For the next episode, we'll be returning to the Game Design Corner. Our new topic: Moral Choices.
I know this is going painfully slow (as always), but thanks for putting up with me!
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Welcome Aboard
This place is a supplement to my series of video game lecture videos. Here, I'll post regular progress updates on the next video, discuss various video gaming topics and, occasionally, share my impressions on a specific game.
Whatever. The point is that I don't vanish for three months at a time between videos.
I look forward to it. Moral choice, huh? Yeah, that's an interesting topic.
ReplyDeletei do like the idea of moral choice in games but like yatzee points out in zero puctution
ReplyDeletetheres no middle ground in games with a moral choice you cant be a modertae bad guy or a good guy that occasionally act evil
your either your perfect good or perfect bad
I wouldn't say Yahtzee's claim is quite as true anymore, now that Dragon Age and a few others have come along and made some improvements. But yeah, that's the sort of thing I'll be talking about.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should just stick with posting the whole video on Screwattack and putting a preview on youtube. No more time limit then!
ReplyDeleteIt's technically more like an 11-minute limit on YouTube, right? If that'll allow you to say more on the subject...
ReplyDeleteI managed to edit it down. I didn't really have to cut out any content, I just needed to be a little more concise in a few areas. The episode will probably be better for it, really.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think I could leave youtube anyway. It's definitely the place to get the most traffic, and not just gamer traffic. If I ever really need to break the time limit on an episode, I'll just make a two-parter.
didn't you alredy do one about choice? but i look worward to it.
ReplyDeleteI think Mass Effect has a decent good/evil system and Dragon Age that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnyways I am looking forward to it.Yes you take alot of time betwen each one but they are extremly good! Keep it up
is there a set date on its posting ?
ReplyDeletemy professor is looking forward to it to integrate it into his lecture
So I just listened to the podcast on morality in games and I am really interested in the upcoming video. I have a question, however, about the approach to morality. In the podcast when you three were discussing morality the only focus was about choices and the moral implications of these choices and the effect of these choices on the game or gameplay. Choice is important for morality, but choice is not the whole of morality.
ReplyDeleteI am currently writing my dissertation on philosophical ethics, and many of the issues go beyond choice. For example, what one can even "see" as a moral issue often depends on one's values. For example, if one is a devout Catholic one will see different elements of a situation as morally relevant than one would if one was devotedly Rawlsian. It seems that these kinds of issues would also be incorporated into game design.
Also, even if we did stay within the realm of choice alone, one thing that could complicate choices is if you could go to far in a particular direction. For example, Wolf argues http://bit.ly/9A893K that while it is good to be moral, saints would not be fun people to be around. So it could be interesting if part of the challenge was to strike the right balance or something.
We do go into that a little bit. Almost ALL of these games deal in absolutes when it comes to morality; each decision is "+2 Good" or "+4 Evil." I can't remember if we talked about them during the podcast, but there are a few good ways to break from this trend.
ReplyDeleteThe best moral choice system I've ever seen in a game was the one in KotOR II. Because not only was everyone in your party effected by what you did, but you'd have a lot of in-depth discussions with characters about what moral. It was sorta like having the cast of Watchmen in your party. What I want to know is why Bioware never took a leaf out of Obsidian's book. And that's part of why I'm very much looking forward to Alpha Protocol.
ReplyDelete