Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
Been playing way too many Matsuno titles lately... anyway, I wanted to discuss the ethics we see in gaming and whether the choices we make in games entail deeper evaluation and if they can be seen as a test of our own character.

Have you ever been bothered by a choice you had to make? Followed a character whose goals clashed with your own principles? How about a villain you mostly agreed with? Do you find it easy to choose the evil options in games, or do you always stick to the paragon of virtue options? Does it bother you to see other players gleefully choose "evil" options? Do you roll your eyes when a player confesses they always choose the good choices? Has there been an ethical dilemma in a game that left you feeling anxious or concerned? Would you judge another gamer by the choices they make in a game?

Obviously, there are a lot of questions and not all of them need to be answered right away. This is a pretty broad topic but I feel with a little discussion we can eventually narrow this down to something a bit more precise.
Matsuno is the best.

When it comes to games that make a point of there being branching story paths, I admittedly tend to kind of freeze up thinking about what choice is best, especially if it's in a game where I've decided that I won't be save-scumming. I finally had the chance to play Skyrim recently, and despite the open-world structure, the confines of what narrative actions the player has in each situation seems to depend on what the writers find most compelling for the story, which wrests some control from a player who wants to play according to a particular moral compass. Seeing this, I've learned not to freeze up as much as I used to; it seems like exploring the limits of what the developers themselves think are right and wrong can be entertaining, so making a 'wrong' choice according to my own moral compass isn't so bad. That doesn't stop me from save-scumming when it gets bad enough, though.

I think it used to bother me that other players made "evil" options, and part of me thinks that's just my attachment to my initial experience playing the game. Nowadays I'll go online just to see what happens when you play the 'wrong' way.