Morals and Ethics in Video Games: What Should be Considered?

Video games are usually used for fun, relaxation, and a escape from reality for many people. These people do not usually think of the morals and ethics that are usually in these video games. Morals and ethics are big parts in many video games, but figuring out exactly what they are can be hard if they are not just out there for the player to notice. It might have also been a challenge for the game designers to figure out what morals and ethics to consider when they designed the video game.

Video games use morals and ethics in many different ways. Grand Theft Auto V for example uses morals and ethics for irony. This is shown because the people who are making the world better per say are the ones stealing cars, robbing banks, and killing people. The Saints Row series uses morals and ethics for irony also. In Saints Row IV for example, the players character is supposed to be the President of the United States, a symbol of the entire country to the rest of the world, but he is a leader for a group of gangsters called The Saints. The name of the gang is actually ironic because they are anything but saints.

There are other games that use morals and ethics in different ways than Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. The Sly Cooper Series for example, this series uses morals and ethics in a more serious way. This is because the player is playing as a thieving raccoon that steals normal things on the side, but he usually steals from bad people, which shows that he takes the moral high ground with who is willing to steal from. Another game that does this is the Uncharted Series. In this series, Nate and his friends do some illegal things, but in the end, they usually choose to do the right thing like never leaving any member of their group behind no matter what the circumstances may be. In Uncharted 2, the story begins with Nate wanting to find the Cintimani Stone, but it ends up with wanting to keep Lazaravic from getting his hands on it, he was even willing to risk his life to protect the Tree of Life.

In my opinion, there is no right or wrong when considering morals and ethics in video games. The only consideration that I think should take place with these is what kind of game is it, the message the designers want to get through to the audience, and how could the decisions affect the viewers. I do not think you could have a game that is supposed to be against stealing or any other crime and then have the main character go commit crimes in order to achieve the goals of the game.

In conclusion, morals and ethics are a hard thing that should be considered when designing video games. Video games can use morals and ethics differently depending on the game, the message, and how the viewers can be affected. I do not think that there is a right or wrong when considering morals and ethics for video games.

Was This the Right Choice?

Video games have different ways about going about choices that the player makes and how it affects the outcome of the game itself. Some games will let the player make choices, but it will not change the outcome of the game itself. Other games do have choices that do affect the outcome of the game itself. One game that I think does a good job of displaying how choices can affect not only the outcome of the game, but the game itself is The Walking Dead Season 1.

In The Walking Dead Season 1, the player is playing as Lee, a man who was a convicted criminal when the outbreak happened. Throughout the game, the player has to make many choices on behalf of Lee. There are some choices that are not really all that important in my opinion, but there are many choices that are important.

One choice that I think is important is whether to save Doug or Carley. This is an important decision compared to saving Hershel’s son or Duck or giving the woman at the motel a gun or not. This is because in both of those situations, it ends the same way no matter what you pick, Hershel’s son still dies while Duck lives, and the woman still dies either way. This is different because the person you choose can impact the rest of the game. To me, the choice was actually between some guy who knows a lot about technology or some chick that can shoot. In a zombie apocalypse, I figured being able to shoot was the best option, so Carley was saved. This actually turns out bad because in Episode 3, Lillie ends up shooting Carley anyway. This made me wonder if Lillie would have killed Doug if he would have been saved insted.

Another important decision was whether to kill Larry when him, Lee, Kenny, Lillie, and Clementine were all locked in the meat locker. During this, Larry has a heart attack and the player has to choose whether to help Lillie give him CPR or to help Kenny bash his brains in. The choice that I made was to help Lillie because I personally thought Kenny was being dumb about it because I did not think he would have reacted the same if it was Duck or Katjaa. It ended up with Kenny bashing Larry’s brains in without the player’s help, but he was really mad at Lee and didn’t seem to trust him the rest of the Episode at least. Another reason I didn’t help kill Larry is because I disliked him so much that I would have rather killed him myself.

In conclusion, The Walking Dead, whether its comics, the t.v. show, or the video games is all about the choices that the characters make. The underlying theme is to choose to keep some humanity and do the nicest thing in any situation, or to just go all savage like the world around you. Either way, many people will make choices that they will later regret or have them wondering did I make the right decision?

