
A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure - cindyceleste
http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/welcome-to-the-scarcity-games/?
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germinalphrase
Another attractive element of these games is the moral questions that
sometimes arise. I know this is particularly true in "This War of Mine" (e.g.
- choosing to take in a starving child that comes knocking on your door, but
who also becomes a resource burden on your small tribe).

Questioning and reflecting on decision making, moral choice, and consequences
of (in)action are a central focus of literature study, so I would love to know
about additional games in this vein that I could potentially bring into my
classroom as 'game-texts'.

Suggestions?

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Zikes
"Moral" choices seem to be a trend lately, especially with BioWare RPGs and
their ilk (Dragon Age, Mass Effect). Unfortunately, most of the consequences
are fairly minor, mostly only revolving around the opinions of your in-game
acquaintances. The events unfold a little differently sometimes, but the end
result is almost always the same.

The worst of it is that they always main-line you into one moral extreme or
the other. It's always obvious which choice is "good" and which is "bad", and
once you've made that choice for the first time you'll always make the same
choice later on, else you'll miss out on the in-game benefits of having a
"pure" moral stance. Mass Effect and Infamous especially do this.

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germinalphrase
This has been my experience as well. I am attracted to bringing games into the
learning environment because they can offer unique opportunities for
action/reaction/reflection (in addition to other benefits) - but I am indeed
more interested in complicated decision making rather than simply choosing Red
Team v. Blue Team.

For instance, I would love to see a game like "Papers Please" with a stronger
element of consequences. Rather than simply being told you allowed a terrorist
through the gates (with a brief cut-away) the consequences of this action
(deaths, social destabilization, etc.) would impact the future game play.
Perhaps, you decide to actively aid and abet these terrorists (by
communicating to them that you will allow them and their compatriots to pass
through) - but then you put yourself and your loved ones at risk, as well as
increase social instability.

This is already a wonderful game, but I would like to see the premise taken
even farther. Games could be a wonderful place to consider and critique
decision making and moral choices that are analogous to those we face in real
life (even if filtered through clearly fictitious events/circumstances).

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Zikes
To the opposite extreme, there's also The Stanley Parable. On the surface it's
a humorous narrative seemingly about being a cubicle drone, but it's
ultimately about the futility of choice.

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pavel_lishin
One could argue that Bioshock Infinite is about the same thing.

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Zikes
I liked that, but none of the player's choices purported to be very important,
either.

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skuhn
Bioshock Infinite doesn't purport to give the player more than the standard
illusion of choice, but I think it's more interesting how choice is handled in
the narrative.

The characters think that they're making big, important decisions that reshape
their world. It turns out that they weren't really.

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rcthompson
I think another influence that the article doesn't touch on much are games
like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Horror games in which you have no weapons and
can't fight back against the monsters; your only defense is being terrified
and running away and hiding, and the resources you do have (in Amnesia, light
sources) are very limited.

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Terr_
> These games subvert the usual arc of heroic triumph by providing a basis for
> interesting, beautiful defeat.

I was half-expecting a nod to Dwarf Fortress.

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Retra
Embark. Mass confusion. Eaten by gators.

There's nothing anybody could have done... Poor dwarves.

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on_and_off
Good. I am so bored of the whole power trip trope which is pervading most
video games. At this point, ennemies would have to trip on my sword in order
to make some games easier. Arcade games tend to be 'artificially unfair' in
order to make sure that the player will die and have to pay to continue. Many
modern mainstream games take the opposite approach and make sure that the
average game will feel like a demigod. It is not without merits, especially
with a hero battling against oversized ennemies. For example, it is very
gratifying to fight enemies 10 times as big as the protagonist of Darksiders.
I feel like it is reaching a dead end though. Parkour / scaling in Assassin
Creed is a one button affair. You just look at your hero do these feats.
Platforming is equally easy in that game series, you just have to find the
designed path thought up by the developers and press the right button, which
is even conveniently displayed on the screen. Ezio is able to take on dozen of
guards and I usually flee only because I am bored of the easy kills. Skyrim
goes out of its way to make you feel like 'yet another chosen one', and
judging from the game quest, you are litteraly the only person able to get
anything done in that world. Not to mention that very soon you become a
walking demigod able to kill anything from liches to dragons. I can't shake
the feeling that these games are very condescending to the player. They avoid
giving the player a real challenge in order to make sure that everybody can
feel powerful with minimal effort.

I don't think that games have to be as brutal as Dark Souls or even unfair
like Banished. Avoiding the 'suddenly all powerful chosen one' trope would be
a good start. Please let me play a random schmuck that is not going to defeat
all the demons of Hell and save the world all by himself.

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Sir_Substance
The author is making a big point of banished being a game of inevitable
demise, but that's not how I found it.

To me, it's a game of hope and industriousness. Where he sees starving workers
staving off inevitable death, I see villagers keen to make their new
settlement work.

I think there's a lot of room for interpretation both ways, which is great for
the games, but it means this article is quite shallow and offers no real
insight, because it's trying to build on a foundation that is viewed
differently depending on who you are.

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brudgers
This reminded me of Avalon Hill's _Outdoor Survival_. It was recommended for
use as an outdoor "dungeon" in the old boxed D & D. Adventuring outdoors was
kinda dull for us as kids, compared to indoor slaughter but we did play the
actual board game fairly often.

Dying of thirst was not uncommon.

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gcb0
is taboola now posting to hackernews?

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mkramlich
A long time ago (though admittedly in this galaxy) I made a computer game with
moral choices a key element in the gameplay. I named it Legacy. It was a Java
GUI app. Though a small game in terms of feature set and code size I always
remember noticing how it was one of the more fun (to me) games I ever made.
Had to do with mating, family and inheritances. It ended up influencing my
more recent designs as well.

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germinalphrase
Is it available to play?

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mkramlich
the code exists on one of my disks somewhere. If you email me your email
address I could notify you when I find it and get it usable for you. my email
in my profile.

