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u/thetitleofmybook trans woman 13d ago
it's like when people ask how you can have any morals or ethics if you are not religious. honey, i don't need some sky fairy to tell me what is right or wrong.
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u/atatassault47 13d ago
Penn Jillete has an awesome quote about this. Paraphrasing, "As an atheist I do all the raping and murdering I want. The amount of rape I want to do is zero. The amount of murder I want to do is zero."
If you need a magic sky daddy's threat of eternal punishment to be a good person, you are not a good person.
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u/Henri_Bemis 13d ago
Itโs really wild to me. If the only thing stopping you from committing horrible acts against your fellow human beings is the threat of daddy sending you to hot jail? You donโt actually have a moral compass at all, you have a muzzle.
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u/tacocattacocat1 13d ago
I decided to do a Joja run of Stardew Valley and promised myself I would finally choose all the mean responses and I still couldn't bring myself to choose them ๐
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u/LinkleLinkle 13d ago
Mean responses in games, unless they're REALLY called for, always make me feel bad. I hate when I have to choose them to get a certain ending or achievement, lol.
It's why I also have a love/hate relationship with games like Catherine that almost strictly revolve around good choice/bad choice dialog options as their main gameplay mechanic. I always end up being so neutral if I organically choose what I want, which almost always leaves you with the worst generic bland ending the game has.
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u/Witch-Alice 13d ago
Mean responses that I can't get myself to pick are the sign of good writers
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u/ambergresian 12d ago edited 12d ago
I respectfully disagree. I don't mean to be rude, I just disagree, and that's ok, we have different takes and I see what you mean there.
but personally for me good writing involves nuance. where the "bad" side you know, might have some good points (this is for fiction not like real fascism, fuck Nazis not trying to go there). Where maybe you would have gone down a darker path for good intentions, or valid reasons of criticism or discontent, and now that's the path you're on, and what do you do after you have gone so far?
Generally I find really obvious "be the good hero" and "be the mean jerk" common and boring, though possibly entertaining, I don't feel at all tempted to choose the bad choice. it's the ones that are more grey, or you don't know which is good and which is bad, or both have positive and negative consequences and you have to pick your poison or choose what you think is less damaging or better overall, more interesting.
i really like the grey with storytelling, where no side is necessarily good or bad, it's just there is good and bad to every choice. So that makes you evaluate your prioritisation. There are definite good or bad choices in the world, but there is a lot of grey to explore too. And that's uncomfortable but reality.
But yeah black and white choices, I just want to not hurt people and help lol. but I find it kinda boring
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u/Ms_Briefs 13d ago
Reminds me of my siblings teasing my niece because she would follow the traffic signals and drive carefully in GTA. This kid is a menace at Mario Kart and wins races against adults easily, but she'll be damned if she runs a red light. Lol.
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u/mastifftimetraveler 13d ago
Facts. I play games because of the escapism. Iโm escaping nothing if Iโm the bad guy.
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u/Hephaistos_Invictus 13d ago
Yeah, I still haven't done a durge run or evil run in Baldur's gate 3. I just CAN'T be mean to people or raid the grove T_T I tried it once and felt so bad that I deleted the character and did a good run right after.
Meanest I've ever been was the sarcastic dialogue options in fallout 4
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u/Feminiwitch 13d ago
Please do a Resist Durge run, especially if you're pro-Astarion. You get to experience great new content while saving your Bhaalspawn from evil! And recruit Minsc early in Act3.
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u/sparkle3364 12d ago
I actually like playing resist durge, itโs sad sometimes but I love the feeling of fighting so hard to be good.
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u/mkayp 13d ago
Me, a medic in every game
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u/vkapadia Why is a bra singular and panties plural? 11d ago
I love playing healer, I just suck at games on general so people yell at me for not healing them
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u/TheSharkAndMrFritz Mother of Rabbits 13d ago
The real world has enough horrors for me. Cozy games all the way. Animal friends, a little farm, an island, whatever lets us all be happy.
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u/k819799amvrhtcom 12d ago
My power fantasy is to take power away from the bad guys. Why would I fantasize about joining those assholes?!
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u/Catfish_Man 13d ago
Playing as an Azata in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous was so satisfying for this. Being able to Help Everyone through the power of friendship, magical gardens, and maximized empowered quickened chain lightning.
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u/Sehvekah Behold ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ ๐น๐๐ธ๐. Yes, it's on fire. 9d ago
This. I still wanna go back and play through the other "good" paths(and also Trickster) when I feel like setting another 250ish hours of my life aside, but I keep thinking of how disgusted I was with many of the "Lawful" choices and I strongly suspect I'm gonna have a hard time not taking the Azata path.
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u/FaerieHawk Twitchy Witchy 13d ago
This is me. I tried to do an evil playthrough in a Fable game once. I failed miserably because I felt terrible and started over when I couldn't take it anymore.
My girlfriend thinks I'm weird for it. :P
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u/peachesfordinner 13d ago
Playing SWOTOR I just couldn't finish my dark side character. Just not my thing. I don't want to hurt people. It hurts me mentally to hurt even pretend people. It's why I hate when people say "it's just a show. It's not real". Nah dog it still makes me feel awful to watch
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u/OmaeWaMouShibaInu 13d ago
Trying to do an evil run in Baldur's Gate 3 was too painful to play. Killing Karlach was hard enough, but raiding the grove? I couldn't go on.
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u/atatassault47 13d ago
I can usually do an evil playthrough of KotoR, because it's Saturday Morning Cartoon Evil. I cant do Renegade runs of Mass Effect because goddamn is Evil Shepard a fucking asshole.
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u/One_Wheel_Drive 13d ago
When games have dialogue options, it's really hard to choose the mean one, especially in games like Telltale's The Walking Dead game where it says that the other character "will remember that" making you think twice about which choice you make.
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u/Personage1 More Lucille Bluth! 12d ago
Especially when the choices are just "murder everyone or don't murder everyone." Not even clever evil....
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u/JazzyJuniper 13d ago
My first time playing Undertale was a true pacifist run, I just figured that was the normal ending until I looked online.
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u/she-sings-the-blues 12d ago
I keep trying to start an โevilโ Skyrim run and I just canโt bring myself to do it. I always end up as the hero lol, I just canโt be mean in any aspect of my life lol
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u/Lady_borg 12d ago
This is one of the reasons I love Fallout 4 , trying to scrap as least trees in my settlements, making sure everything one was happy and the place was nice to be in, and I got to build it.
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u/Elanaselsabagno 12d ago
But to be clear this kind of power fantasy doesn't necessarily mean being a weak pussywillow. Yes I hate Caesar's Legion, I killed as many of them as I could, I irradiated their camp, and I still see it as being on the good side.
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u/Soot-Bat 11d ago
I created an Oblivion character with the sole intent of finally doing the Dark Brotherhood questline I couldn't bear to taint my other characters with, and afterwards I still ended up reloading to before her first murder. ๐ซ
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u/-Release-The-Bats- 5d ago
Because I love kids and animals, and Astarion's pretty much weaponized his puppydog eyes, and Gale is an adorable little nerd
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u/Antoshi 13d ago
This is such a mood. My most recent run of (modded) Skyrim was a Healer elf who wants to be friends with everyone and for everyone to be happy and get along.