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BioWare’s long awaited Dragon Age: Origins releases today, and that means that a whole mess of gamers are going to be sinking in a hell of a lot of upcoming hours into the epic fantasy role-playing game. Now, one of the issues that was brought up in yesterday’s BioWary -- Five Reasons We're Nervous About Dragon Age (and Mass Effect 2) was the topic of making moral choices in games that actually mean something. And while a number of games these days like to present players with “tough” decisions that may or may not (most often, not) have an impact on the game’s narrative arc, one of the problems with giving players the option of choosing one path or another is that a saved game file is never more than a click away.
In the case of something like Fable II, you don’t have the option of saving whenever you want, so you have to stick by your decisions, but that can be frustrating as well, because you’re constantly questioning the path you’ve chosen, and weighing that against the overall enjoyment factor of the game. “I want to be the good guy, but that’s kind of boring combat wise,” or something similar, and that pulls you out of the experience as well.
So I’m wondering about what you all think about the moral choices games force us to make, and whether you fully commit to those choices, or if you reload as soon as you realize you don’t like the path you’ve chosen? Are you going to stick with your choices in Dragon Age: Origins, and follow them through for the duration of the game? What was the toughest and most meaningful decision you’ve had to make in a game?
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Comments
Displaying 1–16 of 16
Cryonax
As thevortexblade mentioned, ultimately, everyone is different. So, if you are going to cater to the greater audience for a game, it should come down to options.
Save Games gives the player control to decide how they want to play their game. Want to see every decision to it's conclusion? Don't reload, simple as that.
But if you are someone that does accidentally choose the wrong response, or hits a wrong button at a critical time, or just does not like the way things played out - you should have the option of going back and calling a mulligan.
MyGameName
I stick by my choice to see the ripples it creates. Then beat the game. Then promptly reload.
natedizzle23
I like the idea of haveing to play through the game again cause you want to see see the other story/ending of the game plus that way you get more out of your $60.
jigsaw808
i don't mind choices leading to alternate endings or branching off character development, but ultimately it is a game. i prefer to have the ability to save and reload so i can still develop the way i intend to. seeing a lvl 2 choice affect a lvl 40 char when trying to build an in game reputation is annoying. usually when given the option to save and load anywhere i can make decisions, play it a while, then re-evaluate my choice. fallout 3 did char stat customizing, but allowed reloading so i had a better idea of the effect of stats/decisions by taking a moment to try them out. if not i could reload. i think it would be cool if devs identified those choices and marked them w/ a reload option. maybe just the pivotal ones.
chaz_naezda
I like the idea of making choices and being forced to stick with them. It's the same in everywhere. We can choice our actions but we can't choose the consequences.
LoveLifeMusic
You can watch a video review on gametrailers dot com, g4 is slipping with their video game reviews
Talbotus
I tend to prefer the saves mostly because it keeps it interesting and allows for a player to actualy make the choice rather than having be evil, because I accidentally left clicked instead of right clicked at the wrong spot in town.
However take fallout 3 for an example they have a wonderful quick save quick load button, which is quite enjoyable when you're playing a Lawful good char, and you get board and decide to take 15 seconds to slaughter the entire market in rivet city. then its a quick F9 away from a world where i haven't done that.
So until games get better at not having controls that can accidentally take your moral choice off track we need a save system, and even after that, i'd prefer a save system so i can go crazy every so often.
blasphemous
ATT: PC GAMERS
if I hook up a PC to my tv, will it still look better than the home consoles? or will the 1080P thing be a blocker for it?
serious question.
Ranikstar
Did anyone else get dragon age on Nov 2?
pklepek
I'm someone who has trouble living with a decision in a game unless the game actively forces me to. That's why I'm excited Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 seem to be implementing moral decisions that don't play out until much later in the story. That's really exciting.
down311
On a different note, has anyone seen the new Walmart deal for the 360 ? Buy an Arcade for $199 and get a $100 gift card. That's insane.
thevortexblade
I think it comes down to the commitment on the part of the player. If he/she is wanting to 'read' the story, and if the narrative is compelling enough (Bioware FTW), then they will generally stick to the choices that they make. That being said, gamers are as different from each other as... well, people, so I think that developers shouldn't think too terribly long about trying to appease ALL of them.
When I play a Bioware game, the first run through is typically a story where I make all the mistakes that a real live person would make (sorry, Wrex...). On my second (or third) playthrough, I might test out the waters to see what some of the other choices would have done. This may or may not include loading saves to ensure that I fulfill this dang completionist compulsion that sometimes creeps up on me.
Some gamers want to create their own success story, and that may mean that they reload saves on the first run through, ensuring their proper version of the story plays out, and some gamers won't pick it up because of no multiplayer. Different strokes...
It's like a Choose-your-own-adventure story: yeah, you COULD flip through the book, seeing which choices get the good ending, but you lose a lot of the story along the way.
IMHO
cmdluke
I generally just go with it when i make a decision in a game. sometimes, i will go back to a save file if i don't like the outcome, but vary rarely.
I like the idea of auto saving without the option to load a previous save file so you are forced to stick with your choices. most of the time, if you don't like where you are headed with the choices you've made, you aren't too far into the game so you can just start over. If you are too far in that starting over would be a waste, make the most of it. If you are evil and want to be good, its a nice challenge to try and turn your character into a good guy with the choices you have left to make.
Plus it adds to the replay value. just play through again after finishing to make different choices.
RagTagPwner
Even if I later regret the desicion I made, I now force myself to go with it. I find it FAR more interesting when desicion making is more realistic in games when you can't just take back something you said and intsead you ahve to live with it and see how it affects the game. It's not that interesting when I always say the right thing.
LarcenousLaugh
I think games need to have a more far reaching approach when it comes to those choices. BioWare actually mentioned it in one of the SW:TOR intervies when they said that something you do at level 8 might not comeback to haunt you until level 40, but everything you do has meaning.
I like that idea of a persistent world, one that really changes and holds on to those changes based on all of the choices you make, not just one or two big ones.
MrPickering
Save files for the win.
I think that everyone took Patrick out of context yesterday on his no.1 Biowary.
I read it as game developers need to make choices more appealing for the player so they want to stick to the choice they makes no matter the immediate outcome. I dont mind if a main character dies, as long as I get something in return.
I guess an example could be harvesting or saving Little Sisters, you got something both ways. This needs to be applied on a more broad spectrum of possible alternate plots/endings.
That being said I dislike Fable II's no going back policy only because sometimes I would discharge my weapon in town accidentally when picking up the controller or something. This I would prefer to have back.
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