Moral Choices In Video Games, And Choice Systems In General

Seil · 02-10-2011, 06:08 PM

Now, when I talk about moral choice systems, I'm not talking about games like Infamous. I'm talking about Little Sisters in Bioshock, the Silent Hill V mercy-killings, all that jazz.

But let's start from the beginning - I was playing Dragon Age: Origins and was pleasantly surprised how my actions would affect my team mates opinion of me, and how they wouldn't hesitate to stop me if I, say, defiled the remains of a long dead religious icon. I like that - in some of the games I've played, there's been very little change when I make a choice in game, and to have party members dislike me for trying to help such and such when we're fighting a war against evil demon things is neat.

But there's really no hard choices. Nothing that offends one's morality. I'm on record as saying I dislike Silent Hill V - and I still do - but there's a point where you've got the option of leaving your mother on a stretching rack or kill her out of mercy. Hell, look at Heavy Rain - you've got the bit from the trailer where you have to hurt yourself for the sake of a loved one.

Now, SHV was like Saw: The Video Game even before Saw was a video game. But Bioshock, with the Little Sisters wasn't a big problem for gamers - most people I know who took the Harvester option weren't too perturbed by it.

What I'm wondering is whether this is necessary to tell a story in a game, the hard kinds of moral choices - because I like the reputation system in DA:O, and it had a bearing on how I experienced the game, but SHV was more memorable because of the harder options. What do you guys think?

02-10-2011, 06:08 PM	#1
Seil Super stressed! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: British Columbia Posts: 8,081	Moral Choices In Video Games, And Choice Systems In General Now, when I talk about moral choice systems, I'm not talking about games like Infamous. I'm talking about Little Sisters in Bioshock, the Silent Hill V mercy-killings, all that jazz. But let's start from the beginning - I was playing Dragon Age: Origins and was pleasantly surprised how my actions would affect my team mates opinion of me, and how they wouldn't hesitate to stop me if I, say, defiled the remains of a long dead religious icon. I like that - in some of the games I've played, there's been very little change when I make a choice in game, and to have party members dislike me for trying to help such and such when we're fighting a war against evil demon things is neat. But there's really no hard choices. Nothing that offends one's morality. I'm on record as saying I dislike Silent Hill V - and I still do - but there's a point where you've got the option of leaving your mother on a stretching rack or kill her out of mercy. Hell, look at Heavy Rain - you've got the bit from the trailer where you have to hurt yourself for the sake of a loved one. Now, SHV was like Saw: The Video Game even before Saw was a video game. But Bioshock, with the Little Sisters wasn't a big problem for gamers - most people I know who took the Harvester option weren't too perturbed by it. What I'm wondering is whether this is necessary to tell a story in a game, the hard kinds of moral choices - because I like the reputation system in DA:O, and it had a bearing on how I experienced the game, but SHV was more memorable because of the harder options. What do you guys think?