But a Jape

“What’s the point of being a good person if you don’t get a reward at the end?”

– A distressingly large number of people

Morality systems in video games are an interesting idea to me that I feel like has rarely been handled well. Far too often, it feels like the choices are between being a psychopathic serial killer, an upstanding Dudley-Do-Right, or just someone who never talks (if they even let you do that). Don’t get me wrong, it’s hilarious to play Captain Shepard as an unhinged space captain who preaches diplomacy and then immediately punches the next person who speaks cross to him, but if you want a cohesive storyline, you’re typically railroaded into always selecting one choice. Then there comes the actual, physical rewards for following a certain path – items, skills, etc – and that’s just a whole other realm of balancing to concern yourself with. It’s like, do you actually care about becoming the world’s most vile monster or are you just doing it because they get the coolest armor?

– James