Here's how it happened.
The leader of our ragged group, Lilly, handed me four food items: half an apple, a strip of beef jerky, and two packs of cheese and crackers. These were our rations for the day.
Four items.
And we had more than four people in our band. There were two kids, a teenager, an old man, a husband and a wife, some women, and myself. Who did I give the food to? The kids? The old man? Myself? This seems an easy choice, doesn't it? It's simply a game. Not really. Not if this game has direct consequences for my actions. And Telltale's The Walking Dead does just that.
Moral Choices. And their consequences.
What constitutes a moral choice in gaming? Choosing one path over another? Saving the life of a murderer? How does one make these choices? Most games claim to provide morality (or lack of) and allow you to choose your path, but I'm going to break that down and say something contrary.
I don't think most games justify actual moral choice, but the illusion of morality.
Isn't the purpose of morality and moral choice to make you think, to make you question your actions and decide what to do to further gameplay? Isn't the character supposed to be you?
Then why do we make these choices so easily? Why do we act evil? Heck, when I play games I like to play as a bad guy sometimes and do bad things. Isn't that considered a failure in morality in video games? Let me use one of my favorite video game series of all time, Mass Effect, to explain how a series gets morality right and how it gets it wrong.
You play as Commander Shepard, and if you don't know that, you probably don't play video games. :P As Shepard, you're given a "Paragon" and "Renegade" bar that steadily increases depending on how "good" or "evil" you act during gameplay. Conversation choices in the game clearly state what is the Paragon option and what is the Renegade option. This is both the fault and the success in Mass Effect. If you want to be good, it gives you the option to. The problem is that this option is so clearly laid out in blue and red that you know what you want to say. And that's not morality. Morality is action based off of presupposed beliefs. This is simply the illusion of morality.
I hope my explanation is doing justice and I'm not butchering this article. I'm merely trying to cause you to think. Moral choices are difficult choices. These are decisions that have weight and that cause you to question and ponder your values on the subject. And most games absolutely fail in this aspect.
Most nonlinear role-playing games allow you the option to make decisions. Fallout: New Vegas is a recent example that adds in more "grey" to the black and white of morality. It doesn't really give you the options of what is right and what is wrong. It doesn't force you to choose between good and bad mainly because it doesn't describe exactly what is good or bad in the wasteland. But that's still not morality, is it? Besides a few main quests and plot points, you won't sit there for a while deciding on what actions to commit. You'll just do. So A for effort, but still, no perfect morality system in this game.
Let's jump ahead to another BioWare game, Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR). In this successful game, one of the first examples of including "moral choices" in modern gaming, you can join the light side or dark side of the Force. You can choose to be either a Jedi or a Sith warrior. Why is it that we choose the dark side because it's cool? Why do we choose Force Lightning over Force Push? Why do we even consider killing our allies throughout the game or betraying them. We wouldn't do this in real life, would we? Nope, not unless you're a psychopath or have a skewed sense of morality. Most of us would never do this. So this game has already failed at a moral system before even allowing us the option to create our character. We go in deciding what we want to do. But that's merely our play style and how we want to play the game. That's not morality. KotOR is an incredibly fun and satisfying game. But it merely has the illusion of morality evident in its gameplay. I don't ever consider or weigh my decisions in this game. I just act.
Or heck, pushing away from RPGs for a second, Infinity Ward decided to jump on the morality bandwagon and include a controversial level in their Call of Duty series. They warned the players that it could be disturbing for some viewers and gave the option to skip the level. Great, morality at it's finest, right?
Wrong.
Who skipped the level? Less than 10% of the gamers who bought the game, I can assure you. This isn't morality in gaming. This is missing out on a level because of the illusion of morality. I didn't feel bad killing civilians in this level. And I'm one of the most moral guys you'll ever meet. By giving gamers the option to skip a level because of moral purposes, they inadvertently caused gamers to want to play the level. Sure, you might think to yourself whilst playing, "Wow. This is messed up." But does it affect you so much that you skip playing, or do you just laugh and keep gunning down innocent civilians in Moscow? Killing them in the game doesn't make you a bad person in real life. It's just entertainment. Infinity Ward tried to be edgy and allow for morality, but really all they did was give gamers the guilty pleasure of being a bad guy. And this is the same stuff you'll see in Mass Effect and any other game with the illusion of morality present today. No morality at all. Just the option to be who you want to be.
So here I am rambling forever and not giving you any good choices for true morality in gaming. Well remember the first part of this article? The Walking Dead has got to be one of the most interesting games I've ever played in my life. It's available on just about any platform you want to play it on (Sorry Wii). You see, morality isn't about killing someone or letting a factory blow up to save a town.
It's about relationships and how they affect you. You the player and you the character.
