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Questions of morality are the great fun of philosophy . Fanatic-Templar Send a noteboard - 21/09/2011 05:24:50 AM
I'd say that when confronted with "Save baby or death", and you choose to walk away because you value your own life more than the stranger-baby's, that's a pretty "neutral" reaction. I don't think self-preservation is evil.


Well, his example only said that death was a probable outcome, not an assured one. But yes, I did acknowledge that this would only be my perspective. I think it would be evil. Others might not. The other thing he mentioned though was doing what one wishes regardless of good and evil and only caring about oneself. And those two, I'm quite confident I'm not alone in considering evil.

I think fuzzy areas like this are part of the reason why you just don't see them...it's hard to determine how these actions would go in a game where things have to have a value. If you didn't save the baby, do you get good, evil, or neutral points? If you DID save the baby, would that be a good action, or an "expected neutral" action? The game developers would end up having to make ethical judgements on certain actions, and they may be hesitant to do so.


True. But then, I reckon that's pretty much the only point of making an alignment system anyway. I mean, if your only choices are going to be Sir Galahad or Puppy-kicking Palpatine, you might as well just choose one option at the beginning and have the appropriate responses selected automatically. I mean, if the only morality choices are going to be blindingly obvious, then there's no choice at all. You're not going to brusquely change your character's alignment mid-game, especially if consistency grants you bonuses. The only point I can see to these choices is if you can actually make choices you have actual dilemmas.
The first rule of being a ninja is "do no harm". Unless you intend to do harm, then do lots of harm.
~Master Splinter

Victorious in Bergioyn's legendary 'Reverse Mafia'. *MySmiley*
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My companions! Lend me thine vast expertise - 20/09/2011 03:56:19 PM 1051 Views
Hm. It depends on what you mean by "rewarded." - 20/09/2011 04:15:18 PM 764 Views
No, not quite - 20/09/2011 04:29:42 PM 690 Views
I don't think I know anything that matches what you want. - 20/09/2011 04:39:22 PM 660 Views
You are a horrible human being. *NM* - 20/09/2011 08:24:05 PM 285 Views
- 28/09/2011 12:58:11 AM 691 Views
I thnk Fallout 3 gave you bonuses for being neutral. - 20/09/2011 04:52:11 PM 648 Views
That was the first that came to my mind, too. *NM* - 21/09/2011 09:46:11 AM 278 Views
P.S. re: "thine" - 20/09/2011 04:57:27 PM 601 Views
Damn, I knew it! - 20/09/2011 05:11:25 PM 662 Views
"Netural" isn't about picking "good and evil" choices. - 20/09/2011 04:59:42 PM 649 Views
It'd be pretty difficult to specifically reward you for being a 'gray' character. (Two games) - 20/09/2011 05:02:28 PM 797 Views
Take Knights of the Old Republic, for example - 20/09/2011 05:08:04 PM 706 Views
That's not so much an alignment as just metagaming the system. - 20/09/2011 09:27:49 PM 655 Views
thank you for phrasing that better than me *NM* - 20/09/2011 11:11:54 PM 288 Views
Maybe I didn't explain right - 20/09/2011 11:19:51 PM 603 Views
I'd say that's evil. - 21/09/2011 03:00:32 AM 772 Views
of course, then you get into question of whether actions like that example are evil - 21/09/2011 04:03:03 AM 655 Views
Questions of morality are the great fun of philosophy . - 21/09/2011 05:24:50 AM 614 Views
Re: I'd say that's evil. - 21/09/2011 06:23:11 PM 756 Views
Re: I'd say that's evil. - 21/09/2011 10:21:17 PM 763 Views
That's actually a pretty narrow view of Neutral when it comes to Alignment or Morality. - 21/09/2011 02:19:34 PM 653 Views
I thought I had allowed for what you said. - 21/09/2011 04:33:30 PM 586 Views
It's not a neutral outlook - 21/09/2011 06:27:27 PM 714 Views
See, what you're talking about IS in fact considered EVIL. - 21/09/2011 08:33:30 PM 651 Views
You might want to try The Witcher series. - 21/09/2011 05:16:05 AM 628 Views
I just played the first one... - 21/09/2011 02:14:13 PM 684 Views
Grey decisions are good but... - 21/09/2011 06:19:04 PM 729 Views
they don't reward it because, for the most part, they don't want you taking a middle ground. - 21/09/2011 07:10:48 PM 610 Views
Well that's just stupid. Tired of picking the 2 sides over and over *NM* - 21/09/2011 08:02:11 PM 324 Views
Neutrality is often boring or selfish. Good stories seldom have truly neutral protagonists. *NM* - 22/09/2011 06:27:05 PM 302 Views
Are you kidding? - 22/09/2011 06:54:19 PM 683 Views
That's chaotic good, not neutral. *NM* - 22/09/2011 10:36:28 PM 313 Views
I have an on-topic comment as well as a general rant on game morality systems. - 21/09/2011 06:43:21 PM 813 Views
if they wanted to make the conversation mechanics more complicated... - 21/09/2011 07:14:21 PM 731 Views
I don't care if it's complicated so long as it's clear. - 22/09/2011 08:27:46 PM 615 Views
I agree with this, actually. *NM* - 22/09/2011 09:17:23 PM 314 Views
I agree with that, too. *NM* - 22/09/2011 10:38:15 PM 300 Views

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