ZRPG Morality
ZRPG Morality
Development Info - posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Wed 28 July 2010, 15:43:38
Tags: DoubleBear ProductionsBrian put up another design update, this time the topic is morality.
This week I thought I’d talk about a topic that both covers our game and allows everyone to add their two cents or web rage too – dust off the puppy analogies, because today we’re tackling morality. And I wanted to take this one on today because <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">I recently came across a box of abandoned puppies and a machine that turns spare puppies into a tax-free savings bond</span> it has absolutely has to be explored in our setting. To start off, I’m going to admit right now that I’m not a fan of any kind of morality system that assigns a numerical value to your actions and/or categorizes actions as good or evil. I think this completely destroys any actual investment in the situation or even the motive to make the player feel the weight of the situation. Adding experience incentives or tying achievements to morality, karma, or alignment gives people a game reason to make their decisions, not a character or personal choice in the decision. Of course, many designers will argue in favor of point scales or meters or influence points to SHOW the player that their decision has weight, but this ultimately underscores the reactivity by making it into a point system. Giving the player incentives for reaching a specific point value (1000 Goofus points!) forces the player’s decisions in dialogue even more than if they were just finding out where they landed on the morality scale.
Spotted at: ITS
This week I thought I’d talk about a topic that both covers our game and allows everyone to add their two cents or web rage too – dust off the puppy analogies, because today we’re tackling morality. And I wanted to take this one on today because <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">I recently came across a box of abandoned puppies and a machine that turns spare puppies into a tax-free savings bond</span> it has absolutely has to be explored in our setting. To start off, I’m going to admit right now that I’m not a fan of any kind of morality system that assigns a numerical value to your actions and/or categorizes actions as good or evil. I think this completely destroys any actual investment in the situation or even the motive to make the player feel the weight of the situation. Adding experience incentives or tying achievements to morality, karma, or alignment gives people a game reason to make their decisions, not a character or personal choice in the decision. Of course, many designers will argue in favor of point scales or meters or influence points to SHOW the player that their decision has weight, but this ultimately underscores the reactivity by making it into a point system. Giving the player incentives for reaching a specific point value (1000 Goofus points!) forces the player’s decisions in dialogue even more than if they were just finding out where they landed on the morality scale.
Spotted at: ITS
