Hello
again Blog readers! I’ve made it pretty
clear where I sit on the video games as a hobby and as generally one of the
activities I enjoy a great deal more than other activities. (Work for
instance.) But I also look at video
games as an art form. Today, I’m
specifically talking about the art of storytelling and how the creators of said
stories use morality.
For those of you
with no moral compass (or who don’t have a dictionary); morality is a doctrine
or system of moral conduct or conformity to ideals of right human conduct. I like that games have been putting a growing
amount of morality issues into games.
From the traditional Good V.S. Evil to the less traditional question of
what is Right and Wrong. And through
interactive gameplay, we as the gamer get to experience these questions in a
less formal and more captivating medium. Where books and lessons can tell you a great
deal about history, games have the ability to allow you to play both sides of
the coin of moral conduct.
Where to begin… Well, the easiest place to start is the questions
of good and evil. Many games run on a
system where you know you’re good. How do
you know? You’re the hero. (The Marios and the Links and the Samuses of
the gaming world) You are the person who
makes it from point A to point B to stop the villain. How do you know the person you’re trying to
stop is the villain? Because they often wear
black? Because they often capture people
and hold them hostage? Because they often
try to destroy the world? Yeah. On a basic level, that is the only way for
you to tell. You as a character journey
to stop them. The villain wants to do
bad things. But, sometimes YOU are the
villain (The Bowsers and Robotniks of the digital domain). And it is made just as clear as starting a
game to be the hero. All the same
questions are asked, but in reverse. You
do all the bad things, and it is fun to see the other side of the track. To stop the Marios of the world from saving
the princes/princesses. I will not say I
don’t enjoy games like these. I really
do. They are the foundation of my gaming
youth. They lack creativity however, and
are not always focused on the story as much as they are focusing on enjoyable
gameplay. Where the storyline is just a
side factor.
What if you don’t
know if you’re the good guy? Humor me
for a bit. What if you actually think
you’re the good guy? The very critically
acclaimed game, Braid, asked that very same question of us, as the gamer. Spoilers:
you go the entire game believing that you are the hero come to save the
princess. By the end of the game you
discover that she has been running from you.
You aren’t the hero. But because
your character is in love, they believe themselves to be the hero. WTF?!
This game’s ending really begins to make you question the possibilities
in games and their storytelling capabilities.
Heck, the ending of Braid makes you question if you are the “good” guy
in every other game where you chase after another person who has been “kidnapped”.
Good and Evil is
sometimes used as a choice system in the game.
Your character can be either/or.
The main objective of the game doesn’t change, because your character
decides how they will get the job done.
Sometimes it is actually the difference between being good or evil. Like in the Fable series. Though it doesn’t change the major aspects of
the game, it does add a flavor to the story.
And it changes the way you perceive the story at hand. Bioware does the light side/dark side play in
many (if not all) of their RPGs. Like
Mass Effect, where you aren’t specifically good or evil, but a Paragon or a
Renegade. Your choices split between
what the right thing to do is, and whatever it takes to achieve your ultimate
goal. Some games do the choice between
the two very well, like Fable 3. Once
you’re the King/Queen in Fable 3, you are asked to keep promises you made to
your friends in the rebellion. On the other
hand, if you go around only doing the right thing, the good thing, you will not
be able to afford to pay the soldiers to fight off the darkness that is coming
to destroy the world. You may survive,
but if you don’t say no to handouts to the people every now and then, everyone
else dies. Some games do the choice
between the two very poorly… like Mass Effect!
Let me first
explain that I love the games. The Mass Effect series was great! (Up until Mass Effect 3’s ending… Bleck!). But
there is a huge balance issue in the first game on the Renegade system versus
the Paragon system. A Paragon Commander
Shepard finds a way to pretty much save everyone. Always (Almost). As long as you aren’t bad at the game, you
won’t have to kill a single person who doesn’t attack you the second they see
you. Being more charming and just being
a better person yields no actual sacrifice in the game, like their
advertisements may lead you to believe.
There are never any moments where being a Paragon isn’t beneficial to
you: from being better to your crew and
them liking you more to even earning two of the characters affection. In fact the only time being a Paragon
requires you to do any sacrificing it’s of one of the other crewmates on your
team. You may lose other teammates if
you’re a dick to them however. And trust
me; that is really the ONLY difference between the Renegade choices and the
Paragon choices. Apparently Mass Effect’s
definition of Renegade is a homicidal maniac that we have to rely on to save
the galaxy. You can often talk people
down from situations and more good stuff happens to you if you do this (whilst
playing as a Paragon). When you’re a “Renegade”
your options are kill people or threaten to kill people. Oh yeah!
And be dick to your crew for (literally) no reason. They will come up and tell you how happy they
are, and if you want to be a real Renegade, you are just mean to them. You slap the happy right out of their
mouths. It would make a little more
sense if being a Renegade yielded some form of results (that Paragon doesn’t)
at the cost that is often their life.
But, being a Paragon never has to make a tough decision. (Except the choice between Kaiden and Ashley…
ooo so hard… they both kind of suck as far as characters go). The game’s real moral decisions are; do you
want to be a good person, or do you want to shoot as many people between here
and the end of the game as physically possible.
In truth, Bioware
did a better job with Dragon Age: Origins.
Where you bolster an army of whatever races you can to fight off a
coming evil. With more complex moral
choices of creating incredibly strong golems at the price of dwarven souls, or
having werewolves to fight for you instead of freeing them from their curse and
letting them turn back into normal people.
These choices just seem like they hold more weight, and they make you
think more about what you’re willing to do to win the war. It makes you feel truly desperate to stop the
oncoming threat, because of your willingness to sacrifice the freedoms of other
people to do so. The cool part being
that you don’t actually have to, but you don’t have as strong of an army if you
don’t. (Showing the actual difference
between sacrifice and just bad game balancing)
There are so many
games now that pose even deeper questions then good and evil. Appropriately, in Beyond Good and Evil, you
follow Jade who seeks truth above the all else.
You watch from the side of the inbetweeners. Characters caught in the struggle between two
sides that both see themselves as right.
It makes you ask, “What about the people who suffer while other people
war on for what they want?” Sometimes
you even get your answers.
What is Good? What is Evil?
Or is it just a difference of Perception? Is it okay to go to extremes to save
millions? How far can you go and still
look in the mirror and see a good person?
Do the ends always justify the means?
Morality and all of the complexity of it will continue to grow in the
game industry. Or you’ll just end up being
a dick to your crew. Who knows?
LAZY
Rhino “CEO”
Andrew
(If you like my blog follow
me on Twitter @ANDCauthen. You can also
leave a comment about your own opinions of the games I mentioned. Or about other games where you felt your moral
compass spin. Have a great day and game
on!)
