Video game avatar identity crisis?

[Saturos]

Has anyone ever had any issues deciding what you want personality you want your character to take in games Like Fable II or Mass Effect? I often have trouble deciding whether I want him/her to be heroic or a ruthless, evil bastard and get so overwhelmed that I just play something simpler where story and character development is a bit more linear.

Video games let people make decisions where otherwise is not acceptable irl, but for some reason, I have trouble being evil in games, and I want to be a better video game sinner. Going on rampages, destroying entire villages and such.

It's like I even have a conscious in games and it bugs me. I don't have this feeling in Grand Theft Auto games though for some reason. I guess that just means the devs in games like these do a good job with character development and creating more personal, believable environments. The thing is, I hardly re-play games anymore, so I'm forced to decide what'll my one and only avatar will be like.

What alignment do you guys usually lean towards with characters in games?

 

[Dalamari]

Oh for ****s sake it's just a god damn game

 

[Jintor]

Do what you want Dragonshirt

 

[Eejit]

I just think to myself, "What would John Cusack do?"
It solves most dilemmas easily enough.

 

[Saturos]

Oh for ****s sake it's just a god damn game

I can't help it though dude, I'm an anal retentive arse.

It's just one of many small ideocencracies I have. I have real-life issues with decision making and things being perfect, and I don't want my characters in games to be quasi-evil, or the diet coke of evil you know?

They either have to be perfectly evil of perfectly good. I'm also a completionist in games too.

EDIT> I might play through Mass Effect twice though. One game as a male goody-two-shoes spacer paragon and the other as a ruthless renegade female bitch. Mass Effect is awesome enough imo to warrant an encore.

 

[Acepilotf14]

First playthroughs I almost always just do what I would do in real life, and it usually ends out towards good, with some evil sprinkled in with /greater good/ decisions.

 

[VirusType2]

I like to help old ladies cross the road and then rob them and slaughter the village.

 

[CyberPitz]

Srsly? Games aren't this hard. Do one, then do the other. Quit being a ****ing nerd.

 

[Dog--]

In the Morrowind community they call this Chronic Character Creation Syndrome, or CCCS. Yes it's real, and I have it every time I play Morrowind, I make atleast 5 characters per day (when I play it, it's currently uninstalled). It's just the way some people are.

 

[Saturos]

Srsly? Games aren't this hard. Do one, then do the other. Quit being a ****ing nerd.

Your right. I'll do your mom first then your aunt.

In the Morrowind community they call this Chronic Character Creation Syndrome, or CCCS. Yes it's real, and I have it every time I play Morrowind, I make atleast 5 characters per day (when I play it, it's currently uninstalled). It's just the way some people are.

Ya. It's really irritating when some games only let you have one character per game. Most PC versions of these games aren't like that though.

 

[YROC]

I make the decision before I play the game. I'm playing Fallout 3 right now as a good guy. I decided to be a good guy before playing.

 

[Vegeta897]

Quit being a ****ing nerd.

And then Pitz was a nerd.

 

[Commander Stove]

I usually play the good guy first, then the bad guy.

But both of them usually have kleptomaniac tendencies...

Yet I'm not a kleptomaniac myself..

 

[Reflex]

And then Pitz was a nerd.

 

[Danimal]

If I really want to take my character to those extents, I try to make each one completely different from the last.

You should make a character with huge knockers, that stretches your dragonshirts out of wearable proportions.

 

[Saturos]

If I really want to take my character to those extents, I try to make each one completely different from the last.

You should make a character with huge knockers, that stretches your dragonscale platemail out of wearable proportions.

/fixed

Except I'm currently not playing anything set during the medieval days atm.

 

[Danimal]

It'd be pretty hard to stretch platemail out of proportion with pure breast.

 

[VirusType2]

It'd be pretty hard to stretch platemail out of proportion with pure breast.

I could do it with my cock.

 

[Asknoone]

I don't ever set out to choose a certain allignment; I just do whatever I feel appropriate in the context of the choices presented. For instance, in Knights of the Old Republic, I am never a force of evil - I feel this degrades the storyline considerably, and is often purely whimsical. I typically find myself sliding into the middle of the good/bad scale, and I will repeat this on subsequent replays.

 

[Jintor]

Yeah, but that's because "Evil" is often the nonsensical, ridiculously mustache-twirling, tie-a-girl-to-the-traintracks kind of evil. It's not a 'realistic' evil, it's a 'Let's murder this guy for no real reason! I think it would be great if i took TWICE as much money as I could!'.

I guess both Good and Evil in most games are just ridiculous extremes, but that's just a writing thing, and will improve one day. Eventually.

