Hey there giantbomb, I wrote a new article last night taking a look at how choice in games has affected us personally. Id like to share it all with you and have a talk about it. this one definitely has no trolling or controversy attached to it, just a think piece about gaming.
here it is.
The path of the Paragon, the real life connection between how you play your character and how you go through life.
Today lets talk about you, yeah you. How has gaming changed the way you've behaved in real life. For me Bioware has had the most impact on the way i carry myself. Now I'm not talking about an earth shattering difference in how i behave but when choice in my life comes in to play there are times when my subconscious is running its own dialog wheel. I'll be using Bioware as an example but take time to reflect if there are any other games that may have impacted you.
Bioware is an incredible company, been a huge fan of theirs since Baldur's Gate for PC. They are responsible for some of the best RPG's of the past 15 or so years. (KOTOR, Mass effect, Dragon age) but for me it isn't the worlds they build, the combat systems they create or even the hours upon hours of high quality content they deliver.
Its the characters.
I'll never forget Minsc and boo, I'll never forget genuinely wanting to track Saren down, and i'll especially never forget the choice i had to make between granting Loghain redemption or siding with Allister. Not only the characters themselves but they way my character interacted with them. Choice has always been a huge part of Bioware games, giving players the choice on how to approach conversations, often presenting them with options that are completely different than the preconceived notion of how a situation will play out.
Skeptics will say that these games deserve the credit for trying, but still haven't found the sweet spot for treading the gray area. Either do something bad, something worse or save everyone. While at times this argument rings true it would be an understatement to say that these games have had a positive impact on storytelling in games. So how does this apply to us? Where do we come in? It may be impacting you and you don't even know it yet.
In Mass Effect you play as Shepherd a character who exists in this universe that you can modify with some pretty basic back story and personality elements, it all starts out harmless enough but as you progress through the game you are constantly interacting with NPC's and you are presented with the dialog wheel. The dialog wheel controls what you say, how you react and even sometimes will stop the conversation and have you perform an action that is either very obviously good or very obviously (and hilariously) bad. Now this has in some way shape or form always been a part of Bioware games and really adds to the immersion, it seems less like your playing a character and more just like being Shepherd.
There was a CDC study done some years ago with a control group citing the effects of violent video games on the psyche, while this study can only be taken with a grain of salt lets suppose that some of their findings while not widely true may have some merit. One observation specifically, the appearance of anti-social behavior in young children or even young men who can kill thousands of people in a game with no real thought to the consequence, because its a game. This is pretty much common sense and we don't need games to tell us this, if a child misbehaves and there is no consequence than the child has no conception of boundaries. Likewise if a parent sets boundaries and talks to the child about the misdeed they will have a better understanding that all actions have consequence.
Now lets turn this observation over, imagine a gamer who's playing a game where every decision has weight. Do I try to reason with these enemies? Do i shoot first and dam the consequences? Do I let it play out, see what happens and at the very least engage in a fair fight where I tried? Now here is something truly interesting, think back to a time at work, or school or an argument with another person. Have you weighed the full consequences before speaking or acting? Have you ever hit a person in anticipation of them hitting you first? Have you ever been arguing with a loved one and decided that maybe you should "left-trigger paragon" and stop them to sit down and talk it out? Even subtle things like not wanting to be rude and cut off a friend who is rambling and maybe change the subject rather than telling them to shut up. Also, lets consider how youve behaved with this person up until this point, do your past actions and conversations limit how you approach the current situation? Your actions, your behavior and your interaction all have consequence. Many of you have probably done this and have never played Mass Effect, its in our nature to be calculating. But to those who have, have you ever been able to see another resolution through talking? Perhaps this is the impact we are seeing due to games giving us choice. This isn't to say that games have now taken control of how we talk to people, but maybe theres a subtle effect that we don't think to notice.
Maybe.
please feel free to share comments and feedback, giantbomb is one of my favorite sites and i know the commentors here will be honest.
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