A Hard Decision

There are many things that make up a video game. One thing that makes up a video game are individual scenes. There are many things in an individual scene that can make the scene memorable. One game that I think is good with making a memorable scene is Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain is a game about a father, Ethan Mars, who lost his older son to a traffic collision. Later on he is divorced and gets to keep his younger son on certain days. Ethan has black outs from brain damage from trying to save his son. During one of his blackouts, he finds his younger son, Shaun, missing. Because of this him and the police believe that he is the suspect in a series of murders of young boys. Shortly after Shaun has gone missing, Ethan gets notes that have instructions about what to do if he wants to see his son again, these notes come with an origami figure.

One note that Ethan gets has the instructions to go to a certain place and find out which lizard figurine has the key to a certain room in it. To do this, Ethan has to break open some figurines to find the key. The key leads to a room with a table with a little tablet on it, and a chair for him to sit in. There is also a audio recording that basically tells Ethan that if he wants  the next clue to finding his son, he has to cut off the last digit of one of his fingers. This leaves the player to make the choice of whether or not Ethan will cut off his finger. If the player decides to do this, Ethan will cut off the last digit of his left pinky finger. How Ethan cuts off his finger is up to the player as well, they just have to use any tool that they can find in the room that Ethan is in. Some of the options that Ethan can cut off his finger are, a pair of scissors, a saw, a hatchet, or a chef’s knife. Ethan can disinfect and cauterize his finger. Usually, I have him disinfect before and cauterize after. This will give Ethan another clue as to where his son is being held to possibly save him.

I think this scene is memorable because the theme of the game is to see how far fathers will go to save their sons. This scene shows how far the player is willing to let Ethan go to save Shaun. If the player chooses to not let Ethan go through with this, he can still possibly save Shaun if he does most of the other challenges. Usually with a play through of this game, I choose to have Ethan do all of the challenges to show that he will do anything and everything to save his son.

In conclusion, there are many scenes that make up a video game, but not every scene is memorable. One game that I think is good at putting in memorable scenes is Heavy Rain. The main scene that I think is memorable from this game is the scene where Ethan has the choice to cut off one of his fingers to save his son Shaun. This goes to show how far he is willing to go to save Shaun.

 

How the Soundtrack of Saints Row 4 is Effective

There are many things that are important when designing a video game. One component that might not seem important is the choice of music that is in the game. Music can help connect the player to the events that are happening in a game. One game that I have found an effective soundtrack in is Saints Row 4.

In Saints Row 4, the player is playing as the President of the United States when aliens invade Earth. The player ends up being abducted and put into a simulation, but does not realize it at first. This simulation is all happy and bubbly and looks like it is in the fifty style. The President ends up ruining this simulation, so he ends up in another more modern and general simulation. The rest of the game plays out in this simulation and a space ship that the President and his gang steal from the aliens.

There are many reasons why I think that the soundtrack for Saints Row 4 is effective. One reason is because the player gets to customize the songs onto a playlist. I think this is effective because the player gets to choose the songs and music that they recognize. One bad thing about a customized playlist is that the songs may not go along with the events that are happening in the game at  the moment a certain song is playing.

Another reason I find the soundtrack in Saints Row 4 effective is the choice of songs the designers chose.  There are certain songs like Still Swinging by Papa Roach, The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats, Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul, Simply Irrisistable by Robert Palmer, and  The Touch by Stan Bush. These songs are all upbeat songs that if played during a fight scene can pump up the player and make them feel like they are a badass. A prime example of this is if the player customized their character to look like Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and The Touch is playing and the character is just killing everyone with their bare hands. I think this is effective because the player feels like they can do anything in the game.

Another reason I find the soundtrack in Saints Row 4 effective is because some of the weapons that the character can use play songs while they are being used. Some of these weapons include ‘Merica, and the Dubstep Gun. ‘Merica plays very patriotic music like The Marines’ Hymn, while the Dubstep gun plays different forms of instrumental music based on the setting that the gun is in. The settings are Heavy Metal, Industrial, and Classical. I think this is effective because the play can literally and figuratively use the power of music to overcome their enemies.

In conclusion, of all of the important components that make up a video game, a music soundtrack is one of the most important. This is because it can connect the player to the events that are happening in the game at certain times. One of the video games that I find has an effective soundtrack is Saints Row 4.

Gameplay and Story Genre in Jade Empire

There are many different types of genres in terms of gameplay and story. Gameplay and story genres do not always seem to go together when examining video games. One example is Jade Empire, where the gameplay genre is Western RPG, but the story genre is Kung Fu fighting with some hints of fantasy.

