, but that doesnt quite cut it. Nowadays the full game experience with all developments and plot points considered is only attained by doing it good and doing it bad. Gone are the days of the full story being told through two decent paths (Read: The claire disc from resident evil 2), if you really want to know what will happen you've got to be an asshole.

So herein lies my problem: I can't do it. I winced so much at the rude things presented to me as options for what Shepard will say in mass effect that I ended up playing it through a second time making good choices, on my evil playthrough!

I might as well draw this into some form of feedback question, so that question is how difficult is it for you to make evil choices in games? Does it come naturally? Do you have an urge to? Do you, like me, get hung up on a transferring social conscience? Do tell!

Meanwhile I'll just give this woman another 100 credits for her dead husbands prized hunting skull...Of course I don't want it...

 

[Longo_2_guns]

I'm always good. Usually though, it annoys me because you are either a saint, neutral, or the largest asshole ever. There's no "I want to help you out but I don't want to pay all 10,000 credits of your debt. I'll just give you a little bit to help you, because god forbid I may be low on credits as well." and there's no "I'm going to beat you up and take your ice cream." You either help them out 100% or you kill them.

And usually in games I find that even still it doesn't matter if you are good or evil. The whole game will progress exactly the same, you just may get a few more friends or items depending on which way you choose. That's why I'm perfectly fine with games that take control of the story for you, because getting told one story is just as good as getting told one story with one persons actions different.

But ultimately, I find that I have the same problem. It hurts me to do bad.

 

[spanky1113]

I pains me as well to do bad. I'm on my bad playthrough right now for Fallout 3, and I was about 10 minutes into the game before I found my cursor floating over the "Is this it or hasn't the party started yet?" option, trying to force myself to click it. I ended up clicking it, but not without hesitation.

For some reason, though, I find it easier to do evil acts instead of just saying evil things. I guess cause I'm a nice guy in real life, and while I could tell someone to go fuck themselves, I won't, but I could never just shoot someone's head off.

Either way, I know how the game's going to end regardless of choice, it's just the experiences on the way there that change.

I hope one day, when a developer says "200 endings!", they mean that if I want that bitch to die, she's gonna die, regardless of how important to the storyline she is, and the game will progress without her.

 

[TheZoomZoomKid]

You're nothing but a p-boy. Evil all the way

 

[Rakon]

I don't like choosing bad either. In Fable, I went pure good, and whenever I did do something bad, I regretted it. I admit to killing every living being that stands in my way on occasion (thanks Kratos), but I fight for the light.

 

[Kiristo]

Evil is so much more fun. It's usually easier too, but it's just fun. I like giving a run through with both, but sometimes on that second or third time through you just want to be evil again. I mean, you can make the wookie kill that annoying blue chick, how fucking awesomely evil is that? That is the single most rewarding choice I've ever had in a game. Damn, that was cool.

 

[AMANIAC]

Evil is so much more fun. It's usually easier too, but it's just fun. I like giving a run through with both, but sometimes on that second or third time through you just want to be evil again. I mean, you can make the wookie kill that annoying blue chick, how f****** awesomely evil is that? That is the single most rewarding choice I've ever had in a game. Damn, that was cool.

You made Zaalbar kill the annoying blue chick?.......Yeah, me too. I AM REVAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

 

[AMANIAC]

Oooh, that was my 100th post, can i have a party?

 

[NickKmet]

It would be much better if there were more "gray" choices that didn't make things so black and white. But that requires some insane programming and writing - not something that is a practical investment.

 

[Oscihedgehog]

I too, share your problem, I naturally choose the "good" choices in games, even on- as you said- my evil playthroughs. It is quite annoying that game developers have taken the two paths choice, I often find myself seeing not as much as the game due to my lovely, kind nature ;P

 

[letusprey]

I almost always play through the bad way first...It's more fun. The one time I couldn't do the bad thing though was in Bioshock, I could do all the evil deeds in Fallout 3 and even chased the kids around with a gun (couldn't kill them).

My though has always been, "screw it its a game." I know it wouldn't be fun to actually shoot a bunch of real people and blah blah blah. So I don't really have a "virtual conscious(sp?)" But they made those little girls in Bioshock way to damn innocent to kill, even though it was a game.

 

[used44]

When the writing is good enough, being bad can be really fun. But, like Longo said, the choices in most games are very black and white. And it's much more normal for me to be on the good path, especially when the only other option is so obviously evil.

 

[bomby139143]

Thats funny, I went full on evil in bioshock, I killed every little girl I could find just because the Big daddies pissed me off.

 

[De-Ting]

Has anyone else realized that the evil way of going about a game is always ridiculously stupid? There are no evil geniuses anymore.

 

[used44]

It's also usually quite a bit easier. Going to several different locations and completing favors just to make a stranger happy is a lot more difficult then just shooting them in the face.

 

[keepithowitis]

See, now with Fable 2, I just did evil stuff, but then gave a bunch of cash to beggars, which boosted me right back up to 100% good. Because being evil and corrupt isn't aesthetically pleasing. Right now in Fallout I'm kinda in a dilemma. I'm really early in the game on my first playthrough, I'm edging in on level 4, and kinda deciding whether to be good, or evil. I've looted enough stuff to get Jericho on my team, so I guess that means I'm edging over to the bad side, but I generally pick the good thing in conversation, simply because I'm not an asshole unless it gets me items.

 

[Solaris10]

Funny, I tend to be neutral in fallout.

I don't pick pocket but if someone is an asshole to me and deserve it, I pop them in the ****ing head. Moriarthy was only one of many.

Burke gets the award for BEST....VILLAIN...EVER . Exactly my type of bad guy. Elegant, sly and deadly effective.

 

[Delta47]

The one thing I hate being evil is in KotOR on tatooine, yuka laka wants to sell me HK-47 and i threatened to kill him and he gave it to me for free, I felt so bad and regreted it so much, I had at least twice as much credits to buy it full price too

 

[used44]

^ Hahaha. I love that you regret that.

 

[Kiristo]

Reading all this makes me want to do something deliciously evil. Something like steal a poor crippled boys money and them shoot him while he begs for his life. Mmmm, the tears of the innocent are so tasty. Plus they fuel my Genesis device...