Mini-series: Moral Choice – Part 2

The following post contains spoilers for Episode One of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead video game.

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead uses moral choice better than any other game I know. Its system encourages fast, critical thinking that does not bind the player’s choices (psychologically of course, not physically) with the labels of “good” or “evil.”

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-walking-dead-game/images/31922820/title/twd-game-wallpaper

Instead, every option appears in white text, and most of the time they are all equally valid, grey choices. There is no clear right or wrong, which gives the player the freedom to choose based solely on their opinion, rather than a game’s pre-defined morality.

Now of course, that isn’t to say that games such as Mass Effect, Catherine, and inFAMOUS have no sense of freedom. Players are always free to make the decisions they feel are right, but the mechanics of these games, the morality meters, discourage players from varying up their choices, albeit unintentionally. These mechanics also tell the player exactly how the game will perceive them, as either one side of the bar or the other.

Source: http://gamedesignreviews.com/scrapbook/choiceincatherine/
The chaos vs order meter in Catherine grants the player immediate consequence for their actions, making it easy for someone to quit the game, reload, and make a new choice.

But in The Walking Dead, which has no morality meter, a player can make all of their decisions based on pure opinion alone. If the player wants to save one character over another during a zombie raid, there is nothing stopping them from making what they deem is the most logical choice, no loss of points, no sudden shift in morality.

Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/the-walking-deads-faces-of-death-part-1/4335/
In a critical moment, the player must decide between two equally valid choices, to save either Carley or Doug.

Players choose not based on which character boosts their morality meter, but which one can help most in a zombie apocalypse. That simple fact grants more meaning and engagement in the player’s decisions.

Now granted, not every decision in The Walking Dead works out the way a player might think. There are plenty of moral choices that end up doing nothing, or series of choices that lead to the same result. But despite those missteps, those clear illusions of choice, The Walking Dead still has the most in-depth, open, engaging moral choice system in gaming.

Mini-series: Moral Choice – Part 1

Have you ever played a game with a moral choice system? Have you ever – while playing such a game – thought to yourself, “I’m going to pick the good option,” or “I’m going to pick the evil option,” or something similar? I know I have.

Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/mass-effect-3/61-29935/user-reviews/?review_id=22327

When I play a moral choice game, I devote myself to the good options (I’m a do-gooder, I know). That seems wrong to me. Shouldn’t we always be thinking, “I’m going to choose what I think is right?”

But when games like inFAMOUS or Mass Effect give a “good” or “evil” rating to their choices, a lot of players make decisions for the sole purpose of being good or evil. In inFAMOUS, you get only get certain powers when you’re pure good or pure evil, so why would you ever want to vary your choices?

Source: http://infamous.wikia.com/wiki/Arc_Lightning
Only when you play evil can Cole get powers such as Arch Lightning

Now don’t get me wrong, I love moral choice systems. They’re a great tool for storytelling and for exploring conflicts in a way no other medium can. But when the “good vs. evil” aspect comes in, it makes those choices less meaningful, more black and white, and less engaging.

When the game presents options with clear indicators of what is right and what is wrong, the player is unwillingly drawn to whichever play style they have already chosen. If they’re committed to being good, they’ll pick good almost every time.

Source: http://alpha-build.net/2010/07/19/the-mass-effect-effect-emergent-storytelling-in-games/

This isn’t true of all players, to be sure, but plenty of people are likely to tune out when they see a highlighted good or evil option, and fail to make a thought-out decision. I won’t lie, I’ve done this many times in Mass Effect, and I’ve watched others do the same.

This is a shame, because a lot of the decisions in Mass Effect – such as how to deal with the Geth in Mass Effect 2 (spoilers) – aren’t black and white. And even though there is no clear color to pick, the game’s system trains players that the top decisions are Paragon, and the bottom decisions are Renegade, so some of the meaningful thought is lost, since players know how they’ll be rewarded for their choices.

But there are games with moral choice where nearly every option is in the gray. In these games, you never know what consequences your decisions might have. So next time, I’ll look at how The Walking Dead handles moral choice.

Mini-series: Gender-Locking – Part Two

The way Vindictus (AKA Mabinogi Heroes) handles gender-locking leaves a little to be desired. Unlike Dragon Nest, the character classes in Vindictus don’t have developed personalities to hide the limitations of the game’s original character creator. They each have a name and their own unique animations and fighting styles, but that’s about it as far as the actual game is concerned.

On the main site, you can find that each character has a bio, and sometimes before a new character is launched, the site will release a short story that tells his/her background. Karok, for example, is from an endangered race of giants, and is desperate to keep his people’s legacy alive. Unfortunately, this can only be found on the site. No character addresses Karok’s size, his race, or his story during the actual game.

No matter which character you play, none of the dialogue changes aside from one instance where a guard flirts with any of the three females. This may not seem like a problem to most, especially since the game’s focus is challenging combat, but it’s a wasted chance to add a new layer of depth to the game’s narrative, and to give a reason for why Vindictus gender-locks.

And it’s not like Vindictus is incapable of telling good character stories. Each NPC you meet has a developed and interesting personality. For instance: Reilly is a kooky old man and a powerful magician who loves to terrorize his pupil Brynn. But when someone does something truly dangerous, he gets serious and becomes a man to respect and fear.

Vindictus’ Reilly

If the playable characters were developed like this as well, Vindictus would only be better for it.

That isn’t to say that the classes are completely devoid of personality. The animations for waving, dancing, cheering, and even sitting give subtle hints at their character. There is a huge gap in modesty between Evie’s dance and Vella’s dance. If only that was highlighted in the game and made clear in dialogue between characters.

I’d love to see those differences in personality between all of the characters show in the game. I want them all to shine like the rest of the cast and become memorable characters.

Mini-series: Gender-Locking – Part One

For the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend in free-to-play MMOs. No, not the trend to be like World of Warcraft; a different trend. A few free MMOs I’ve looked at – Vindictus, Dragon Nest, Lunia – have their character classes gender-locked, meaning you can’t choose to play as a male or a female character. So if the healing class is female, and you want to be the healer, you’ll have to play a female.

Eir, the Healer Princess from Lunia

Some gamers take issue with gender-locking, but for a free MMO, it makes sense why a developer would do this. It’s a money-saver. With gender-locked classes, the developer doesn’t need to put in a complex character creation system.

Those systems are expensive, especially since many gamers expect character creation systems to be on the same level as Guild Wars 2 or Skyrim. Rather than compete and fight an impossible battle, the developer gender-locks.

A smart developer will use this limitation to their advantage and tell character stories with the gender-locked classes. They’ll give the classes their own personalities and backstories and use that as a way to engage the player and connect them with their character.

Dragon Nest is a good example of how this idea works. Every class in the game has his/her own storyline and personality. For example: The Tinkerer comes from an apocalyptic future, and views the plot from a history perspective, already knowing – for the most part – what happens and when.

Dragon Nest Tinkerer

Although the character stories of Dragon Nest don’t have much presence in the overall game – with only a few missions ever hinting at them – they still provide a different experience for players and take advantage of gender-lock.

But not every gender-locked game follows this approach or uses its full potential for storytelling. Some make an effort and fall short, and miss out on a chance to turn their good game into a great one. Prime example: Vindictus, which I’ll be talking about in Part Two.