Jade Empire would be classified as a Western RPG (Role-playing Game) for gameplay genre. This is because the player has more freedom than in an Eastern RPG. The freedom includes being able to create the character, and level their character up as they like. The player also get to choose the fighting styles of the character and pick a name. Throughout the game, the player can pick the responses that their character has with other characters throughout the game. These responses can lead the character to being good in the way of the open palm or being evil in the way of the closed fist.

Another thing that makes Jade Empire a Western RPG is that there are side quests that the player can do. The player can also choose how they end those side quests and these decisions can either make the character good or evil also. There are other choices that are not necessarily good or evil. These choices can be for greedy purposes, or just to make things more convenient for the character. This goes for the main quest and the side quests alike.

Jade Empire has elements of two story genres. These genres are Kung Fu fighting and fantasy. Jade Empire is a Kung Fu fighting game because the story starts off with the character training with another student at a school that they attend. The character also has training in different fighting styles like Leaping Tiger and Thousand Cuts. The game also has many different scenes where the character has to fight someone to be able to move on in the quest. Sometimes, the character is fighting as many as five people at a given time. The player also can pick the fighting styles before the game begins and can change them throughout the game as the character learns other styles of fighting.

Another story genre Jade Empire has is fantasy. The reason Jade Empire is fantasy is because the character has to fight various monsters and demons throughout their quest. The character even takes the form of some demons in certain fighting styles, like the Toad Demon fighting style. The character can also use various magic fighting styles. These styles rely on the character using magic in order to use this style. Some of these styles are the Ice Shard and Dire Flame. The magic fighting styles do not work on every enemy that the character encounters though.

In conclusion, Jade Empire has a gameplay genre of Western RPG, and story genres of Kung Fu Fighting and Fantasy. These different types of genres are not usually seen together in video games or movies. I think they work really well in Jade Empire because of the setting that the game is set in.

The Last of Us: Introduction

If you are a writer of any sort, you know that coming up with a good introduction can be hard. This is also true for video games, especially if the introduction does not let the player interact as soon as he/she would like. One game that I feel like has a good introduction is The Last of Us.

The Last of Us is a survival horror game that starts off with the player is control of a little girl named Sarah. Sarah starts off in the house that she and her father lives in. It seems like a normal day for Sarah and her father when the game starts out. Her father, Joel, comes home from work and Sarah greets him and ends up falling asleep on the couch, so Joel carries her up to bed. Sarah then wakes up later in the night remembering that she did not give Joel his birthday card.

When Sarah goes to look for Joel to give him his birthday card, she can’t seem to find him in the house. She calls out for Joel, but she doesn’t get an answer from him. As she’s looking around the house for Joel, the player has the chance to have her interact with various items throughout the house that helps the player understand what is going on. Sarah interacts with a newspaper, a television that is in Joel’s room, and a cell phone that is located on a table by the backdoor. The cell phone had a lot of missed calls and unanswered text messages from Sarah’s uncle.

After Sarah has been looking for Joel for a bit, he comes in from the backdoor and tells Sarah to stay away from the door. This confuses Sarah a bit because she does not know exactly what is going on at the moment. Suddenly some guy busts through the backdoor which ends up with Joel shooting him. After that, Sarah’s uncle comes in and informs them that they need to leave because things were getting crazy. So Sarah, Joel, and her uncle go to a vehicle and start driving down the street to try to get away from whatever is going on in the town. When they are driving, the player can see many weird things like people that are on fire. Sadly, they don’t get away that easily.

While they are trying to get away, they get into a vehicular accident, which ends up with Sarah getting a broken leg. Joel ends up carrying Sarah through the town while trying to get away. They end up getting split up from Sarah’s uncle, then Sarah and Joel run into some soldiers and one threatens to shoot them both, and Joel begs him not to. The soldier ends up shooting Sarah anyway, and Joel’s brother, who catches back up with Joel and Sarah, shoots the soldier before the soldier can shoot Joel. After this there is the opening credits that are clips from news stories that show that the town is now under martial law, and rations are getting low.

I feel like this introduces the game well because it helps the player understand what Joel is going through with Ellie throughout the game. At first Joel does not want anything to do with Ellie, but he ends up looking at her like she is his surrogate daughter. This leads to him not wanting to let her die like he saw his actual daughter do twenty years ago.

