Erzherzog
Magister
Now, I'm taking it as a given that good/evil paths are in every story based RPG. Obviously every Bioware game ever, Fallout has karma, DnD games have alignment (including PST), and even the Witcher had one except that it was more a choice between Order and Chaos.
A problems I see with how good/evil paths function in games is that they can often feel gamey (See: Bioware) or feel pointless due to it either not really having an effect on gameplay or story, or because both sides offer rather obviously equal rewards.
The problem is, the way most games are designed I really can't feel like there's any point to picking either path from a gameplay point of view and often the impact on the story is rather banal. Switching out the rival and the ally depending on who I sided with is not a good implementation of morality in games. Obviously some games implement it well from a storyline point of view (MotB or Planescape), but I want to see a game make my choices influence the way I have to play the game.
Right now the benefits of choosing between the two is frequently at best a choice between experience points and gold. Fuck that bullshit. Picking between good and evil in a game is as much a strategic choice as it is a moral one. To make the choice actually have consequence, the moral choices should be designed from a strategy game point of view. Have the choices be balanced, but different. Go past the completely obvious.
For example, if you had a game that included companions and an influence system, perhaps have the evil character appeal to NPCs that see his ruthlessness as effective leadership, willing to make tough choices to reach they goal, however, since their attraction to following you is based off of how powerful you seem, have them leave the party after only a bit of influence is lost when you do something that portrays weakness. Meanwhile a good character might not influence as many, or as powerful, followers, the will be more devoted (if they joined you because you saved their children from kidnappers, I'm pretty sure they'd forgive some poor choices).
However, do you think I've gone a bit nuts? I'm not seeing how much of an impact morality choices have currently?
tl;dr - How do you think designers should design good and evil paths?
A problems I see with how good/evil paths function in games is that they can often feel gamey (See: Bioware) or feel pointless due to it either not really having an effect on gameplay or story, or because both sides offer rather obviously equal rewards.
The problem is, the way most games are designed I really can't feel like there's any point to picking either path from a gameplay point of view and often the impact on the story is rather banal. Switching out the rival and the ally depending on who I sided with is not a good implementation of morality in games. Obviously some games implement it well from a storyline point of view (MotB or Planescape), but I want to see a game make my choices influence the way I have to play the game.
Right now the benefits of choosing between the two is frequently at best a choice between experience points and gold. Fuck that bullshit. Picking between good and evil in a game is as much a strategic choice as it is a moral one. To make the choice actually have consequence, the moral choices should be designed from a strategy game point of view. Have the choices be balanced, but different. Go past the completely obvious.
For example, if you had a game that included companions and an influence system, perhaps have the evil character appeal to NPCs that see his ruthlessness as effective leadership, willing to make tough choices to reach they goal, however, since their attraction to following you is based off of how powerful you seem, have them leave the party after only a bit of influence is lost when you do something that portrays weakness. Meanwhile a good character might not influence as many, or as powerful, followers, the will be more devoted (if they joined you because you saved their children from kidnappers, I'm pretty sure they'd forgive some poor choices).
However, do you think I've gone a bit nuts? I'm not seeing how much of an impact morality choices have currently?
tl;dr - How do you think designers should design good and evil paths?