Choices, Part 1. Good and Bad choices.

A common complaint about choices in games is the moral choices that can be distilled down to "Kick the puppy" or "save the puppy". Critics rightfully mock these choices as not choices at all. I want to break this down a little more, to explore why these scenarios are not choices.

Let's first define what a good and a bad choice is. For this discussion, a good choice is any choice that the character desires, and a bad choice is one that the character wants to avoid. Note that there is no moral aspect to this definition. An evil character will consider bad things to be good, if they benefit him. And a good character will consider beneficial things to be bad if they hurt others.

On a meta level, consider the game Mass Effect. If a player desires to play a Renegade character, then any decisions that increase their Renegade score are "good" for the character, and thus desirable for the player. There is no choice, because there is nothing to choose. Red = good. Now, for players who are playing a Paragon, the situation is reversed. Blue  = good. And for players who choose the middle path, being a Renegade when they feel it's appropriate, and being a Paragon when they feel it's appropriate, is a little better, but the important point is, What criteria are they using to make their choices? This often comes from the personality of the player themselves, or the image of their character that they have in their imagination. Unfortunatley, the Mass Effect game rewards extreme Renegade or Paragon paths, with reskins of the character and opening up dialogue choices, but those who choose this middle ground wind up losing out on the extreme rewards of playing an extreme character.

Consider the character of Quark from Deep Space 9. Quark likes wealth, often latinum (space money) but any valuable object as well. Any choice that Quark makes that gets him more wealth will be a good choice for Quark. Any choice that reduces his wealth is a bad choice for Quark, even if it might be a good choice for another character. Like giving money to Bajoran War Orphans. "But wait!" You might say, if you're a fan of DS9. "Quark often offered to give latinum to those poor orphans." And you're right. He did. Which will segue nicely into Part 2, Dungeons and Dragons and Alignment.