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Do you ever feel bad for making certain choices in video games?

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Bloodfox:
I don't feel bad when I play an evil character or make an evil choice, for the same reason I don't feel bad about laughing at what The Joker does on The Dark Knight. Because its all fictional.
However, some video games really make you ponder your decisions. The Mass Effect series is a good example of this. At some points its hard to make a choice if you are playing a character you want to be good, or just making the decisions as you would in real life. Even tough those games have a black & white morality system, some of your decisions really feel like they fall on a grey area.

ph4zr:
Not directly aimed at the above poster. Just accumulated thoughts that I hadn't bothered to formulate into a post earlier on.

/opinion, and similar disclaimers

I always thought fictional works were so entertaining because they require (or expect) you to suspend disbelief and imagine the events as they might occur if our world played by their rules. I.e., for one thing, they expect you to empathize, or at least sympathize, with the characters of said world.

(click to show/hide)Put another way: if I looked at fiction as being "fictional" all the time, without bothering to suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment, -I- simply wouldn't be able to enjoy fictional works. Period. There's no excitement for me in reading an adventure novel* if I'm thinking to myself "eh, I can just close the book and the world ends" or "meh, so what if she dies? I can just flip back to page 277, and look, she's still alive!"
*Yes, a literal book. I don't mean a VN in this case.

But, I also don't derive as much from game-play mechanics as some. Some people wonder why others refuse to import non-localized RPGs, whereas I wonder how on earth I'd be able to enjoy the game if I couldn't follow the story. So very obviously there are different means of extracting entertainment from fictional works, which I won't bother denying.

Even so, I wouldn't say it's an issue of "confusing reality with fiction", because 1) it's done with full awareness that the real world and fictional worlds -are- separate, 2) it's entirely intentional and reversible, i.e., it is a willing suspension of disbelief. I certainly don't expect to keel over at a doctor's office because of an increased concentration of aer*, for example. Nor do I expect a random red marble to light up and summon a dragon from the heavens**, which proceeds to rend the very earth asunder.
*ToV
**Bahumut, and the red summoning materia of FF7.

Which is another reason I never really understood the "it's just fiction" argument. Isn't that obvious to anyone with the mental faculties required to enjoy a game in the first place? It strikes me that anyone confused enough not to understand that would be confused enough to have already committed suicide by "superman", or similar. As such, it just doesn't seem sufficient to explain the differences, since it doesn't even seem like a point anyone really disagrees on.
Not to say I've never made a bad choice or enjoyed a villain. Hell, The Comedian was my personal hero throughout all of the Watchmen movie, sans one scene.

/opinion, and similar disclaimers

pingryanime:
Oh hell yes, even if it's a preprogrammed route that I can't change, I still feel terrible at times.

the FF series have done this to me quite a few times.

undetz:
It depends on the game, some games are made for the evil route, some are made for the good route, and some games make you facepalm no matter what route you take.

fohfoh:

--- Quote from: ph4zr on June 16, 2011, 04:21:03 AM ---... It is hilarious, though.

-edit- Heh. Your use of the word "often" makes me wonder if maybe you're a bit of a masochist.

--- End quote ---

Ahem...

"LOLOLOLLLLOLOLOOOLL LOLLOLLOL. Oh shit, time to dig for hearts and rupees."

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