The Walking Dead immediately immerses you in your character, Lee Everett. He's a convicted killer, but he can be so much more than that because of your decisions. Telltale Games is, I believe, the first to get it right in the morality department. For instance, no choices are labelled as good or bad ones, or right and wrong ones. They're just choices. Morally gray ones. And they have drastic consequences. During conversations, you get a very limited amount of time to decide your option. And there is no restarting the conversation tree to make a better choice. What you say happens and there's no going back. This causes you, the player, to weigh what you have to say before making the decision. And when you have precious seconds to decide, it's all instinct. That's really your own sense of morality deciding in these times. You aren't given time to consider what to say. You just say.
And in regards to character development, Lee is accompanied by a little girl, Clementine, throughout his survival in the zombie apocalypse. Through her impressive writing and voice-acting, she actually caused me to care about her. I found myself making decisions in the game solely for her benefit. I fed her over others. I didn't raid a car because I knew she wouldn't like it. I let a little boy live instead of a young man so she wouldn't be alone. No game has ever made me care about a character before like this. And I found myself constantly trying to play as a righteous man. Everything I did was for Clementine's benefit. To show her Lee was more than a killer. And despite the awful situations portrayed in the game, Lee's relationship with Clementine became the most important thing to me. And I would ruin all relationships with anyone else if they ever messed with hers and mine.
According to Telltale Games, the majority of players "try to do the right thing" when it comes to The Walking Dead. This is despite the fact that there is no such thing as the right thing. And that is morality portrayed right. You see, morality in gaming isn't choosing between a blue or red option, or letting a woman live because she could benefit you. It's choosing an option that you know will affect you, either good or bad, and being satisfied with the choice because that is something you would do. That is morality. And it is no illusion in this game. Seriously, pick this game up. You'll be talking about it for weeks (my girlfriend has already had to deal with our early morning walks to class and all about how this game has made me think so much about morals and my decisions). At 5 dollars an episode, The Walking Dead is a steal. Not only is it fun, but it causes you to think and to justify your decisions to yourself.
Morality in gaming is a hard thing to get right. Not only do most games fail at providing actual moral decisions, but you don't really even consider what you did and how good or bad it was. Actual morality in gaming requires you to make a choice that you would make in reality and to consider it long after the choice was made. The Walking Dead and The Witcher are two games that provide great moral choice in gaming, and I recommend you pick both up.
Hope you enjoyed!
-Christian :)
The leader of our ragged group, Lilly, handed me four food items: half an apple, a strip of beef jerky, and two packs of cheese and crackers. These were our rations for the day.
Four items.
And we had more than four people in our band. There were two kids, a teenager, an old man, a husband and a wife, some women, and myself. Who did I give the food to? The kids? The old man? Myself? This seems an easy choice, doesn't it? It's simply a game. Not really. Not if this game has direct consequences for my actions. And Telltale's The Walking Dead does just that.
Moral Choices. And their consequences.
What constitutes a moral choice in gaming? Choosing one path over another? Saving the life of a murderer? How does one make these choices? Most games claim to provide morality (or lack of) and allow you to choose your path, but I'm going to break that down and say something contrary.
I don't think most games justify actual moral choice, but the illusion of morality.
Isn't the purpose of morality and moral choice to make you think, to make you question your actions and decide what to do to further gameplay? Isn't the character supposed to be you?
Then why do we make these choices so easily? Why do we act evil? Heck, when I play games I like to play as a bad guy sometimes and do bad things. Isn't that considered a failure in morality in video games? Let me use one of my favorite video game series of all time, Mass Effect, to explain how a series gets morality right and how it gets it wrong.
You play as Commander Shepard, and if you don't know that, you probably don't play video games. :P As Shepard, you're given a "Paragon" and "Renegade" bar that steadily increases depending on how "good" or "evil" you act during gameplay. Conversation choices in the game clearly state what is the Paragon option and what is the Renegade option. This is both the fault and the success in Mass Effect. If you want to be good, it gives you the option to. The problem is that this option is so clearly laid out in blue and red that you know what you want to say. And that's not morality. Morality is action based off of presupposed beliefs. This is simply the illusion of morality.
I hope my explanation is doing justice and I'm not butchering this article. I'm merely trying to cause you to think. Moral choices are difficult choices. These are decisions that have weight and that cause you to question and ponder your values on the subject. And most games absolutely fail in this aspect.
Most nonlinear role-playing games allow you the option to make decisions. Fallout: New Vegas is a recent example that adds in more "grey" to the black and white of morality. It doesn't really give you the options of what is right and what is wrong. It doesn't force you to choose between good and bad mainly because it doesn't describe exactly what is good or bad in the wasteland. But that's still not morality, is it? Besides a few main quests and plot points, you won't sit there for a while deciding on what actions to commit. You'll just do. So A for effort, but still, no perfect morality system in this game.
