Obsidian Entertainment - Morality in Games, Part 2

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
You may recall Chris Avellone wrote a blog post on morality in games some time back. Part 2 is now up on his blog at Obsidian's site - here's a sample from the opening:
What do you personally consider to be a typically good character?
A good character is one who places others before himself, and is willing to let his character suffer physically, financially, and materially in order to help someone else. They sacrifice, in the recognition that the act of sacrifice is the reward in itself. Sometimes I fear that games undermine the power of these acts by always consistently rewarding good players and punishing evil ones, which ends up making the choice a false one.

What do you personally consider to be a typically evil character?
An evil character puts their self before all others, and lets others die or suffer if there is something to gain by it. They are the ones who kill anyone who blocks their progress, steal from others, lie to gain trust, and do anything to get ahead.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
They sacrifice, in the recognition that the act of sacrifice is the reward in itself.

Avellone almost makes it to the realisation that there might not be any true altruism, but falls at the last hurdle.

An evil character puts their self before all others, and lets others die or suffer if there is something to gain by it. They are the ones who kill anyone who blocks their progress, steal from others, lie to gain trust, and do anything to get ahead.

Why is logical self-interest evil? If you don't profit by your actions thereby improving yourself, you won't be in a good position to dance off and help the faeries fend off the rabid property developers or whatnot.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
122
Location
United Kingdom, London
what's the point in fighting 'evil' with lesser 'evil'
morality in my opinion is a responsiblity of sentience.
ignorance is not an excuse, and certainly its impossible to be truely good or truely evil, but most people could easily be ranked on that spectrum. if more people however had a good rather than evil selfish bent the world would simply have less problems. nothing however is that simple, but i agree that 'good' behavior is important to show/teach and always linking that to a later reward for doing good is not a good trend.
its nature to have self interest, but i think the fact that we live in a society with rules besides the 'laws of nature', morality has to be a part of the equation because manipulation is not even close to the level in nature that it can exist in society with human inventions of greed. greed in nature is soon put to the tooth and claw.
 
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
812
Location
standing under everyone
Back
Top Bottom