Does anyone else feel guilty when playing a video game?

[Brethern]

I was playing skyrim the other day and got ambushed by a dragon. ran out of arrows and poisons in the fight and I didn't have any spells that wouldn't result in my getting instant killed by the dragon. All I had left was a sky forged steel axe.

Fortunately the khajiit merchants showed up and together we killed the dragon. Later on in the play session I'm trying to finish the dark brotherhood quest line and I'm on the contract to kill a khajiit merchant, one of the same ones who saved me in that dragon encounter.

Needless to say that contract didn't get completed, to me it just seemed wrong to kill someone who fought a dragon with me.

It also happens in KSP as well.

Anyone else like this?

[Vanamonde]

Sometimes I play as virtuous characters and sometimes I play as villainous characters. That's why it's called "role playing."

[Spartwo]

That quest in windhelm with the murders. The court mage got arrested for it, and about 10 minutes later I found a little kid who did it. Needless to say I had to kill a lot of guards to find I couldn't open the jail door. I can never return because my bounty is in the tens of thousands.

[Brethern]

That quest in windhelm with the murders. The court mage got arrested for it, and about 10 minutes later I found a little kid who did it. Needless to say I had to kill a lot of guards to find I couldn't open the jail door. I can never return because my bounty is in the tens of thousands.

That was an interesting quest, it was one of the few that I had to look online for the solution to complete it.

[FenrirWolf]

I love it when a game can induce those moments of indecision or questioning of your actions. IMO it means the game is doing something right.

[Accelerando]

indeed OP, i didn't read the text in FTL very well and attacked a rebel convoy that was supplying some starving civilians. felt bad when i got told "but you valued the death of a few rebels over the lives of thousands of civilians"

[vger]

I remember having to execute a mercy killing in one game, that left me pretty emotional for a time.

[Zaryulenko]

It reminds me a mission of GTA IV were i had to choose between Francis McReary or Derrick McReary, And i really didn't want to kill any of them, i decided to kill Francis because he was evil (He just wanted to protect himself so he could become a police chief) and curiously only his mother was really sad on the funeral, the rest of his brothers didn't care.

[TerLoki]

Oh yeah, all the time. I love playing through Mass Effect and its sequels, but I can never bring myself to play renegade because of this. Except on Tuchanka, those renegade interrupts are great.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

In any game where I can kill, I think of their families. And any open world game, no old ladies. At all. I won't kill them on purpose

Also real life, will not kill any insect or animal.

[Dunbaratu]

I was playing skyrim the other day and got ambushed by a dragon. ran out of arrows and poisons in the fight and I didn't have any spells that wouldn't result in my getting instant killed by the dragon. All I had left was a sky forged steel axe.

Fortunately the khajiit merchants showed up and together we killed the dragon. Later on in the play session I'm trying to finish the dark brotherhood quest line and I'm on the contract to kill a khajiit merchant, one of the same ones who saved me in that dragon encounter.

Needless to say that contract didn't get completed, to me it just seemed wrong to kill someone who fought a dragon with me.

It also happens in KSP as well.

Anyone else like this?

It depends on how forced it is. Some games, like Elder Scrolls and Fallout New Vegas (no suprise as the same people designed the plots for both), force false choices on you that require you to pick between two choices that are both bad, and because of the constraints of the game you're not allowed to think outside the box and reject the dilemma and pick a better option. You're railroaded into "To get access to the rest of the game content, choose bad thing A, or bad thing B." When that happens my sense of guilt is gone. I get annoyed at the game designers and think "up yours, this is a fake choice, and the effects of my choosing it are your fault, not mine." An example of this was the civil war in Skyrim. You either side with a racist faction of Nords or a faction of a draconinan Empire that's appeasing racist Elves. You have to pick one or other to advance that plot, and thus it's a false choice.

I don't feel like that as much in KSP, where when people die it feels like my fault (unless triggered by a bug like the space kraken).

To feel guilt, I have to feel in control. Otherwise what happens is the game developer's fault, not mine.

[Zaryulenko]

Fallout reminds me that there was a part of the story were you get stuck on a chamber of virtual reality, to complement whit another example the post above me:

That simulation of that place had a girl, That was not really a girl but was a evil person, he wanted you (The player) to do his evil tasks that would destroy your Karma, however if you look around there's a old woman that knows that the entire place is fake! (No one else except the evil girl know it or maybe they forgot about it) that woman tells you how to end the simulation and escape but if you do it will start a militar simulation of a chinese communist attack that will kill all of the people (Also in the real life except the player and the girl) but you will be free... So sad...

[Dispatcher]

Try Penumbra and its follow ons. Hint: you are at the mercy of ... whatever you encounter.

[Zaryulenko]

I know another one!

The ending of The Rule Of Rose! (seriously, That is the saddest game i've ever seen in my life!)

