Fallout: New Vegas and a rant

Check out the latest developer diary on the new factions you will be interacting with in Fallout: New Vegas. Personally I am very excited about this because neither faction is particularly good or evil (as the developer diary highlights).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf-GUhc6Wco&feature=sub

And while I am on this topic I would like to talk about my problem with video games having a moral meter (and why I am excited about the way Fallout: New Vegas is dealing with this pet-peeve I have with most roleplaying games.

One of the main problems with most role-playing games is that there is generally an element of good OR evil, and actually that's a huge pet-peeve I have developed with RPGs recently. In Mass Effect 2 there was a moral system called Paragon/Renegade, but it pretty much parallel's with good and evil. You can either be a nice person, or you can be a dick. Yes there were actions you could do that were neutral on the moral scale, but you needed to raise your paragon score so you could raise you're "charm" level to talk your way out of certain situations. It would eventually serve in the player's best interest to play a Paragon character because you needed that high charm score to avoid otherwise bad situations within the game.

Likewise with Fable 3, I didn't play an evil character because it didn’t serve in my best interest to be evil. Sure you could get a little extra cash from murdering someone, but why don’t I just buy houses and rent them out, and use that rent money to buy even more houses and rent them out? Sure I could have raised the rent and gotten evil points, but the concept of raising rent and getting more money seemed completely defiant of the concept of supply and demand. People don’t raise their rent prices in real life because they’re evil! They do it because it serves in their best interest! People always want something, I liked it when after I escaped the Spire in Fable 2 (after spending 10 in-game years there), that the Temple of Light that I protected earlier expanded its influence and was accompanied by surrounding structures. The Temple of Light that I protected long ago became prosperous, and I get good points, and apparently the temple of shadows was decimated. I went against the Temple of Shadows because they were a bunch of idiots that killed people for no reason; I didn’t do it because I am a good person! Let’s be honest here, why would you fight against the crazy Temple of Shadows? Would you say “because it’s the right thing to do”? I would say I went against the Temple of Shadows because that organization didn’t serve in the best interest of Albion (the country in which Fable takes place). If my decisions in Fable 2 did have an impact in Fable 3, how can I diplomatically engage with other countries if the Temple of Shadows is my central religion? If my religion specifically specializes in sacrificing people for treasure, then other countries would want nothing to do with me. That’s my outlook on the situation anyway, and you may have a different outlook. This is great because that’s what a role-playing game should be meant to accommodate.

This is why games like Fallout and Dragon Age truly represent what a role-playing game is. A game where you get to make the decisions that you would truly make, and not every decision is black and white. Think about it! In games like Grand Theft Auto we still people’s cars because it serves in our best interest. There is seldom punishment for stealing a car in GTA because the likely hood of getting caught and getting 1 star wanted level (which deteriorates fairly easily). In Dragon Age Origins I aim am nice to my companions. Why? Because it serves in my best interest to have my companions on my side. It’s not because I am good or evil, I am choosing the choices that I believe are best suited for each situation.

Some of you may be shocked or mortified by my amoral outlook on how a role-playing game should be, but can people truly judge what is good and what is evil? The Fable games and Mass Effect games do that to some extent. They tell you what is right and what is wrong. In games like Dragon Age only you’re companions tell you what is right and what is wrong. And that’s the truth right there, your companions and the people you react with judge your morality. And if your companions likes you’re morality then you have done a good job having people trust you.

In the end, what I am saying is that the game shouldn’t judge you’re morality, it should just let you make the decisions you want to make. Games shouldn’t give you a black or white choice; they should just simply give you choices. It’s the people in the game world itself that should truly judge your choices and decide whatever you do is good or evil, justice or injustice, right or wrong.