Sunday 27 October 2013

the rise of Compassionate Gaming?

This new Scientist article caught my eye; it examines a few recent games (namely the Arma2 Mod DayZ) which reintroduce compassion or at least morali decision making into FPS games:

"In one video, for example, two players try to decide whether or not to shoot a third approaching in the distance. "Please turn around, please turn around," one of them says. But the third player keeps approaching, they shoot, and then they talk through their guilt. "I didn't want to shoot them." "Me either! But you know what happens when we don't shoot first."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24325-buttonmasher-the-rise-of-consequences-in-video-games.html#.Um2RWnB7J8E

Other games such as Fable from Lionhead studios and Star Wars: The Old Republic allow gamers to make choices which will develop the character in 'good' or 'evil' directions, but this is one of only a handful of Multiplayer games which force users to question the morality of killing.