Good or Evil Games
![[Ask]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[Bloglines]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Fark]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/fark.png)
![[Faves]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/faves.png)
![[Furl]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/furl.png)
![[Google]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Kaboodle]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/kaboodle.png)
![[MySpace]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[MyWeb]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myweb.png)
![[Reddit]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://dadominion.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
One of the halmarks of a role-playing game is choice.
Whether it’s an easy decision of either adopting the orphaned baby rather than eating it or the much harder deliberation over roasting versus frying the li’l tyke, your choice defines the character you play. This adds depth and makes the game into a story more than a point-earning exercise of digit dexterity or puzzle solving.
Having recently played the classic Knights of the Old Republic PC RPGs, where the fun of finishing as a hero is going back through it as an asshole, I find there are good and bad ways of gauging morality and when to brighten the halo or sharpen the horns.
There’s consistency of cruelty … or kindness - if you play pussies. After a half dozen times of choosing minor actions that are charitable or predatory, helping without reward or demanding more reward than realistic, there’s enough evidence to slide the light side meter up or down.
The key word is minor. Being unfailing polite or optimistic in your casual choices gradually paints the picture of an upbeat kind of character. Saving six princesses without taking so much as a kiss for your troubles is obviously good … or gay depending on the fairness of the damsel.
Um … kindness is its own reward … no thanks.
The other factor is the depth of depravity or heights of heroism as measured by risk or degree of morality.
If you won’t help a starving urchin by giving him your leftovers while he’s lying on the floor next to your table with his mouth open and the dinner rolls are sitting on the edge, you’re a dick. If you scale four smoke-choked floors in a burning building to save a mean old alley cat with a puss eye, you’re good … and stupid.
When you save Fluffy just to stomp the furball in front of the little girl crying for it - you’re a capital A asshole. Que the darkside acne and choose a pointy dark lord style helmet, you’re on your way.
In a high quality game your actions will have reprucussions that further measure your committment. Making amends or getting tired of your greatness being taken for granted adds more complexity and therfore dimension to a character. When cruelty is written on you - haggard looks, dressing in red and black, traveling with a team of lawyers financed by your chain of sweat shops - the game should react.
- Intrigue and Entanglements Intrigue: A secret scheme. A machination. A plot. Also, a secret love affair like that shared by young Michael and Hanna in The Reader- if you’re jaded enough to call that love. Intrigue is also the name of a Norwegian joik band, which doesn’t pertain to this article but similarly......
- Scaling Mount Uber Since the beginning of role playing games experience points (XP) have been gathered as a reward for killing all manner of ridiculously imagined (and poorly rendered) monstrosity in order to advance the player character (PC) into a new level of awesome, or out of the state of suckitude little by......
- Review of Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way by Samuel Devlin If you've been thinking about making your own boat, but you're worried that you don't have the kind of equipment or the time to really make a masterpiece, this book is simply an incredible resource that will make it easy. Although traditional methods of small boat manufacturing are time......
- Running Successful Surveys With a High Response Rate The most successful online businesses understand the value of obtaining a thorough knowledge of their customers and prospects. Asking your readers, visitors and customers what they want is often the most direct and effective way to find out about them. One proven way to gather useful information about any group......