Morality in video games

[darth los]

Interesting article with some good points.

Imo, it does make you invest emotionally in game. Especially when it affects the outcome. I fully expect more developers to intergrate moral choices into games.

Any thoughts?

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6240211/index.html?tag=topslot;title;5

:cool:

[Skippy911sc]

I have this tendency to do things in games that I would never do in real life... Walk up to a unsuspecting person in GTA and shoot them in the head just to see what happens...

I think that morality in game is not a bad thing...although I tend to lean to the Dark side. Watch your back!

[darth los]

I have this tendency to do things in games that I would never do in real life... Walk up to a unsuspecting person in GTA and shoot them in the head just to see what happens...

I think that morality in game is not a bad thing...although I tend to lean to the Dark side. Watch your back!

I think some want to make a connection between being violent in video games and it carrying over in real life, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You said it perfectly. It's a fantasy, not real. I can't tell you how many times I come home from work and just unwind while blowing zombies faces off in L4D cursing all the while and man do i let off alot of steam that way. Is it making me more violent? Hell no. In fact, I'd say it's quite the opposite. Letting steam off on a game makes it far less likely that I'll lash out at my fellow man.

So it's really a public service. :D

Ever think about what it would be like to smack an old lady in the face and then run? Put on GTA and go to town. It's done, curiosity satisfied. No one gets hurt and no one goes to jail. (cause man those cops are good)

:cool:

[ProfessorChaos]

speaking of morality in videogames, i recently finished all dlc's and have all the achievements in fallout 3 except for the 3 associated with having "neutral" karma at levels 8, 14, and 20. so i'm going to go back and play it once more, this time being as even-keel as possible....then i'm going to be the most evil fuck in the wasteland and set off the nuclear bomb in megaton...and i can't wait to see that beautiful mushroom cloud of destruction.:evil:

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and yeah, i think that going around and shoving random asshole pedestrians down a flight of stairs would be hilarious, but it's not something i'd do in real life...that's why i play gta.:D

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[SymphonicX]

I was thinking whilst reading the article...imagine a world in the future where all games are full of moral choices, and the government tracks your choices in a range of games to determine a psychological profile of you...

scary!!!

[blind2d]

That was highlarioush.

[darth los]

I was thinking whilst reading the article...imagine a world in the future where all games are full of moral choices, and the government tracks your choices in a range of games to determine a psychological profile of you...

scary!!!


My feeling is, if We've thought of it chances are they already have. And if they've already have they're probably in the process of implementing it if they haven't already.

Always remember, the gov't greatest strength is the public underestimating what they might or might not do.

:cool:

[MinionZombie]

In GTA I do get up to various evil deeds - however, interestingly, during GTA IV's story when I was faced with a moral choice, I'd always kill off the asshole character and keep the "good" guy around - so I killed Playboy X instead of Dwayne for example.

Yet I've still gone on plenty of rampages, run folks over and so on - however they're not real people, nor do they have characters, they're NPCs with a limited range of options to make them look different, and you end up seeing the models over and over again, even on the same street. So it's not real life in any sense.

...

As for the much blabbed about by people who've never played it (or even seen it? as if they were games players in the first place, pfft lol) "airport scene" in MW2 - I didn't shoot and civvies. I just shot televisions and glass windows and stuff to create chaos - my thinking being "I don't know whether this will play into the outcome or not, I should fire off my weapon a bit at least, lest my cover be blown - not wanting to blow my cover for the greater good" kinda thing.

...

In Fallout 3 though, I've ALWAYS gone for the moral option. I've always helped everybody who sought help, and I've always gone for the positive Karma outcome of all missions. If I ever fucked something up, I'd purposefully go back and re-do it.

I still re-played one portion just to see Megaton explode, and didn't save that "progress" - I just wanted to see the in-game event outside of my actual campaign in which I was helping everyone just by the natural choice I'd make, punishing evil doers, and rescuing & helping innocents along the way.

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In a game like Postal 2 though, the 'civvies' aren't realistic, don't have personalities, and aren't even in the main story. You simply cause chaos and that's it really - it has it's place - and as I always say, far better in a videogame than in real life.

I see videogames as a perfect antidote to ill-feeling, anger and stress.

For instance, you're feeling pissed off and angry about something, so what you do is you play GTA for an hour and get all your anger out that way and bingo - you feel much better in the real world to everyone's benefit.

[darth los]

Yet I've still gone on plenty of rampages, run folks over and so on - however they're not real people, nor do they have characters, they're NPCs with a limited range of options to make them look different, and you end up seeing the models over and over again, even on the same street. So it's not real life in any sense.


In a game like Postal 2 though, the 'civvies' aren't realistic, don't have personalities, and aren't even in the main story. You simply cause chaos and that's it really - it has it's place - and as I always say, far better in a videogame than in real life.


I totally agree about the stress relief aspect. It's a big selling point for me.

However, you made the point a couple of times that the people aren't realistic as if that's the reason it's o.k. (although that might not have been your point, that's just how i interpreted it).

I'm of the mind that even if there were 8 million different character models in GTA IV each with a unique personality it wouldn't make a difference, it's still just a game and has no bearing on what sort of person you are or what you might do in real life.

:cool:

[MinionZombie]

Well I was really meaning that in a videogame, if an NPC is in the story and has a character then you've got some kind of 'videogame connection' to them, and so you're far more unlikely to just slaughter them.

Meanwhile, a generic NPC on the street making up the numbers has no character, no backstory, isn't part of the story, and is essentially fodder - therefore, run your SabreGT right over their heads. :elol:

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Indeed, what you do in videogames has no bearing on what you do in real life. It's why I can't stand the dumb-dumb argument of "desensitisation to violence" - VIDEOGAME violence yeah, because you've seen it all before, but that's a million miles away from a real human being getting set upon by a gang of hoodies on a Saturday night being beaten to death on CCTV before the cops even bother showing up.

...

It's like the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode about videogame violence, and they get that average everyday normal kid to shoot a real gun (being a fan of the likes of COD4), and he didn't like it at all - in fact the poor little mite got quite upset by it all.