Or why can’t I be the bad guy?
For the longest time, there have been video games that simply let you do what you want to do. And while the vast majority of games have you being the hero (with a small percent letting you be the baddie), I’ve never felt so conflicted being the one on the wrong side. If given a decision to do either the right or wrong thing, I’d do the right thing. All the time! Or I’d that hero that comes in to save the day, even if I had the option to go drink a beer or something.
Even with my fondest memory being with the Mass Effect series and Alpha Protocol. Here we have games that let me be a complete and total ass. I can choose not to help people. I can be the guy who you don’t want to associate (but have too for reasons) and even hit people for no reason. Yet, for some reason, my moral code simply don’t let me do it. You see, I was raised to always be a good person. To always turn a cheek if people are being rude to me. To be a should for someone to lean on. And I’m fine with that, I like who I am. Well, mostly. But I do have an issue with this crosses over to my video game habits. Yet, for the life of me, I always had A thought in the bad of my mind that was yelling “Stop playing the good guy!”. Why haven’t I listened to it yet?
I found myself wondering this more and more as of lately. Maybe it’s due to my prolonged time playing Ubisoft’s The Division. In this game, you have a huge PVP area called the Dark Zone. Here you can go solo and kill mobs for points and loot. Or you can join a group and do the same thing. Or… you be that guy and go rogue. This lets you turn on your fellow agents and kill them for more points. You can even steal their gear. Yet I haven’t gone rogue. Well, not on purpose. There was that one time where I kept shooting someone because I thought it was an AI character. But when I did this, I enjoyed it.
Sure I ended having 5 people suddenly setting their sights on me, to which a manhunt ensued. But it was fun. Here I was running for my life, trying to escape. While also killing toss who were not geared up enough to take me on. Ever since then, I’ve yet to purposely turn on any other agents. Why? That’s a question that I can answer – reluctantly. It boils down to this. I don’t like being the bad person.
No matter how much fun I have had or could have, my moral code simply won’t let me. While others don’t even think about turning their soul over to the dark side. For me, there’s always this inner turmoil that comes into play if I even think about doing the same. It’s like this goodie-good angel is sitting on my left shoulder, while the bad angel is completely absent. Yet, when it comes to doing all sorts of nasty stuff to AI characters and NPCs, the sky is the limit. Hell, look at Dark Souls. I’d go on killing sprees by killing those poor souls. I also thought the one ending in Dark Souls III was pretty nifty (those who played it know what I’m talking about).
I wish I knew how to kick this dilemma as I’d likely have more fun. Perhaps even more fun when I’m coming to some poor players from getting ganked. Only to have them think about gunning me down for fun. Of course, when that happens, that’s your ass. Attack me and I will defend myself. I just need to figure out how to apply this to my gaming sessions when having the chance to be the pursuer/attacker/bad guy and don’t.
Brain, let me do bad stuff to people in my video games. Please!
What about you? Do you ever run into the same issues? If so, speak about your inner demons in the comments below.