Reflection of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an interesting game that follows the journey of two brothers on their search for the Tree of Life. The two brothers, referred to as Older Brother and Younger Brother, are looking for the Tree of Life to help save their father. Through their journey, they face many obstacles and people that might hinder or help in their journey.

One of the first obstacles that most players would face is the controls for the game. This might be because you are controlling two different characters at the same time. I actually found the controls really easy and simple. This surprised me because when I try to play most other games, I cannot work the controls to save my life. I think this was easy for me because there was only four buttons and two analog sticks that were being used, also, I did not need to move the camera as often, which is the thing I have the hardest time with in video games.

The first actual obstacle in the game is when the Older Brother tells the Younger Brother that their father was ill. The brothers then have to put their father in a cart and take him to the village healer. On the way to the village healer, the Older Brother has to help the Younger Brother up onto some ledges, and they have to work together to pull some levers to actually reach the village healer. This is where the brothers learn that they have to go to the Tree of Life to save their father. This is the overall conflict throughout the game.

The brothers face some smaller conflicts throughout the game. One small conflict they have to help a troll with his wife. The troll’s wife has been captured by some other trolls and the brothers have to go through a series of puzzles to free her. After that they have to escape from some wolves. After they escape the wolves, they get help from an inventor who lets the brothers use his flying machine. While they are using the flying machine, they have to dodge obstacles like flying birds. They then land at a castle where they find a griffin that is caged up. They free the griffin, and in return, it takes them as far as it can take them. The griffin then appears to die.

After the brothers face the grief of the dead griffin, they come to a battle field full of dead giants. After they get through that, they come upon a cult, to get past the cult, the brothers have to disguise themselves as their deity, they do this by the Younger Brother being carried on the Older Brothers shoulders, and them taking a blood shower. They do this to save a girl from being sacrificed by the cult to their deity. The girl then helps them get past an invisible giant, the whole time flirting with the Older Brother, which the Younger Brother does not like. The girl then leads them into a cave, where she turns out to be an evil spider-lady. The brothers then have to fight her, but the Older Brother ends up getting wounded really bad. The brothers then make it to the Tree of Life, but the Younger Brother has to get the medicine on his own and when he comes back to where he left the Older Brother, he finds that his brother has died. The Younger Brother tries to bring his brother back to life with the medicine, but it does not work, so he has to bury him.

The Younger Brother then has to make the journey home. Luckily, the griffin is actually alive and takes the Younger Brother as close to home as he can. The Younger Brother still has some challenges to face. One challenge is facing his fear of swimming. During the game, the Older Brother would help carry the Younger Brother across water, but now that the Older Brother is gone, he has to do it by himself. This is where the controls actually seem to make sense. This is because you have to use the controls for the Older Brother to help the Younger Brother make it home. This goes to show that even though the Older Brother is dead, he is still there to help the Younger Brother.

The ending of the game is actually quite sad. The Younger Brother managed to save his father with the medicine, but he had lost his brother in the process of doing so. The game cuts out with the father and Younger Brother standing in front of two headstones, one for his mother, and one for his brother. The father just breaks down right there, and the Younger Brother just pats his dad on the back because he has to be strong for him. It seems like the Younger Brother has lost his innocence along his journey to save his father.

Conflict in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

There are two different forms of conflict in any narrative. One form of conflict is external conflict, this is when the main character is facing things that might prevent them from getting or doing what they want. The other form of conflict is internal conflict, this is when the main character is dealing with emotions of something that is happening to them as a person.

One of my favorite games, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a good example of external and internal conflict that the main character Nathan (Nate) Drake faces. Nate is a treasure hunter who has retired and settled down with the woman he loves. Sometimes Nate has yearnings for the good old days when he was looking for treasure and getting into danger. One day, he runs into his long lost brother. His brother asks him for help finding treasure that some pirates had left in Libertalia, a long lost pirate city, so that he can pay some to the leader of a drug cartel that will kill him if he does not find it. So, being the good brother that Nate is, he agrees to help his brother.

The external conflict that Nate and his brother and allies face are that they are looking for the missing treasure in the missing city of Libertalia. In order to find the treasure, they will have to go through many puzzles and obstacles, which make finding the treasure a lot harder than originally thought. Not only are they looking for the treasure, but they are also trying to find it before the leader of the drug cartel finds his brother and kills him. They are also going against a guy they used to work with named Rafe Adler. Rafe wants to find the treasure also, and he’s willing to kill anyone who gets in his way of doing so. This also proves another external conflict, this conflict is that Nate, his brother, and their allies are getting in Rafe’s way of getting to the treasure, which upsets him greatly.

