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

[Garret02]

The problem with most games with karma level is that it sucks. Not only the choices are black&white but the balance is fucked. Eg Fallout 3. First two things I did was blowing up Megaton and letting ghouls eat people in the tower. Then I took straight way to the ending, minding my own business (almost no sidequests), stealing stuff now and then and I still finished the game with highest good karma (and the last choice that the game forced on you is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in games). Other games discourage you from being evil by being just hard. Like in Baldur's Gate 2 if you did something evil that caused you to go against the guards and didn't buy license for using magic, you were constantly raped by mages and guards at the same time.

As for my feeling I don't feel bad about doing bad things. On the contrary, I like doing evil things. First playthrough is always evils side for me.

And the award for the worst good/evil side mechanics go for Knights of the Old Republic. ~30 minutes before the end you literally choose one dialog option, along something like "You know what? You're right, screw this, I'm evil." and you go for a evil ending.

[Hiero]

I agree that games that have choices usually are too extreme. And no I could care less about in game choices, whether it's something violent or nice. It's a chance for you to make calls different than real life if you want; it's a game with different options you're not always presented. I mean who doesn't feel evil when they smash a hooker in GTA for health and then kill her for the money back?

But yea, they could have more realistic options like Ace said- if I got gypped in real life, and it was worth it, someone would get the beat down.

[fohfoh]

I killed chickens in Zelda... I didn't make that choice again often...

[ph4zr]

... It is hilarious, though.

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

[Tiffanys]

Absolutely. I felt awful when I...

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Didn't do anything to help Aeka Shiraki on all of my playthroughs with the other girls.

[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.

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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]

... It is hilarious, though.

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

Ahem...

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

[Median]

Yes. I find it very difficult to make choices that are purely "evil".

[Mistgun_Zero]

yep, when playing a VN basically it's like you playing so of course you would feel bad if your actions results in something you didn't want.

[AceD]

Every time i play FF7, i feel bad that i can't save Aeris in time.

Got that level 4 limit for nothing!

[wev]

I tend to go with my gut instinct when making choices in games that ask you to do so, my characters are often a reflection of myself when it comes to that sort of thing, although I have recently started a renegade play through of the original Mass Effect (which is on hiatus whilst my thumb heals from being burnt by hot oil whilst cooking some salmon last week).

[undetz]

I found that a lot of the renegade choices in ME were far more sensible and/or realistic than their corresponding paragon choices, but some of them were also plain stupid. Knocking out that mad scientist on Eden Prime for example, what the hell was that about? As if he would've turned violent.

[fohfoh]

It was for this reason, I was not able to take Fable seriously. Even now, I can't take the premise seriously.

[ph4zr]

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Heh. The first time I heard about the "turn the orphanage into a brothel" proposal, I thought... well, y'know. Then I came to my senses and realized "nah, they wouldn't go that far."

...well, I don't think they would. Of course, it -was- Reaver, so maybe in an alternate universe, they did.

[lompocus]

Hmm, I did feel irritated with ME1 towards its ending.

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I guess this is a spoiler. . Remember when you had no choice but to kill one character or another? And then, earlier, there was the option to kill Wrex (which made me feel like a xenophobic silly person when I let whoever it was blast him from behind).

Generally, though, games are pretty poorly written (imho), so I never really differentiate between "OMG I JUST KILLED HUNDREDS OF LITTLE ORPHANS" and "Haha, I just turned those guys into a human shishkabob." (But exceptions to this rule exist!)

[Stsin]

I'm the type that won't replay a bad route to see all the endings.

One of the earliest games that I played that forced routes was Tactics Ogre.  I just couldn't go with the lawful route, nor couldn't let my sister die, and ended up using game shark to get the items and abilities that I missed.

While it's a game, I don't want it to be unenjoyable.

Recently discussed with a friend on which side we'll be playing on SWTOR.  Going Republic, even knowing that most of the best PVPers will be Sith.  Mainly because it's storyline based with decisions that matter....unlike WoW which has become the same for both sides.

[Havoc10K]

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Having watched the anime, I also felt pretty low for leaving Makoto at the shopping center when I wasn't playing her route...

yeah I had the same thing going on me.

Although I have to say I felt like I just killed 3000 nekomimi's by doing so.

I always have problems playing the bad guy in choice RPG games like KOTOR and Fable and the likes.
ME is an exception since I don't feel bad at all, the stakes are too high, the only thing that I never changed, or I had serious problem in that game was skipping on Tali Romance Plot... that was very difficult, luckily I have 3 chars, 1 Soldier (For Ashley) 1 Infiltrator (For Tali since I knew she will be romantic plot character in ME2) and 1 female Soldier (All purpose Renegade/Single/very cute too)

In Kotor the hardest Decision was when i waned to be dark revan was basically you could lead the entire game as a good Jedi, and at the end become a Sith Lord, but playing the game as a Sith Lord entirely was tiresome, but Juhani was a lot of help

In Kotor2 it wasn't so easy though, had to reload often before decisions cuz sometimes even selecting the bad choice could end up with Light Force influence

At that time being a Male protagonist is a hassle because of that white chick, and the other "sensitive" one that Hunger sent, but winning her over was worth everything