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.