Lunchtime Discussion: Good/Evil

Games with static progression haven’t cut it for quite some time now, but with advances in technology the amount of dynamic content in games continues to increase, the number of paths you can take seeming to expand a lot more this generation. Perhaps the dynamic mechanic that’s seen the most growth in this generation is the use of the ‘karma’ mechanic, points earned for good or evil actions.

By now you’ve probably played some kind of game with this in. The basic mechanic has been around for a while, going all the way back to the idea of an ‘alignment’ in pen and paper RPG games, but for some reason they really seem to have taken off in recent years. Maybe it’s hard-disks giving us the kind of storage space needed to store a huge volume of decision, maybe it’s just become a popular design direction. Whatever has spiked the interest in the mechanic, the growth seems to be here to stay.

Fable, that over-hyped baby of Peter Molyneux, seems to have been the tipping point where the mechanic started to become far more popular than previously, and the series seems to have one of the better implementations of karma. Almost every action you take it classed as either ‘good’ or ‘evil’ to some extent, you’re rarely placed in a situation where you have to make a binary decision between the two sides.

By contrast there are the poor systems like inFamous, last year’s electrically charged title. Whilst I haven’t played it, I gather that every situation where you earn karma is only binary. You make the good choice or the evil choice, it’s always a simple selection. It just sounds far too forced to me, I want the world to naturally build around me based on my actions, not have to take specific actions to trigger good or evil scenarios.

In general I don’t really care about karma systems, although they certainly can add depth to a title. What do you think? Are they worthwhile additions to games, or couldn’t you care less? Do you prefer them to be natural or present you with an obvious choice so you know where you’re going?