Moral Dilemma

More and more in video games, do I see the option of morality play a factor. Easy examples if such would be several Star Wars games, Infamous 1&2, and Mass effect. These games allow the choices of morality to shape the structure and story of the game around you. These choices can range from shooting the innocent, to sacrificing a loved one to save many. These are crucial decisions for the plot and character development. Do these decisions really matter? Or do they actually tell us a little about ourselves? Is it just a little mischievous self-indulgence to be a bad?

In Simplest terms the decisions are determined to be “good or bad.” No matter who you talk to though, “good” and “bad” have very different meanings. So when you shoot an innocent civilian, does that say that if you were in a position of power, you would be murderous? Every person plays these games different, and with different feelings in the situations.

I personally am always a “good” guy. I play to help people and save the world. I’m not sure why I do. I think to myself that maybe it’s just because I like the look of the “good” guy. I think it goes a little deeper though. I look at my personality in the real world, and I notice similarities. I do like to help people, I am often sought after for advice, and I offer my generosity when I can. Do I mimic my game play, or does it mimic me? Often I will play the “bad” guy as well. In all honesty though, I almost feel wrong sometimes, like I am truly being a “bad” guy.

People have often blamed video games for real world violence. I am 99% against what they say. I believe that people have a choice to let it affect them. I bring this up because of these morality decisions. Could they truly show signs of violence? I know others would certainly like to make that the case. I say 99% because of this dilemma. I think it could show some signs of violence. However, video games and these morality decisions do not create the violence in some one, it only shows it was there.

The biggest thing I would like to stress is the quotation marks on all the “good” and “bad”. The reason being is that it is all a matter of perception and the individual. Getting in to that debate would take a longer amount of time. So for anyone reading this, what would you say? Do these decisions of morality define a character, or its player?