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A Manly Video Game...

Tech Posted by Titanheart 8 years ago

So I am a gamer. Have been most of my life, few things bring me more enjoyment than a good romp through a digital landscape. In my younger days (I am 40 now for reference) I wanted to go to school to learn how to make video games, and was talked out of this course by parents and a guidance counselor who thought it would be a bad career choice.

Anyway... I have often pondered what a game would be like that had actual moral choices and consequences. Say a game that endeavored to encourage men to be gentlemen.

Thus I thought I would toss this out there and ask you gents what you think something like this would look like. Discuss.

10 replies

  • glen

    I like this concept. I'm not a huge gamer, but I was thinking back to games my friends played during my youth that were exactly the opposite of this concept, like Grand Theft Auto, where the player was encouraged to be a terrible person.

    If you're out of ideas, you could always use amount of chest hair as a scoring unit. It grows as you do more good...

    Reply

  • Chet_Manly

    I'm not a gamer at all, but I love the concept. I'd only add that some type of physical stimulus should be included. There are these shock collars for dogs, but I think something like that could be adapted for the person playing the game. Perhaps on their arm or...I guess you could step up the difficulty level by applying it various places. When in the game, the character's behavior/gameplay falls short of the desired standard, a shock could be given and the shock could vary in severity based on the egregiousness of the foul.

    Or, for a more realistic experience, you could hire someone to follow you around and zap you with a cattle prod whenever you mess up, but that sounds more like a Monty Pyton sketch or a Jackass idea. Maybe it's only the kind of game you'd want to watch your friends play.

    Reply

  • dewtattoo

    Hello fellow gamer. I'm a die hard gamer also. I have an Xbox One and I spend at least 2 hours per day one it (and even more time on the weekends) ....and for reference, I have 8-years on you. I'm 48.

    Anyway, the last game I remember that rewarded you for your moral choices was the original Fable. It was a pretty good game, but it's a bit dated now.

    I have played many games that let me tear loose and reek havoc on the innocent, such as GTA and Mafia.

    The problem with games that have moral choices is that they wouldn't be much fun. Moral choices don't usually revolve around action, and action is pretty much the driving force behind all games. One can play a game such as Assassins Creed, and choose a moral path, or at least as moral a path as one can choose while ambushing bad guys with a hidden arm blade. LOL

    Me personally.... I'm a Gears of War fan. I spend time dispatching creatures that would otherwise destroy humanity. That's kind of a moral choice.

    One last thing, if you're an Xbox player also, you can find me under the same name on Xbox Live as you find me here. dewtattoo

    Reply

  • OperationBrandon

    One of the things I like most about playing games is getting to be a destructive douchebag without any real-world harm. "Being a gentleman" would probably be really boring, which I why I almost never play as morally good (unless it's a game like Fable).

    You could do a text-based game, wherein you have to make various moral decisions to progress (like Lifeline, which is an excellent Android game). Unfortunately if it's an RPG or FPS, it's gonna be pretty boring to be morally good!

    Reply

  • zamoose

    I recommend "That Dragon, Cancer" for any parents out there (if you want your heart ripped out, that is).

    Many Star Wars games have featured morality systems in which your actions influenced your Dark Side/Light Side alignment and thus granted you differing Force powers based on your alignment. Probably not exactly what you're looking for. The original Infamous on the PS3 has something similar.

    There's a special trophy for completing the Deus Ex games as complete pacifists (i.e., killing no one, using your stun guns and tranq darts for the whole game, avoiding conflict, etc.)

    Reply

  • Titanheart

    Interesting. What I had pictured would be a MMO style game. A reputation system similar to the Star Wars games that were mentioned, but on a larger scale. SO say you are in a town and you do a bad thing. Maybe a bit of thievery. You get caught, guards chase you, whatever. In most games that's the end of it, but people talk. So maybe rumors spread about it. Maybe local merchants watch you closer when you are in their store, guards follow you a bit closer etc...

    Now lets say you do this a lot, I would see your reputation go out over a map as concentric circles from the point of your skulduggery. Inevitably traveling merchants would spread tales of your awfulness to other towns on their trade routes. Eventually nobody trusts you. Bounties pop up. The game becomes harder as you cannot get into towns easily and have to avoid all of the guards etc... And maybe other players and such are hunting you down.

    I figure a number of people would play that way just for the difficulty and challenge, but I see a lot of people avoiding doing too much evil as it would impede their ability to play long term. Possibly balancing thievery with acts of kindness etc...

    On the flip side I would think a system that similarly rewards "good" behavior. As your reputation for doing good things grows you get more offers for quests and King's wanting to be your patron and all that jazz. It could be multifaceted rewarding even polite speech when you respond to quest givers and such.

    If done well I think it could add a very rewarding and fun layer to traditional gameplay. I wonder if it could have a positive effect on the billions of gamers across the world.

    Reply

    • dewtattoo

      The original Ultima Online was as you described. Your "bad guy" ranking would go up every time you did a little PVP killing. If your ranking dropped low enough you couldn't even get into town without the guards killing you. The problem with that scenario back then was that people would run out in front of casters and accidentally get hit by a fireball, and cause the casters reputation to plunge.

      I haven't played Ultima Online in over 20-years, but I remember how frustrated casters would get when a party member would try to loot a mob the instant it died, only to be hit by a stray fireball and send the caster into a tirade of cursing.

      Reply

      • Titanheart

        See the problem there is friendly fire. I know some people think it is more realistic but I have rarely seen a good implementation. It always seems to screw over good players. Like in your example I see no reason said wizard should be penalized for the actions of a moron.

        Reply

    • OperationBrandon

      Lots of games have kind of a smaller scale version of what you're proposing - if you get caught doing something bad, the law enforcement become more suspicious of you, and being an out-and-out bad person can cause problems. But then you just don't get caught ;)

      I would probably end up playing a game like this how I usually do with morality choice games - straight down the middle. So when you feel like messing things up you kill someone, or steal, but then you give some money to charity or something to make it better.

      Reply

  • nukk3r

    I may be late with my reply but if it's still relevant you may try The Witcher 3. The game is set in a cruel and unforgiving world with some really dark stories. It's full of moral dilemmas with immediate or postponed cosequences. Some media portray the game as racist, sexist and whatnot but they forget that Geralt is fighting these things with persuasion, fists and a steel sword. And there are a lot of small choices which don't impact the gameplay that much but you hear less insults. For example you may refuse the payment for a contract in favor of a poor villager who gave you the task.

    Reply