Games with moral choice systems: Do you go good or evil?

[LoneSage]

I'm generally good with occasional psychotic breaks of evil.

Example, Metal Gear. There really aren't moral choices, but killing people is generally considered bad. I usually sneak around and use the tranquilizer gun, but occasionally a guy will piss you of enough to snap his neck, or I decide to pull out the biggest machine gun I have and mow down everyone on sight. Glorious!

The exception is MGS3. Slitting throats is too much fun, I'll never get a no kill game in that one.

This is another topic entirely that could be addressed as to why people feel the need to kill in video games.

 

[Jon]

What are some games that have interesting moral choices that don't serve only to fill some meter and make your guy look scary? I'd like a game that your choices actually make a meaningful difference to the world around you.

I've never played any game from the series but, wouldn't a game like Infamous on PS3 be a good example of this? Can anyone chime in here?

Also, I'm wondering how Watchdogs is going to work as far as how good/bad you can be and how that affects the world in that game.

Jon

 

[Jassin000]

This is another topic entirely that could be addressed as to why people feel the need to kill in video games.

Killing another human is morally wrong is the general idea. People on the other hand (for any number of different reasons) are attracted (and historically have been) to violence.

Video game or virtual reality fantasy violence (vrfv?) is not morally wrong as no one (well maybe the people that work for EA ) has been harmed in its creation or execution.
They can (and do look at the sales of GTA) offer a "safe" place for people to experiment with otherwise very heavy moral choices and actions.

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

Similar to the rest of the crowd, I do the good routine first since the story is more developed, then rarely have the time to do the alternate replay.

Some games like Bioshock give you the option of being a bad guy for the more immediate reward (Adam) versus a future larger payoff by playing through the good path. In playing an open world game like Assassin's Creed, I will sometimes go on a random romp of assassinating NPCs but it quickly loses meaning. If there were real consequences within the game world, I would avoid the bad streak so as to give myself more future sidequest options.

I think the best options in games are ones that don't have a clear cut good/bad choice. Every choice can have an unintended consequence (as I've heard from people playing Fallout 3) and you never really know what your choice can really cause in the world. You then have to act from your moral conscience rather than pursue one of two laid out paths.

 

[munchiaz]

What are some games that have interesting moral choices that don't serve only to fill some meter and make your guy look scary? I'd like a game that your choices actually make a meaningful difference to the world around you.

Play the Shin Megami Tensei games.