Should Every Story-Driven Game Have Mora ...

I love moral decisions in games when it matters what you do like in Fallout 3, Mass effect 1-2, and soon to be in Heavy Rain. But its kinda lame when 'moral decisions' are being tacked onto every game now like army of two for example. Do you think this feauture should be in all story-drivben games? Like would you want to see a game like zelda with moral decisions to make?Should Every Story-Driven Game Have Mora ...
i dunno if it has to be moral decisions but simply decisions in general would be nicei get tired of watching a game unfold before me without any involvement in the storyShould Every Story-Driven Game Have Mora ...
They shouldn't be there if they don't matter at all. Games that have decisions need to have decisions that actually have impact on the game's storyline.
It does not work for every game.
Nope. Stuff like Halo or Zelda where your character is a hero, full stop, don't need them.
My biggest gripe about games that do is that even not being extremely nice can count as being ''bad'' or evil. Not totally patient and nice with someone in a conversation? RENEGADE points.
[QUOTE=''Boogie_J'']I love moral decisions in games when it matters what you do like in Fallout 3, Mass effect 1-2, and soon to be in Heavy Rain. But its kinda lame when 'moral decisions' are being tacked onto every game now like army of two for example. Do you think this feauture should be in all story-drivben games? Like would you want to see a game like zelda with moral decisions to make?[/QUOTE]Depends on what it tries to be. Games are too limited in order to pull it off in a mind-blowingly meaningful way. You will never see such situation when one of the key planets in a hypothetical game gets totally annihilated, and then you have to fight against your allies who turned out to be traitors, and you will never get to play on a totally different set of planets as an implication of the choices you've made, the stuff you see in games is mostly minor in terms of influencing the game on a technical level, apart from The Witcher. I want some literally ground-breaking choices and their implications. You will never see an acid rain on some hypothetical planet / land as an implication of your choice, etc. Psychological, moral-driven decisions theoretically are easier to pull off since they are not limited by game's budget, but writer's imagination (ambitious writers aware of ******* around with various composition techniques are rare among developers, though), but then again I have yet to see the game apart from The Witcher who trully delivers on this level.
It's just too damn expensive to create many possibilities within the game that some of them might never be used by some gamers anyway.
A story driven game should have a good story, somethin that sucks you in. If moral choices are part of the story then fine but I don't think they should be mandatory.
No. The system doesn't work for all games, and shouldn't have to.
[QUOTE=''Boogie_J'']I love moral decisions in games when it matters what you do like in Fallout 3, Mass effect 1-2, and soon to be in Heavy Rain. But its kinda lame when 'moral decisions' are being tacked onto every game now like army of two for example. Do you think this feauture should be in all story-drivben games? Like would you want to see a game like zelda with moral decisions to make?[/QUOTE]



That ''trend'' started quite a while ago, it didn't start with Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. And no games don't need that kind of stuff.
I think it varies game to game, story to story, developer to developer. I generally like a moral choice based story to a linear one, but there are always exceptions.
In fact games would be more interesting if they didn't try to moralize you and if there wasn't explicitly stated what is right / good and what is bad / evil.
[QUOTE=''Salt_The_Fries'']In fact games would be more interesting if they didn't try to moralize you and if there wasn't explicitly stated what is right / good and what is bad / evil.[/QUOTE]I think it's because perceptions are different, and morals can vary. The developer is essentially forcing their own moral code upon you and your character in-game. Sure, there are societal norms regarding morals, but it doesn't work for everybody.
[QUOTE=''Cerberus_Legion''][QUOTE=''Salt_The_Fries'']In fact games would be more interesting if they didn't try to moralize you and if there wasn't explicitly stated what is right / good and what is bad / evil.[/QUOTE]I think it's because perceptions are different, and morals can vary. The developer is essentially forcing their own moral code upon you and your character in-game. Sure, there are societal norms regarding morals, but it doesn't work for everybody.[/QUOTE]But don't linear stories do the same thing? A game with moral choice may provide the player with only 2 or 3 choices all limited to norms, but a linear story has only 1 choice, and the player doesn't have a say at all.
Moral decisions can add an interesting aspect to a game, when they aren't tacked on, and don't dramatically effect the game play. In game such as Bioshock and inFamous, choosing one side or the other really just slightly alters the course of the game, but doesn't offer significant insight into the game universe or characters.
[QUOTE=''jimkabrhel'']Moral decisions can add an interesting aspect to a game, when they aren't tacked on, and don't dramatically effect the game play. In game such as Bioshock and inFamous, choosing one side or the other really just slightly alters the course of the game, but doesn't offer significant insight into the game universe or characters.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that's the thing.
[QUOTE=''heysharpshooter''][QUOTE=''Cerberus_Legion''][QUOTE=''Salt_The_Fries'']In fact games would be more interesting if they didn't try to moralize you and if there wasn't explicitly stated what is right / good and what is bad / evil.[/QUOTE]I think it's because perceptions are different, and morals can vary. The developer is essentially forcing their own moral code upon you and your character in-game. Sure, there are societal norms regarding morals, but it doesn't work for everybody.[/QUOTE]But don't linear stories do the same thing? A game with moral choice may provide the player with only 2 or 3 choices all limited to norms, but a linear story has only 1 choice, and the player doesn't have a say at all.[/QUOTE]I think that's a given. :P Quite right. But hey, games with moral choices always have at least one decision you'll agree with personally.
I think that there are critical differences between the mediums of movie, television and video games. The level of interactivity that a game can provide is far greater than others and it's one of their strengths. I think any story driven game should play to that. Not every story driven game has to have moral choices though. I think those are the easiest to implement in a way that will get a reaction from the player but they aren't critical. I'm happy as long as the choices have an impact on the story or experience.



[QUOTE=''Cerberus_Legion''][QUOTE=''Salt_The_Fries'']In fact games would be more interesting if they didn't try to moralize you and if there wasn't explicitly stated what is right / good and what is bad / evil.[/QUOTE]I think it's because perceptions are different, and morals can vary. The developer is essentially forcing their own moral code upon you and your character in-game. Sure, there are societal norms regarding morals, but it doesn't work for everybody.[/QUOTE]



I don't mind so much if the devs base it off of their own beliefs. It's art imo and you shouldn't avoid because you can't find a one size fits all answer. Some people will get it, some won't. I say leave it at that. Gray is cool but sometimes it's also fun to see ''Dark Side Points Gained'' pop up on the screen when you went out of your way to do something undeniably evil.
[QUOTE=''Senor_Kami'']I don't mind so much if the devs base it off of their own beliefs. It's art imo and you shouldn't avoid because you can't find a one size fits all answer. Some people will get it, some won't. I say leave it at that. Gray is cool but sometimes it's also fun to see ''Dark Side Points Gained'' pop up on the screen when you went out of your way to do something undeniably evil.[/QUOTE]Oh, I don't mind at all either. I'm quite fine with it, and I agree with you that it is art as well. I always find myself agreeing with many moral decisions I make in games, but I'm more or less speaking in general. Strictly speaking for myself, there is no problem.