 

[Laivasse]

Like some have said, most games do moral choices pretty badly but even so I tend to get quite emotionally invested and try to make the choice that would be most true to my character and his/her story.

Even the best/deepest RPGs tend to have a quite narrow scope for the type of character you can be, though - usually consisting of options like 'Do mundane quest for nothing but gratitude and the smile on the NPC's face/Do mundane quest for some money/Do mundane quest for an unreasonable amount of money/Beat up the NPC for even asking you to do such a mundane quest'. Then when you get to do the quest, if you're lucky there will be a goody-two-shoes way of completing it and an insanely sadistic way - that's your lot. No conflicting motives, no questioning of the player's value system or anything which makes real life such a moral labyrinth... for the most part anyway. I still spend more time on these choices than they probably warrant, since I find that there's more of an emotional payoff that way.

The Witcher did stuff like this fairly well - presenting players with no obvious good choice, and then revealing the consequences of the moral judgement you tended towards. Sometimes it felt a bit too contrived though, with the consequences being absurdly extreme, eg. 'You said something vaguely insulting to Blarth Funguspants 3 chapters ago, now watch as everyone in the country is butchered.' (Note: not a real spoiler)

 

[Eejit]

The first NWN2 expansion did that quite well too.

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't ever set out to choose a certain allignment; I just do whatever I feel appropriate in the context of the choices presented.

Same. On replays I will often specifically go for different things, but first go is just play-as-I-go.

I've been meaning to do a 100% moral run of Deus Ex. That is, stealing from innocents and only killing Anna. I've lost my disc again though.

 

[Ravioli]

I just do what i would do in real life.

 

[Asknoone]

That's not very comforting.

 

[CyberPitz]

And then Pitz was a nerd.

Hey, just because I spam while at work, doesn't make me a nerd.

OK, now I guess there's a difference. One are over the top nerds *Dragonshirt* and casual and sexy nerds like myself.

 

[Raziaar]

I usually do a goody two shoes... and then I do an evil dick... and feel completely terrible while doing it.

22,222. That's pretty badass.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I just generally do what I would do in situations but then alot of the time I finish the game in a neutral stance :|

I just think to myself, "What would John Cusack do?"

That actually sounds like fun

 

[Krynn72]

I usually do the good path first, then try replaying the game in the evil path but end up being good still because even though its a game, I cant stand being mean to people.


Despite me being really mean to a lot of people on the internet.

 

[Raziaar]

I usually do the good path first, then try replaying the game in the evil path but end up being good still because even though its a game, I cant stand being mean to people.


Despite me being really mean to a lot of people on the internet.

You and me are so much alike, brother.

 

[Letters]

I tend to be middle-of-the-road in games with good NPCs and story but a total dick in games where the NPCs annoy the shit out of me.

 

[Saturos]

I don't ever set out to choose a certain allignment; I just do whatever I feel appropriate in the context of the choices presented. For instance, in Knights of the Old Republic, I am never a force of evil - I feel this degrades the storyline considerably, and is often purely whimsical. I typically find myself sliding into the middle of the good/bad scale, and I will repeat this on subsequent replays.

^This pretty much sums up my first playthroughs to a tee. I almost always wind up somewhere on middle ground no matter how many times I replay or play other similar games.

Being one extreme or another tends to butcher the feeling of a believable scenario because either extreme just seems so cheesy. (like Jintor said) Especially in games like Mass Effect where dialogue is so important.

That said, I don't like being purely good though because, well, it just makes most characters seem so dorky. A very similar reason why alot of buddies of mine who play WoW say they rather be the hoard over the alliance. I never can be purely evil either because even in games, I just can't bring myself to being a total dick and kill every man, woman and child in a village if there's another solution to completing a mission/quest (which 99% of the time, there's always a more moderate or pure good solution) and oftentimes, being good or moderate always yields better rewards anyways.

The only times I usually wind up doing things that get "evil" points is when I steal things or I didn't know certain scenarios would actually be considered "evil", but only because I have to have everything.

Other than that, I tend to behave in games close to what I am irl, which would put me squarely in the middle of the scale.

Like Krynn though, this doesn't apply to the internets.

 

[Krynn72]

I would also like to say that I absolutely hate good/bad paths in games. Worst invention ever made by a game designer. Give us choices that are more ambiguous and have actual significance to a player, rather than clear cut right/wrong that an infant could decide upon.

 

[YROC]

I usually do the good path first, then try replaying the game in the evil path but end up being good still because even though its a game, I cant stand being mean to people.


Despite me being really mean to a lot of people on the internet.

I know this to be true. ;-;