Let's jump ahead to another BioWare game, Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR). In this successful game, one of the first examples of including "moral choices" in modern gaming, you can join the light side or dark side of the Force. You can choose to be either a Jedi or a Sith warrior. Why is it that we choose the dark side because it's cool? Why do we choose Force Lightning over Force Push? Why do we even consider killing our allies throughout the game or betraying them. We wouldn't do this in real life, would we? Nope, not unless you're a psychopath or have a skewed sense of morality. Most of us would never do this. So this game has already failed at a moral system before even allowing us the option to create our character. We go in deciding what we want to do. But that's merely our play style and how we want to play the game. That's not morality. KotOR is an incredibly fun and satisfying game. But it merely has the illusion of morality evident in its gameplay. I don't ever consider or weigh my decisions in this game. I just act.
Or heck, pushing away from RPGs for a second, Infinity Ward decided to jump on the morality bandwagon and include a controversial level in their Call of Duty series. They warned the players that it could be disturbing for some viewers and gave the option to skip the level. Great, morality at it's finest, right?
Wrong.
Who skipped the level? Less than 10% of the gamers who bought the game, I can assure you. This isn't morality in gaming. This is missing out on a level because of the illusion of morality. I didn't feel bad killing civilians in this level. And I'm one of the most moral guys you'll ever meet. By giving gamers the option to skip a level because of moral purposes, they inadvertently caused gamers to want to play the level. Sure, you might think to yourself whilst playing, "Wow. This is messed up." But does it affect you so much that you skip playing, or do you just laugh and keep gunning down innocent civilians in Moscow? Killing them in the game doesn't make you a bad person in real life. It's just entertainment. Infinity Ward tried to be edgy and allow for morality, but really all they did was give gamers the guilty pleasure of being a bad guy. And this is the same stuff you'll see in Mass Effect and any other game with the illusion of morality present today. No morality at all. Just the option to be who you want to be.
So here I am rambling forever and not giving you any good choices for true morality in gaming. Well remember the first part of this article? The Walking Dead has got to be one of the most interesting games I've ever played in my life. It's available on just about any platform you want to play it on (Sorry Wii). You see, morality isn't about killing someone or letting a factory blow up to save a town.
It's about relationships and how they affect you. You the player and you the character.
The Walking Dead immediately immerses you in your character, Lee Everett. He's a convicted killer, but he can be so much more than that because of your decisions. Telltale Games is, I believe, the first to get it right in the morality department. For instance, no choices are labelled as good or bad ones, or right and wrong ones. They're just choices. Morally gray ones. And they have drastic consequences. During conversations, you get a very limited amount of time to decide your option. And there is no restarting the conversation tree to make a better choice. What you say happens and there's no going back. This causes you, the player, to weigh what you have to say before making the decision. And when you have precious seconds to decide, it's all instinct. That's really your own sense of morality deciding in these times. You aren't given time to consider what to say. You just say.
And in regards to character development, Lee is accompanied by a little girl, Clementine, throughout his survival in the zombie apocalypse. Through her impressive writing and voice-acting, she actually caused me to care about her. I found myself making decisions in the game solely for her benefit. I fed her over others. I didn't raid a car because I knew she wouldn't like it. I let a little boy live instead of a young man so she wouldn't be alone. No game has ever made me care about a character before like this. And I found myself constantly trying to play as a righteous man. Everything I did was for Clementine's benefit. To show her Lee was more than a killer. And despite the awful situations portrayed in the game, Lee's relationship with Clementine became the most important thing to me. And I would ruin all relationships with anyone else if they ever messed with hers and mine.
According to Telltale Games, the majority of players "try to do the right thing" when it comes to The Walking Dead. This is despite the fact that there is no such thing as the right thing. And that is morality portrayed right. You see, morality in gaming isn't choosing between a blue or red option, or letting a woman live because she could benefit you. It's choosing an option that you know will affect you, either good or bad, and being satisfied with the choice because that is something you would do. That is morality. And it is no illusion in this game. Seriously, pick this game up. You'll be talking about it for weeks (my girlfriend has already had to deal with our early morning walks to class and all about how this game has made me think so much about morals and my decisions). At 5 dollars an episode, The Walking Dead is a steal. Not only is it fun, but it causes you to think and to justify your decisions to yourself.
Morality in gaming is a hard thing to get right. Not only do most games fail at providing actual moral decisions, but you don't really even consider what you did and how good or bad it was. Actual morality in gaming requires you to make a choice that you would make in reality and to consider it long after the choice was made. The Walking Dead and The Witcher are two games that provide great moral choice in gaming, and I recommend you pick both up.
Hope you enjoyed!
-Christian :)