The internal conflict that Nate faces is much deeper than the external conflict. Nate’s internal conflict is that he feels guilty about lying to his wife about going on a treasure hunt. He lied to his wife about going on a treasure hunt because he knew that she would not have been happy with him if he went on a treasure hunt, so he told her that he was going on a business trip. This makes him feel guilty because he promised her that he would stop going on treasure hunts, and he broke his promise. Another internal conflict that Nate faces is when he finds out that his brother was lying to him about why he wanted to find the treasure. His brother lied to him about why he wanted to find the treasure because he wanted Nate to help him, and was being selfish and wanted the treasure for himself. He figured Nate would be more prone to help him if he made it seem like his life was in danger, especially since Nate was retired. This makes Nate feel betrayed, but at the same time he still wants to protect his brother from Rafe. This leaves Nate with the choice to keep helping his brother and protecting him or just leaving his brother to fend for himself. Nate decided to help his brother because no matter what, he’s still his brother.

In conclusion, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a good example of external and internal conflict that the character goes through. The external conflict is trying to find the treasure, while trying to fight off other people who also wants the treasure. The internal conflict that Nate faces is the fact that he lied to his wife and the fact that his brother lied to him. This hooks the player and anyone watching something to relate to because they might have been lied to or they might have lied to someone.

Review of Thief II: The Metal Age from Paratexts

The first impression that I got from watching the trailer for Thief II: The Metal Age is that there wasn’t much of a story line. The reason I got this impression is because all the trailer showed was the character going around and climbing up things, and shooting objects with a bow and arrow. After reading some reviews and watching some walk through s, I became more interested in the game.

I learned that the game is set up as a first person shooter game. This made me a bit uninterested because I am not a fan of first person shooters. From what I gathered, the story picks up just over a year after Thief. There are two groups, the Hammerites and the Mechanists, causing trouble in the city. The mechanists used to part of the Hammerites, but left to form their own group. There is also a new sheriff, who for some reason has his eye on the main character Garrett.

The setting of the game takes place on the streets and rooftops of a darkened city. In this city magic and technology mingle. The setting of the game made me feel like the game has a dark and creepy story line. The setting of game also reflects the overall mood of the gameplay as well as some of the characters you have to fight. These characters can include Aarachnids, big and small, you can even encounter ghosts and zombies. The setting can also give a premonition of the newly appointed crooked sheriff.

There are many different kinds of equipment that Garrett will come across in his journey during Thief II. One piece of equipment is Garrett’s blackjack. This is handy for knocking out a person from behind and striking it against a surface to attract an enemy. Another piece of equipment is a sword. Garrett carries the sword for his own protection. Since he is a thief, he doesn’t have any other use for the sword. Because of this Garrett rarely fights another person, the sword can be used for killing an enemy instantly or cutting through wall tapestries to find some secrets of the game.

The final piece of equipment is the bow. The bow seems to be the most useful tool to Garrett. The bow can be used with many different arrows. These arrows include: Broadhead arrows which are useful for dispatching enemies, triggering switches, and distracting guards from a distance. Water arrows which are useful for putting out torches and gas lamps, cleaning bloodstains, and disabling the furnaces of steam-powered beasts. Fire arrows which are useful for distractions, relighting torches, or doing immense damage to various targets, which can include indestructible security cameras and turrets. Moss arrows which are useful for allowing Garrett to move much faster or land on a loud surface without attracting any attention to himself, this is because the arrows spread a thick layer of moss over a surface. Gas arrows which carry a knockout gas on their tips, which allow Garrett to incapacitate a number of enemies with just one arrow. Rope arrows which are useful for firing into a wooden or earth surface to deploy a length or rope that allow Garrett to reach unreachable places. Vine arrows which are like rope arrows, but can be fired into metal-grate surfaces. The final type of arrow is Noisemaker arrows which emanate a humming noise as they fly by, they then continue to make random clicks and knocks once they have stopped, these arrows can be used to distract patrolling guards and other enemies.

After reviewing the game, I can say that I am more interested in the game. This is because when I first watched the trailer, it didn’t give me a lot about the story, but now that I have read about it, I am more interested. I think this game is an interesting game and might actually try to play it.

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