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Gaming and Philosophy
I need to do a paper on ethical analysis of a game I played. I chose inFamous, by Sucker Punch, and I just need to get some thoughts out before I write the paper, because I can't turn that into a review.
So, inFamous stars a man named Cole, who woke up one morning with superpowers. Or rather, woke up from being knocked out from a blast that took out a good chunk of the city and killed a couple thousand people. And the city's under quarantine and the government's reacting worse than FEMA after Katrina.
So, Cole, the player, wakes up with lighting powers. And basically gets to choose, through his actions, whether to be a hero or a villain ("Infamous").
So far, so good. I mean, it's like Star Wars, where there are Light Sided and Dark Sided Jedi. You're either one or the other, not both.
Except, well, I hate that black-and-white dichotomy. I don't see the world, personally, in black and white, but in shades of gray. Ever since I was in high school. Whenever I play a game with a sort of karma meter, I almost always go Neutral, if possible. Which, in cases like SMT: Imagine (the MMORPG), was actually more difficult than choosing Law or Chaos. Or in Mass Effect, balancing Paragon and Renegade. It's not that I don't want to "choose", per se, but sometimes, the right decision for me falls on either side. In inFamous, being "Evil" was more being selfish and looking out for yourself and your people over everyone else. I did play "Hero", but it made the game harder because I had to play self-sacrificing to the point where I couldn't use some powers due to collateral damage. Sure, it might be the "right" thing to do, but I'm too much of an individualist to believe in "the Greater Good" being right at all times.
I don't know what that says about me personally. Possibly why I believe, if we shoved someone into the boxes for DnD character alignment, I'm likely to fall under True Neutral or Lawful Neutral (if we ignore my feelings about copyright). *shrug* Quite a fall from the Chaotic Good/Neutral Good I was in middle school. *wry grin*
So, inFamous stars a man named Cole, who woke up one morning with superpowers. Or rather, woke up from being knocked out from a blast that took out a good chunk of the city and killed a couple thousand people. And the city's under quarantine and the government's reacting worse than FEMA after Katrina.
So, Cole, the player, wakes up with lighting powers. And basically gets to choose, through his actions, whether to be a hero or a villain ("Infamous").
So far, so good. I mean, it's like Star Wars, where there are Light Sided and Dark Sided Jedi. You're either one or the other, not both.
Except, well, I hate that black-and-white dichotomy. I don't see the world, personally, in black and white, but in shades of gray. Ever since I was in high school. Whenever I play a game with a sort of karma meter, I almost always go Neutral, if possible. Which, in cases like SMT: Imagine (the MMORPG), was actually more difficult than choosing Law or Chaos. Or in Mass Effect, balancing Paragon and Renegade. It's not that I don't want to "choose", per se, but sometimes, the right decision for me falls on either side. In inFamous, being "Evil" was more being selfish and looking out for yourself and your people over everyone else. I did play "Hero", but it made the game harder because I had to play self-sacrificing to the point where I couldn't use some powers due to collateral damage. Sure, it might be the "right" thing to do, but I'm too much of an individualist to believe in "the Greater Good" being right at all times.
I don't know what that says about me personally. Possibly why I believe, if we shoved someone into the boxes for DnD character alignment, I'm likely to fall under True Neutral or Lawful Neutral (if we ignore my feelings about copyright). *shrug* Quite a fall from the Chaotic Good/Neutral Good I was in middle school. *wry grin*