There are some intriguing game designs out there. Some where the protagonist is also an antagonist. GTA and RDR2 come to mind. I can't comment too much on GTA as I don't follow the series due to it not being my style of gaming. But in RDR2, you play as Arthur. He is the main protagonist of the story. But he's also an outlaw. A murderer and thief. You have an honor rating in the game, as shown in the pic below.
Now this YouTuber doesn't have a good honor rating, but that's another discussion for another time. But if you look at it, it goes from red to white. Red being low, and white being high. For reference, in the pic below, the arrow pointing down shows roughly where my current honor rating is in the game I'm currently running.
But the point of this thread is not to brag. It's to ask a very simple question. In these kind of games, who decides the honor? The gamer or the game? For some of you out there, the most honorable thing may be to rob and kill every last person you come across. To others it may be to help every last person you can. If it's the game, then it's a kind of irrelevant point, as an honor rating wouldn't mean much. Arthur is a wanted man. If he goes to Blackwater he is killed on the spot as he is wanted dead or alive. And you can get bounties on your head in the open world your roaming in the game. The Pinkertons are always after you. you have enemy gangs that you can kill as many as you want, and it doesn't hurt your in game honor rating.
But is any of that honorable? When there is no threat, is killing to survive honorable? I don't have to kill anyone, including enemy gangs. I didn't have to steal that horse. I didn't have to loot and rob that house.
Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I did. It helps support my gang of outlaws. but was it honorable, to steal from someone else, to feed the mouths of the people I run with.
Dutch, Arthur, Hosea, Lenny, Bill, Pearson, John, Jack, Abigail, Karen, Tilly, Grimshaw, Mary-Beth, Strauss, Molly, Kieran, Javier, Charles, Uncle, Reverend, Sean, Sadie, occasionally Trelawny, and even that piece of shit Micah.
24 people. Sure I can go hunting instead, but hunting doesn't buy the ammo to hunt, or the tools needed to cook. Hunting doesn't buy the horses food. It doesn't buy the medecine needed in camp, or the items needed to repair things when they break. That all takes money. And unless deer start shitting quarters, it also means that robbing and stealing are necessary, as no one in the gang can get a legitimate job due to the bounties on their heads and them all being wanted.
So is that honor? And who decided if it was or was not honorable? The game, or the gamer?