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<p>Doing less savory acts in gaming is nothing new. <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> makes gunning down innocent victims fun. Strategy games often require you to sacrifice your units to achieve your goals. <br /> <br />But what about games where the goal is not justified? All the aforementioned games have a clear reason for your morals; even <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> gives you reasons for the violence, otherwise sending the police your way for your behavior. But what if your goal is not only unclear, but the game creates almost no negative feedback for your actions? Sure <i>Shadow of the Colossus</i> did that, but the game slowly revealed the consequences and in the end made that revelation very clear. What if there is a game where the player has all but no reason to realize that what he is doing is wrong?</p>
<p>2D Boy's <i>World of Goo</i> is one of those games. <i></i></p>
<p><sub><span class="help-text"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[<i>Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our <a href="http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/my_post_new.phtml" target="_blank">community blogs</a>.</i>]</span></span></sub></p>
<p>Doing less savory acts in gaming is nothing new. <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> makes gunning down innocent victims fun. Strategy games often require you to sacrifice your units to achieve your goals. <br /> <br />But what about games where the goal is not justified? All the aforementioned games have a clear reason for your morals; even <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> gives you reasons for the violence, otherwise sending the police your way for your behavior. But what if your goal is not only unclear, but the game creates almost no negative feedback for your actions? Sure <i>Shadow of the Colossus</i> did that, but the game slowly revealed the consequences and in the end made that revelation very clear. What if there is a game where the player has all but no reason to realize that what he is doing is wrong?</p>
<p>2D Boy's <i>World of Goo</i> is one of those games. <i></i></p>
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This makes me even more interested to play the game.
(haven't played the game... but definitely more than a "kids's game" that the title implies.)
Great blog, btw.
@Anonymouse: I know, its quite possibly the best fan-fic ever created. (granted, that's not saying much, but still)
To counterpoint, World 4 is where you "switch sides" as it were, going on the goo's side.
"I could have stopped playing the game and the damage would have come to a cease."
Would you really have felt like you were doing something good if you had simply stopped playing the game before it was finished? I think this differs from "moral choices" in games in the sense that there is only one ending in World of Goo.
Whether that ending, or the path to reach it is satisfying or not, it is still the game's ending. Stopping anytime before then just wouldn't be right.
But that's just my two-cents. This was a really great article, and will hopefully get more people to buy World of Goo!
perhaps the sign painter is a liar with a dark purpose, trying to dupe you into committing criminal acts?
I think you are suggesting that World of Goo is a 'Milgram's Experiment'.
A test to measure the participant's "obedience to authority", no matter how immoral or tortuous.
The authority figure says - "The experiment requires you to continue."
and/or "for the experiment to succeed
you are required to continue."
Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
I will simply say - goo balls, and in general, actions taken in video games are fantasy.
It is a known variable that, 'You know it is a fantasy'.
It is an error of logic to generalize from a specific fantasy to a general hypothetical reality.
You can not commit a crime against a goo ball. Goo balls are not people. Etc...
Here is a big list of logical fallacies.
http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/appeals/appeal-to-authority/