@Mogan: Great story. You are not weird. Okay, I'm like you, I project empathy also into the game world. My first real "play to the end" RPG was Fallout 3. When I started, I decided I wanted to be good.
A bit into it, and yes I shot raiders that attacked me first, I came upon a cache of goods in the wasteland. Then a guy comes from the distance and attacks me. I'm thinking "raider" I chase him down and kill him. Note, he was running away from me... But I was learning the game, so... Then I see he has a name... wait, he wasn't a raider!? He thought I was the thief?! That was his stuff I was going through! He was defending his cache.
It's funny, but I felt guilty. I hadn't saved the game in awhile so I couldn't reload without a lot of replay. So I decided to make that part of my character, I had killed as a reaction, versus taking the time to understand the situation.
I really worked hard to be good the rest of the game. I even loved it that I was so good (in my mind) that the game didn't get me. I had tried to put food into the pocket of a starving man on the side of the road. The game dinged me for pick pocketing. It wasn't coded to differentiate if you placed something in a pocket. :-)
I did have my justifications, I did feel it was right as a "good" person to kill slavers. There was a group and I did take them all out. But I went for clean kills. I did wonder, am I good (being the unofficial law) in doing this? I was saving others from being taken...
Great game that it made me think of those things. Sorry for the length of this, but nice to find someone else that thinks the same. We know they are games, but still...
@Mogan: I had an interesting example of what you wrote here. Have you ever played the original Half-Life? If not, just know that as a FPS you had situations where you come across scientist stuck in the same base as you, they help you out as they fill in story elements. They are good people, just trapped.
So what happened to me, a work colleague told me he was playing it as was I. Then he happened to mention that after the verbal discussion that the player and scientist go through that instead of just moving on... he would kill them!
I was surprised? Why? They are good guys. So you shoot them?
No, he told me he would bash their brains in with the crowbar...
I was shocked and didn't know what to say. I mean, it's "only" a game. But I felt different about him afterwards. That's when I learned what you wrote here is so true. How somebody will play a game can tell you about them.
Now I'm not "repressed." (I don't think. Lol.) I know in many games you have to kill people, and many times there is a game path for being dark. But Half-Life didn't have a dark path...
@noshotskill: Minor point, there are two copies of every envelope & card (the two PWC people each stand on opposite sides of the stage) so the envelope was labeled "Best Actress..." The PWC agent needs to double check and read the outside of the envelope he/she is handing out. I would say, when their opposite hands one out (and they have the duplicate) the duplicate should be handed off or stashed away immediately so it's not accidentally handed out again.
But I agree with you, no investigation is needed. It happened, just need to fix the process. Also this morning they said the PWC was tweeting continually during the show. The agents need to put their phones away and focus on their work...
@Judeuduarte: Agreed, it does look good. I've only started the series recently. Just started ME2 and am enjoying it, as I did the first one. I'm hoping it's well received. We'll know in a month.
I'm not worried, but that's because I get to games late. By the time I get to this patches will have been pushed out. Now for you first day players, my fingers are crossed for you all. Hope they knock it out of the park!
@Redsyrup: Completely agree with you. I sometimes wondered that maybe they were waiting for VR to be really solid and then create HL3 for that platform? That's all that I can think of.
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