Games that made you think about moral choices?

[StaceyPowers]

I think video games are a great lens through which to ask challenging moral questions—especially those which put the player in a position of needing to make a complex moral choice (sometimes where there is no clear “right” answer).

For me, so far I’ve gotten the most out of Dragon Age: Origins in this respect. Oftentimes the “right” choice seemed simple enough to me, but the hard part was following through knowing that my party members would be angry with me.  

What games have challenged your moral assumptions, or helped you gain perspective on moral choices in some way?

[DylanC]

The Fallout games, The Last Of Us and Telltale’s The Walking Dead are all games that come to mind as they really try to toy with your morality and ethics. Life Is Strange and Before The Storm also made me put down the controller a few times so that I could think about the decisions the game was asking me to make.

[Alyxx]

Deus Ex was definitely the first game that made me think consciously about moral choices in games. And I had the same experience when playing Fallout 2 for the first time.

[Reality vs Adventure]

Definitely The Walking Dead. Just recently I had to stop and think about a situation in Witcher 3:

Kill 5 guys to save one life, but that one life will allow a monster to kill a villager as a sacrifice whenever it needs it. OR

Let the guys kill the one, and the monster won't have its sacrifice and will hunt whenever it wants.

Doesn't look like there's a win to me. I chose to save the one guy and killed the 5 because he was unarmed against 5. And the monster will have its appetite fulfilled instead of going on a rampage. 

[The Blackangel]

My personal morals, or the morals people would expect? Because that would make a monumental difference.

For instance, I hate having to be the protagonist in every game, no matter how much I like the game. I want the option of being the antagonist. Which is the reason I love Hatred so much. If I knew of a game where I had the option of going either way, then I would definitely be checking that out. But most likely due to me being a classic gamer, none come to mind.

RDR2 has a bit of that in a way, but there is still the story to follow. About a week ago, I started a file with 2 objectives. Kill every person I see, and also make as much cheddar as possible. And I've found a glitch that is letting me build up that kind of bank fairly quick. Well, quicker than just looting bodies anyway.

[Patrik]

The mission in GTA 4 where the mission of taking revenge comes and if you decide to spare the guy, Niko will feel way better than he will do if he kills him, for the first time, revenge made no sense 🙂

[Withywarlock]

On 10/24/2018 at 12:31 AM, StaceyPowers said:

For me, so far I’ve gotten the most out of Dragon Age: Origins in this respect.

Dragon Age: Origins worked so incredibly well because while I found a lot of its choices black-and-white (oftentimes good is the first in the list, evil is the lowest; see Bethesda's Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect), it didn't explicitely say whether or not it was good nor evil. It was just a choice that would affect the world. No morality bar, just your companions' different dispositions to social taboos and Ferelden (and beyond in Sten's case) politics. My companions' feelings rarely entered into what I felt were ultimately better ways of living in Ferelden, which probably says a bit about my own politics.

Of all the games that really got me thinking about moral choices, Fallout: New Vegas was what allowed me to view them through a critical lens. While karma exists and plays only the teensiest role, it pales in comparison to your standing with different factions, each with their own flaws and merits. I found that playing politics gives much more roleplay opportunities than being good or evil, and that the politics can differ game-by-game, world-by-world whereas you kinda know what end of the binary moral spectrum the game will allow. New Vegas' political problems barely escape the Strip, and yet that's far more interesting to me than deciding how to deal with the issue of national hydration in Fallout 3 in either a good or evil fashion.

[StaceyPowers]

3 minutes ago, Withywarlock said:

Dragon Age: Origins worked so incredibly well because while I found a lot of its choices black-and-white (oftentimes good is the first in the list, evil is the lowest; see Bethesda's Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect), it didn't explicitely say whether or not it was good nor evil. It was just a choice that would affect the world. No morality bar, just your companions' different dispositions to social taboos and Ferelden (and beyond in Sten's case) politics. My companions' feelings rarely entered into what I felt were ultimately better ways of living in Ferelden, which probably says a bit about my own politics.

Of all the games that really got me thinking about moral choices, Fallout: New Vegas was what allowed me to view them through a critical lens. While karma exists and plays only the teensiest role, it pales in comparison to your standing with different factions, each with their own flaws and merits. I found that playing politics gives much more roleplay opportunities than being good or evil, and that the politics can differ game-by-game, world-by-world whereas you kinda know what end of the binary moral spectrum the game will allow. New Vegas' political problems barely escape the Strip, and yet that's far more interesting to me than deciding how to deal with the issue of national hydration in Fallout 3 in either a good or evil fashion.

You and I have similar dispositions and feelings with respect to a lot of games. Totally agree FNV had much more to offer than Fallout 3 in this regard. And I love that Dragon Age never tells you whether to love or loathe any particular faction, what to believe or not believe about the world, etc. You can play through it as a devout Chantry follower or an anarchistic rebel mage with equal validity.

[Heatman]

On 10/24/2018 at 12:31 AM, StaceyPowers said:

I think video games are a great lens through which to ask challenging moral questions—especially those which put the player in a position of needing to make a complex moral choice (sometimes where there is no clear “right” answer).

For me, so far I’ve gotten the most out of Dragon Age: Origins in this respect. Oftentimes the “right” choice seemed simple enough to me, but the hard part was following through knowing that my party members would be angry with me.  

What games have challenged your moral assumptions, or helped you gain perspective on moral choices in some way?

I would go with the situation that took place in Mass Effect 3 with making the decision to cure or not cure Genophage.