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Video Games and Moral Choices

**We've moved to The Escapist! New episodes weekly!**
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Episode Eight in my series of video "lectures," co-written with game designer James Portnow. It's time for another Game Design Corner episode, where we look specifically at elements of game design. I can be reached at floydo_animation at yahoo dot com. You can reach James at jportnow at gmail dot com.
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Tags for this video: video games moral choice presentation lecture daniel floyd james portnow game design good evil morality extra credit

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@paulthecoolest I'm ... ( 1 month ago by barryasswipe)

@paulthecoolest I'm sorry, I didn't express myself clearly enough: a moral dilemma is when you do something "bad" (kill, kidnap, etc.) for a "reason" (a moral reason) and vice versa. And no I don't think that math problems are ambiguous, because they have only one good answer. Plus, I though kidnapping the child meant also killing it to find a cure for a disease... If it does not imply killing you are right.

Amazing video. ... ( 1 month ago by monsterhunter891)

Amazing video. Very well done.

@barryasswipe I did ... ( 4 weeks ago by paulthecoolest)

@barryasswipe I did get what u were trying to say just confused at how u said it. The whole thing can be weighed like in a balance ,Sometimes we just need disperse ourselves of our filters in order look a situation in clinical way and find out what is truly right,And doing this may personally bring you down ,or maybe cross moral code you have .But if its really for the greater good ,do u really need to feel bad ,I dont think so personally.It isnt any humane than say mercy killing

@paulthecoolest Ok, ... ( 4 weeks ago by barryasswipe)

@paulthecoolest Ok, but the real question is: is there really a "greater good"?

@barryasswipe ... ( 3 weeks ago by paulthecoolest)

@barryasswipe Almost 99% of the time yes we can think through to know what the real greater good is..But the rest 1 % ..a rarity when it comes to our hands and only us to say choose b/w two decision both of which could lead to death of the same no. of ppl .but u dont know anything else .what sort of ppl they are or even get a third choice of doing nothing. In this kind of a situation , what I wud is opt to wait and debunk the situation and if there is a third self-made choice>

@barryasswipe Like ... ( 3 weeks ago by paulthecoolest)

@barryasswipe Like say snatching the remote control of bombs from the terrorist who is doing all of this ,and destroying it or talking him out of doing this completely .ofcourse this property of life to stimulate and kneed yourself into immense possibilities might not be really applicable in video games.So you might be right in asking if there wud really be a greater good ,because sometimes there might enough info. to know that and not enough options to select something else ..>

@barryasswipe But ... ( 3 weeks ago by paulthecoolest)

@barryasswipe But then again this kind of situation isnt morally ambigous ,because both the options are morally neautral,and selcting one over the other, doesnt mean u r bad or u r good. U really DONT have to even think at such situation (in video games ie) because we can afford the randomness. Thereby negating the first point of creating any moral ambiguity and making ppl think. What I am tryig to say is there isnt enough originality OR plausibility of such things in games .

I wish more ... ( 3 weeks ago by WickedKnightAlbel)

I wish more publishers would watch your videos

Is the part where ... ( 3 weeks ago by YamiHoOu)

Is the part where some people like you while others don't in Sid Meiers Pirates game? So like you could be well liked by the French and hated by the Spanish, being attacked on site

perhaps many game ... ( 3 weeks ago by GrandMasterTemphis)

perhaps many game developers are sort of out of touch with gamers, and assume we don't understand morality as anything other then black and white, or perhaps the developers and writers have poor moral understanding, but either way, I agree, I hate putting numbers on good deeds, or having a "reward" system for getting a certain amount of "said" points. Fable 2+ has an absurd moral system, as well as many other games, and Bioshock didn't even make sense with it's setting, everything attacks you.

I think that ... ( 3 weeks ago by CortanaFTW)

I think that paragon/renegade is stupid. You are FORCED to follow either a kind of blonde yet good paragon or an asshole yet funny renegade Shepard.
I want to be my own person. A mix of the 2 would be the perfect hero.

I love games with ... ( 2 weeks ago by DreadLordBalnazaar)

I love games with morality... and I need something similar... like for example Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, but where I can either turn my kingdom/surroundings/WHATEVAH into something like paradise or TOTAL EVIL CHAOTIC HORROR-stuff!
Got any games fitting that?

I'm surprised they ... ( 2 weeks ago by AAw3s0m3)

I'm surprised they didn't use the original Deus Ex's possible endings, followed by the difficulty (which is more variable than linear), that each one poses.

Skyrim as chooses ... ( 2 weeks ago by MegaSgame)

Skyrim as chooses with almost no consequences

too bad the pitt ... ( 2 weeks ago by liljagsa)

too bad the pitt sucked

Is it just me or ... ( 1 week ago by MrHidePatten)

Is it just me or did anyone else think of Green Lantern when he was talking about the colour wheel?

I LOVED the ... ( 1 week ago by anonomous1324)

I LOVED the morality system in Iji (It's a freeware Indie game, go look it up). My favorite part of it was it's subtlety.
It never had moral choice situations, karma meters, etc. Your choices varied dialogue, enemy behaviors, textlogs, and so on and so forth.
Iji would talk to the bosses, and request they leave, depending on your actions, they would try to justify their actions, refuse, or call you out for decrying violence immediately after slaughtering a good 150+ of their friends.

Oh, and there ... ( 1 week ago by anonomous1324)

Oh, and there wasn't just "Good" or "evil," you could go full pacifist, run often but fight back in a sticky situation, just fire on those in your way, only target the commanders, take out the weaklings but leave the tougher ones, refuse to leave the sector until you are the only living thing remaining, or pretty much anything else.
Iji (the character) would choke out a tearful "I'm sorry" or so after the first few kills, but at ~100, she says "JUST DIE!"
It didn't praise or reprimand you either

Heck, The most ... ( 1 week ago by anonomous1324)

Heck, The most difficult moral quandary I've experienced in a game is in Skyward Sword (of all places). The "Item check girl" side quest (offers 5 gratitude crystals, which I really want), lets you choose between telling the aforementioned girl you love her when she confesses her own to you (making her happy, but you possibly feeling like a cheating a**hole), or say you don't (making her father happy, but crushing her and sending her back into her apparent severe depression).
I'm still stuck.

dungeons and ... ( 1 week ago by Necrosdragon226)

dungeons and dragons does this spectacularly. you have lawful, neutral and chaotic on one axis, and good, neutral and evil on another.

The thumbnail's ... ( 1 week ago by ASLmark)

The thumbnail's racist.

I always choose ... ( 1 week ago by ThePivotSlicer)

I always choose evil

There actually is a ... ( 4 days ago by AnkhOmega)

There actually is a good example of a difficult moral choice (kinda) in Neir, one of the endings allows you to save your daughter and a fellow party member who is turning into a monster. But the cost of doing so is to "Erase yourself from history", it deletes all of your save files and your progress. And if you look at how hard it is to get a 100% completion in that game....to lose it all can be a tough decision.