Lately in video games, moral choices give to the player took a more frontal role, and something players seem to enjoy a lot.
There are games cantered around choice that use this concept well, and then there are others where its rather dull or black and white, and a few where it downright became a detriment to the experience.
Now let me point out the following is MY opinion, and it’s just that, an opinion.
The bad examples:
Dishonored. I have to start with this, I will flat out say i hated how the moral choice was implemented in this game. Its obviously a fun game with some interesting characters and ideas. However I think the developers made a terrible mistake.
SPOILER WARNING FOR DISHONORED.
Now this game is a stealth/assassin game. You can avoid combat fro 99% of the game and never forced to kill a single person. However the game very much made the violent options enjoyable and much, much more varied than the non violent solutions.
Also the way missions are arranged you normally meet the targets of your mission before you have a chance to kill them, and usually you`ll learn what kind of terrible people they are, torture greed, corruption, murder, they are all scum people. So it’s not a surprise that many players will be tempted to kill the targets even if they spare the generic guards, and soldiers.
Now problems start right here. If the player kills the targets the chaos of the district will increase, if the player have even a single district with chaos by the end of the game, they get the “bad” ending, where the little princess turns into a little Hitler, and thanks you for teaching her the way….
The game developers decided that killing even a single person who just happens to be a murder, pimp, sadist pig, means your little girl turns into a super villain.
This in my opinion is a terrible way to approach any moral question. Of course the developers are free to do as they please with their game. I just find it rather harsh, and confusing. The idea makes sense if you are violent the little girl learns to solve her problems with violence. But the execution here was terrible.
The Bioware way:
From Kotor, to Mass effect.
This is a much better approach but still have rather huge leaps of logic, and forced opinions.
These games present a dual morality system. In Kotor it makes a lot of sense, Star wars was always a space fantasy, not science fiction. (If you want real moral quandaries watch Star trek.)
Star Wars is black and white, just like Lord of the Rings, it’s all very clear who is good and who is evil. So the game using a dual morality fits perfectly.
Now the problem is that they ported this dual system into Mass Effect, a Science Fiction game. Now I wont go into details on how I think each sequel of Mass Effect only took away from he richness of the setting, and gameplay. But from the 3 games the first handled this the best, with the third game turning into a joke of morality.
Now when I play science Fiction I want my brain to be moved, and worked with new and interesting concepts, races, technologies. While Mass Effect delivered on these fronts pretty well, the morality always bothered me. In the first game it makes sense. Even the second game you can say it’s still alright.
But when the Reapers arrive and the galaxy is at its end, calling someone a “renegade” for making hard choices? That’s really juvenile… Not to mention that your options range from Angel in human skin to baby strangling psychopath. And the worst thing you can do when raising moral questions is….
Colour-coding.
This is the most offensive to players in my opinion.
For one the developers decide for you what is right and what is wrong for you to do. It also makes choices no-brainers, players will jump the gun and just pick a side and probably stick with it. It also removes any thinking from the equation.
And the better.
Dragon Age.
Funnily enough a Fantasy setting is where these guys gave their best in my opinion. Due to the nature of the setting the role of “evil” is already taken. They could also not use the special agent who rides the line (mass effect) So instead they had to come up with much more meaningful moral options. In Dragon age games the main conflict is between mages and non-mages.
Both sides are portrayed equally terrible, mages use blood magic to summon demons, so templar’s put them in camps, and violate their freedom and privacy, even going so low to lobotomize them. So in return mages will use blood magic….. and the circle goes on. This is mainly the morality of the second game. The first game was much more about racism, and the developers nicely allowed for the player to take any side, even allowing to be a racist.
However Dragon age 2 missed a lot things from becoming great, aside form being an incomplete game, with lots of laziness, the morality took a hit here with choices, once again colour-coded.
How to do it right.
To make morality interesting you need the right setting. It have to be about a conflict of options where both have their logical reasons to be there. Real humans are not born angels or devils, and I firmly believe no human is ever totally good or bad. Of course this is all up for debate, psychologist have been trying to prove this for ages.
Once you have an interesting choice, you have to avoid putting your opinion in there!
It’s really important that the player will make the choice not because its blue or red, but because they feel it’s the right choice in that situation. They will feel a lot more involved if they decide what to do and be themselves instead of following the developers choices on what’s right or wrong.
And obvious game that dose this perfectly is Teltale games of late! Walking dead anyone?
They even take the time to share at the end how many players made the same decisions, and the way choices are set up players might find themselves feeling bad about things they said, or regretting a choice. Just like in real life!
In these games all choices will have their supporters and opposes! This is a brilliant way to make choices interesting too, and due to the setting of the game players will make much more varied decisions than in any of the other games, sometime even turning on characters they supported earlier.
How Border will handle morality!
No Colour-coding, We won’t tell you what we think is right! It’s the players’ choice to do what they feel is right, be that cruel or supportive.
So therefore there should be no negative or positive rewards other than characters opinions.
Due to the nature of the Story the main characters are forced to work together, but that does not mean they have to agree on things!
Also because of the dark setting, all choices will be rather controversial. Well they would be in real life, but fantasy as they say, is what you make of it!
Fallen Valkyrie Studio 