A very worthwhile read:<blockquote>GameTap: The theme of moral dilemmas seem to be playing a greater role in games these days. Do you think this is the next logical step for games as a whole as the audience grows up?
Emil Pagliarulo: Videogames are trying desperately these days to be accepted as art. The whole Roger Ebert debate has fanned those flames, but it’s been a big issue for years. Can games, like art, manipulate a person’s emotions? Can a game make you cry, can a game make you truly feel for the characters inhabiting a virtual world? Presenting the player with a moral dilemma is one of the easiest ways to do this. BioShock completely yanks at your heart strings with their Little Sisters, and it’s incredibly effective.
I honestly think there’s room for both types of games. I mean, in the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion, you really don’t have a choice. There’s no moral dilemma. You’re evil. And that’s part of the fun--not having to compromise, not having to worry about what you’re doing is right or wrong. It’s wrong, and you’re going to do it anyway. In Fallout 3, it’s the complete opposite--a big part of the fun is deciding whether to do the right thing, the wrong thing...or not caring if it’s right or wrong, but doing it anyway.
GameTap: At the same time, does it make certain games an easier target for politicians and media that are looking for any sort of justification for their anti-videogame sentiments?
Emil Pagliarulo: Of course, of course. The more serious you try to make your game, the more realistic the situations, the more realistic the situations, the larger the bullseye you paint on your back. I’ve always maintained that it’s a matter of context, though. Using film as an example, an obscure movie like The Basketball Diaries gets picked on because it has a school shooting sequence. Whereas Kill Bill, which is more violent by a factor of 10, doesn’t receive the same sort of criticism...because it’s so over-the-top, so comedically unrealistic, it doesn’t strike the same nerves.
Fallout 3 definitely falls into that latter category.
GameTap: How does morality play into Fallout 3? Will players encounter those kinds of moments where they have to think, “hrm, do I really want to do this?” We saw during the E3 demo that you have the option to blow up the town named Megaton that you encounter early in the game.
Emil Pagliarulo: Oh, the player’s morality is called into question all over the place in Fallout 3. The Megaton bomb quest in the demo is a really black-and-white, really extreme example. It’s pretty clearly “good” or “evil,” and destroying the town pretty much bottoms out your karma.
In the game as a whole, we play around a lot with the very definitions of good and evil, right and wrong. Do personal motivations, if well intentioned, override the wishes of a community? If a person wants to die, is it OK to let that happen...or is it worth the effort to save them, even if they don’t want to be saved? If I find a kid abandoned in the Wasteland, is it okay to leave him there… even if I promise to go get help? That morally gray area is a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish.
(...)
All of that said, we still won’t allow the player to break his or her game. Getting cut off from a quest path or location is acceptable; allowing the player to get the game into a state where he or she can’t move forward or finish the game isn’t. We worry about that stuff, and handle it, so the player doesn’t have to.
(...)
That said, the Fallout world is the Fallout world; it’s non-restrictive by nature. There’s not a whole we couldn’t include, if that’s what we wanted. So really, for us, it’s always a matter of asking ourselves, “Do we really want this? Does it fit with the world, does it fit with our story. At the end of the day, does it make Fallout 3 better?” If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” it doesn’t go in the game.
(...)
OK, let’s assume for a second that there is an end boss. And I’m a master of verbal manipulation. Will I be able to use these skills to my advantage, to maybe defeat my opponent without lifting a finger? You can count on it.
Now, that’s not to say you can talk your way through the entire game without ever engaging in combat. The Capital Wasteland’s a dangerous place, so you’re going to have to defend yourself at some point. But within the quests, and several other places, yeah--you can talk your way through, if you’ve got the skill.</blockquote>There's too much to quote here. This is a mandatory read.
Link: GameTap interviews Emil Pagiarulo.
Spotted on Fallout 3: A post nuclear blog.
Emil Pagliarulo: Videogames are trying desperately these days to be accepted as art. The whole Roger Ebert debate has fanned those flames, but it’s been a big issue for years. Can games, like art, manipulate a person’s emotions? Can a game make you cry, can a game make you truly feel for the characters inhabiting a virtual world? Presenting the player with a moral dilemma is one of the easiest ways to do this. BioShock completely yanks at your heart strings with their Little Sisters, and it’s incredibly effective.
I honestly think there’s room for both types of games. I mean, in the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion, you really don’t have a choice. There’s no moral dilemma. You’re evil. And that’s part of the fun--not having to compromise, not having to worry about what you’re doing is right or wrong. It’s wrong, and you’re going to do it anyway. In Fallout 3, it’s the complete opposite--a big part of the fun is deciding whether to do the right thing, the wrong thing...or not caring if it’s right or wrong, but doing it anyway.
GameTap: At the same time, does it make certain games an easier target for politicians and media that are looking for any sort of justification for their anti-videogame sentiments?
Emil Pagliarulo: Of course, of course. The more serious you try to make your game, the more realistic the situations, the more realistic the situations, the larger the bullseye you paint on your back. I’ve always maintained that it’s a matter of context, though. Using film as an example, an obscure movie like The Basketball Diaries gets picked on because it has a school shooting sequence. Whereas Kill Bill, which is more violent by a factor of 10, doesn’t receive the same sort of criticism...because it’s so over-the-top, so comedically unrealistic, it doesn’t strike the same nerves.
Fallout 3 definitely falls into that latter category.
GameTap: How does morality play into Fallout 3? Will players encounter those kinds of moments where they have to think, “hrm, do I really want to do this?” We saw during the E3 demo that you have the option to blow up the town named Megaton that you encounter early in the game.
Emil Pagliarulo: Oh, the player’s morality is called into question all over the place in Fallout 3. The Megaton bomb quest in the demo is a really black-and-white, really extreme example. It’s pretty clearly “good” or “evil,” and destroying the town pretty much bottoms out your karma.
In the game as a whole, we play around a lot with the very definitions of good and evil, right and wrong. Do personal motivations, if well intentioned, override the wishes of a community? If a person wants to die, is it OK to let that happen...or is it worth the effort to save them, even if they don’t want to be saved? If I find a kid abandoned in the Wasteland, is it okay to leave him there… even if I promise to go get help? That morally gray area is a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish.
(...)
All of that said, we still won’t allow the player to break his or her game. Getting cut off from a quest path or location is acceptable; allowing the player to get the game into a state where he or she can’t move forward or finish the game isn’t. We worry about that stuff, and handle it, so the player doesn’t have to.
(...)
That said, the Fallout world is the Fallout world; it’s non-restrictive by nature. There’s not a whole we couldn’t include, if that’s what we wanted. So really, for us, it’s always a matter of asking ourselves, “Do we really want this? Does it fit with the world, does it fit with our story. At the end of the day, does it make Fallout 3 better?” If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” it doesn’t go in the game.
(...)
OK, let’s assume for a second that there is an end boss. And I’m a master of verbal manipulation. Will I be able to use these skills to my advantage, to maybe defeat my opponent without lifting a finger? You can count on it.
Now, that’s not to say you can talk your way through the entire game without ever engaging in combat. The Capital Wasteland’s a dangerous place, so you’re going to have to defend yourself at some point. But within the quests, and several other places, yeah--you can talk your way through, if you’ve got the skill.</blockquote>There's too much to quote here. This is a mandatory read.
Link: GameTap interviews Emil Pagiarulo.
Spotted on Fallout 3: A post nuclear blog.
