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Far Cry 2 game - Spoilers, but a discussion of the concept of chivalry within it

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Sir William:
I don't know that I'm ready to deal with that amount of responsibility- even if it is pixellated.  Its one thing to see one die from my direct action, quite another to know entire segments of living beings can die because I made the wrong choice!  This is why I'd be a poor choice for any sort of grand leadership role.  I still haven't gotten around to trying it yet...and maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind for that sort of morality blast.  I mean, I'm planning heists and such now in GTA V, but its against crooked federal agents and bad guys in general.  I think I'm a bad guy trying to do a good thing. 

Sir Douglas:
Man, I have to start playing some newer video games....sounds like I'm missing some really good stuff. :o


--- Quote from: Sir William on 2013-11-07, 17:06:34 ---I don't know that I'm ready to deal with that amount of responsibility- even if it is pixellated.  Its one thing to see one die from my direct action, quite another to know entire segments of living beings can die because I made the wrong choice!  This is why I'd be a poor choice for any sort of grand leadership role.  I still haven't gotten around to trying it yet...and maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind for that sort of morality blast.  I mean, I'm planning heists and such now in GTA V, but its against crooked federal agents and bad guys in general.  I think I'm a bad guy trying to do a good thing. 

--- End quote ---

I actually have a pretty hard time with "morality choices" in some games as well. Like, for instance, the Elder Scrolls series. You could basically just play the game by sneaking around, breaking into houses, stealing stuff, and flat out murdering NPCs. Even though I know it's just a video game and it's a chance to just blow off some steam and do things I know I shouldn't or can't do in real life, I still have a hard time justifying it. I, too, tend to play my characters as myself, and it just feels weird doing something I wouldn't do in real life. The main exception is if a quest or mission calls for it, because it usually doesn't give you other options, and I'd still like to be able to progress through a game. Though I've avoided entire questlines before because of my own moral inhibitions (i.e. the Dark Brotherhood).

Oddly, though, I set up a character in Skyrim that was specifically made to do all the bad stuff that I had avoided on my other characters and I had a lot of fun with him. He even had his own little journal series that I wrote based on his adventures in-game. It was still weird, though, and I often had a hard time finding ways to get into trouble. I couldn't just break into someone's house willy-nilly and clean out all of their valuables; I needed a reason to do it.

It's funny. I prefer open-world, sandbox-like games because they usually give you the option to just goof around and do whatever you want, yet I still tend to play the good guy. I sort of have to start slow and work myself up mentally before I can start playing a flat-out bad dude.

Sir James A:

--- Quote from: Sir Edward on 2013-11-07, 01:31:47 ---Huh, interesting. It does bring some depth and philosophical thought to an otherwise action oriented game. I love when they manage to pull that off. :)
--- End quote ---

It was quite the unexpected surprise. Sort of like how the Mass Effect 3 story sounded.


--- Quote from: Sir William on 2013-11-07, 15:30:43 ---Yea, I love Assassin's Creed, the first one especially because that question was at the heart of the matter.
--- End quote ---

HUGE Assassin's Creed fan - own and beat them all, up until pirates took over in 4. I even have the assassin logo on my car, and I have some of the clothing. :)


--- Quote from: Sir William on 2013-11-07, 15:30:43 ---I don't know that I've had such an in-depth moment of discovery a la Sir James (I tend not to overthink things so even when I notice what's going on, it's more of a 'oh look, that happened' rather than 'I just did that, am I a bad person' type of a thing) but I notice things from time to time.
--- End quote ---

That's where this was pretty cool... in the game, The Jackal pushes your buttons by repeatedly telling you that you aren't any different from him. It's made out to be very obvious, or I would have missed it too. :D


--- Quote from: Sir William on 2013-11-07, 15:30:43 ---I think I'll pick up Far Cry 2...it sounds like a great deal more fun than I gave it credit for when I first read about it.
--- End quote ---

Definitely do, it's very worth the $10 price tag. Even with the spoilers, it doesn't ruin the fun. I know the end of 3, and I'm still going to play it start to finish.

Sir William:

--- Quote from: DouglasTheYounger on 2013-11-07, 18:05:19 ---I actually have a pretty hard time with "morality choices" in some games as well. Like, for instance, the Elder Scrolls series. You could basically just play the game by sneaking around, breaking into houses, stealing stuff, and flat out murdering NPCs. Even though I know it's just a video game and it's a chance to just blow off some steam and do things I know I shouldn't or can't do in real life, I still have a hard time justifying it. I, too, tend to play my characters as myself, and it just feels weird doing something I wouldn't do in real life. The main exception is if a quest or mission calls for it, because it usually doesn't give you other options, and I'd still like to be able to progress through a game. Though I've avoided entire questlines before because of my own moral inhibitions (i.e. the Dark Brotherhood).

