After coming to grips with Fallout 3’s dreary world, I decided that I wanted to straddle the Karma line; to make no choice according to a plan. But my journey with moral ambiguity ended quickly after I watched Megaton turn to ash. At that moment I knew I was a bad guy and there was no sense in doing anyone a favor.
And now that I think about it, I’ve never been able to hover in a grey area. In Lionhead’s Fable II I was a nice guy through and through. In Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic I practiced a Sith’s emotional intensity and recklessness.
During a recent chat (via PlayStation.Blog), game director Nate Fox said that during development, Sucker Punch decided to kick their morally neutral option in inFamous. As it turns out, players didn’t bother with it.
“We had [neutral karma] initially, but we found that people wanted to be really good or really evil,” Fox said. “No one cared about the middle.”
Interesting. The thing that I can’t manage to do is something they found their target audience didn’t enjoy. So, I ask you: do you care about neutral karma? Have you ever tried? Is there a point to having neutral karma in a videogame?
Published: May 21, 2009 02:00 am