There's a bad ending were you didn't help anyone (Not wanting to spoil + i dont remember too much of the game in general but its supposed to be something about time travelling or something)

And the good ending (AKA Good-sad ending) Where you gave the gun to a guy (Who appears at the end, NO SPOILERS!, Mostly...) Then he commites suicide, Then ¡BLAM! back into the childhood of the woman (The main character) When she met his puppy, She traps that little puppy into a old house then she leaves forever (The sad part is that the camera aligns to puppy's perception and its..... SOO SAD!!! ). That game made feel sad for weeks

I cant explain anymore, it makes my heart to bleed.

So search it on google

[Omicron314]

Sometimes I feel guilty when playing video games. Sometimes I stop and remember that I am 14 and thus legally allowed to work here in the United States. I realize I could have a part-time job during the weekend (when I play the most: schoolwork has been heavy this year) and donate the money I get to a charity or to help children in much poorer countries. At the very least I could work towards improving myself: I want to finish reading through my biology textbook by the end of this year, but we only have 2 months left and I'm only through a tenth of it.

The sad thing is that this happens every weekend. I simply cannot stay away from Kerbal Space Program.

[vger]

Oh yeah, when it comes to RTS games, when I first started playing them, high-casualties (even if I won the battle) always drove me bonkers. I was always kicking myself over all those deaths, my mind telling me that there had to be a better strategy.

[DisarmingBaton5]

And any open world game, no old ladies. At all. I won't kill them on purpose

But what about Grelod... That witch...

[Brethern]

Oh yeah, when it comes to RTS games, when I first started playing them, high-casualties (even if I won the battle) always drove me bonkers. I was always kicking myself over all those deaths, my mind telling me that there had to be a better strategy.

Remember C&C generals zero hour challenges?

I was playing as the china tank general vs the laser general.

You know the mission where he's surrounded by allot of defense turrets that only one section could be powered on at a time. My first attempt to beat him was to use their ability to mass infantry and his advanced tanks to attempt a pincer attack on him.

my infantry got there several seconds before the tanks got to their area. What happened was pretty obvious. The tanks got in but the infantry blob of 100 units was wiped out. I was about 14 at the time and that wasn't the part that bothered me. It was the silence afterwards. I had to restart that mission I felt so bad.

That is the only RTS game that caused that for me. The Terran units are all mostly convicts, the protoss teleport away at the moment of death and the zerg are well the zerg there's nothing to feel for them They never really die unless killed a certain way.

But what about Grelod... That witch...

Honestly she's really the only person in skyrim that doesn't attack me that I have no problems killing, it's fairly clear that the people of riften and frankly when you encounter aventis arentino for the first time if you just listen for awhile you start to feel bad for him.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Brethern

[Dunbaratu]

Fallout reminds me that there was a part of the story were you get stuck on a chamber of virtual reality, to complement whit another example the post above me:

That simulation of that place had a girl, That was not really a girl but was a evil person, he wanted you (The player) to do his evil tasks that would destroy your Karma, however if you look around there's a old woman that knows that the entire place is fake! (No one else except the evil girl know it or maybe they forgot about it) that woman tells you how to end the simulation and escape but if you do it will start a militar simulation of a chinese communist attack that will kill all of the people (Also in the real life except the player and the girl) but you will be free... So sad...

Yeah that was in Fallout 3. The only two options were:

1- Continue letting mad scientist / little girl mentally torture the test subjects for all eternity as the life support machines kept their bodies alive. This is the outcome the game called "evil".

2- Free them from this mental torture by killing all of them. This is the outcome the game called "good".

Those were your only two options, and it felt like a bogus forced choice. Surely the option I'd have taken would be: Keep them alive for now while I go find a better computer expert who can come back and find a way to extract them from the VR without killing them. But the first part of that option - keep them alive for now - flags your karma as "evil" because there's no way to tell the game that you're only doing it temporarily so you can come back and free them later and let them live.

Once you decide to kill them, you can't come back later and change the outcome if you end up learning more about how to work the VR. That's an unalterable permanent choice. If you keep them alive, you can still keep both options open. That's NOT a permanent choice. The dilemma was forced and artificial.

When the choice between two bad outcomes is based on the player's character being dumber than the player and unable to think of an option the player thinks of easily, then I feel zero guilt over the outcome. Because the outcome wasn't my choice. My choice was the one the game developers didn't implement.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Steven Mading

[Aghanim]

Another evil skyrim quest example: Killing Paarthunax, the dragon that help you in the main quest

Needless to say I use console command to avoid that

[Epthelyn]

But what about Grelod... That witch...

But...Grelod the Kind

[Javster]

I play GTA IV (awaiting V, damn consoles!)

I never really feel guilty.

[Maya Fey]

Dat feel in GTA 4 where you choose deal or revenge

Kill your girlfriend who won't let you bang her or kill your cousin?

Tough choices. lel

[etopsirhc]

all the mass effect games. i flat out cant go evil in it due to one charicter, tali. doing anything bad to her feels like kicking a puppy.