Oddly, though, I set up a character in Skyrim that was specifically made to do all the bad stuff that I had avoided on my other characters and I had a lot of fun with him. He even had his own little journal series that I wrote based on his adventures in-game. It was still weird, though, and I often had a hard time finding ways to get into trouble. I couldn't just break into someone's house willy-nilly and clean out all of their valuables; I needed a reason to do it.

It's funny. I prefer open-world, sandbox-like games because they usually give you the option to just goof around and do whatever you want, yet I still tend to play the good guy. I sort of have to start slow and work myself up mentally before I can start playing a flat-out bad dude.

--- End quote ---

I know what you mean; although I did join the Dark Brotherhood and completed it and thoroughly enjoyed it that was my one caveat to the whole morality thing.  I wanted the really cool outfit and so, I did them.  Not to mention, some of the methods you use to dispatch your targets were kind of fun in their own way.  I often wondered, beside the first kill you have to do (three blindfolded victims in chairs, you have to kill one of them- or the quest giver which kills the quest overall if you do) how innocent are the rest?  I figured, its a rough time to live in, a rough life to live- these things do happen.  That, of course, did backfire on me - in the Hearthfire DLC, I was prohibited from buying land in a certain Hold because I'd slain the ruler's steward and he held a grudge against me (understandably) so I was unable to get the Landowner achievement.  Really loved ES Skyrim, I logged nearly 900 hours between the two gamesaves I have....300 on the PS3, then when I found out they weren't getting the DLC, I bought it for the 360 and went hog wild on it.  I only stopped playing because of that glitch- in the quest line to acquire Daedric artifacts, the Mace of Molag Bol is basically unattainable; that is, you can complete the quest so long as you don't go for it, otherwise once you acquire it, the game basically freezes.  Every time.  I got so frustrated I actually popped in Saints Row 3 and went on a killing spree- but those things aren't really like people so I didn't feel badly about it.  lol

You know what's funny about when I play that game?  I invariably resort to archery before I close in with hand-weapons; when I do close the gap, its always with a singlehand sword and shield.

Sir James, I'm with you on AC til 3...I got right up til Connor reaches adulthood and I found that I did not enjoy the game at all so I stopped playing it.  Might've been the setting (I have zero interest in any age after the advent and widespread use of gunpowder) - I thoroughly enjoyed the earlier installments, in fact, I 100%'d the first two just because I couldn't get enough of it.  Riding through the Holy Land on horseback, taking on entire squadrons of knights and men-at-arms and defeating them...it didn't get any better than that for me.  I liked the Italian and Mediterranean (sp) settings of the 3rd and 4th installments but the first two were my favorite, with the first one being the ultimate for me.  It was during the Crusades, the Templars looked like what I expected, the armor, the weapons- did I mention excellent horseback riding mechanics?  Unlike in ES where the horses were more like plodders than runners and fighting from horseback was hit or miss...still, a nice addition to the game.

I might see if I can dl FC2 in the near future; I'm far from done with GTA V.

Sir Edward:
(Sir William just ninja'd me... lol.. stupid phone calls while typing)

I used to prefer open sandbox games too, but nowadays I have less time to devote to the games, so I like a more predictable story path. Mass Effect satisfied all of those interests since it had a definite beginning, middle, and end, and yet most of the time you had a choice of what order to do things in, skip (or not) various optional content, and of course make moral choices along the way.

But yeah, I usually play the good-guy as best I can. There's definitely something to be said about playing a bad-guy when given the opportunity, since you can blow off steam and do things you would never do in reality. There's nothing wrong with that. But for me, it's an opportunity to be the hero. I want to be better than I am in reality. And when I do take a bad-guy choices, it makes me feel dirty.

What was interesting is that in Mass Effect 3, the game reported statistics back to the developers about the choices that people made, and they found that almost exactly 2/3 of the players went with the "paragon" path, and 1/3 with the "renegade" path.

You earn paragon/renegade points based on choices, with "renegade" not really being a "bad guy" so much as just being a sarcastic d-bag, mean to people, and taking the greater-good choices over the compassionate ones, but still the hero. Technically you can't really go wrong. If you take the paragon choices all the time, you'll generally save as many people as you can, as long as you don't skip key optional content.

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