Richard Rouse Design Seven Ways a Video Game Can Be Moral

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Seven Ways aVideo GameCan Be Moral

Slides available at:

http://www.paranoidproductions.com

Richard Rouse III

Narrative Director - Ubisoft Montreal

[email protected]

Game Developer¶s Conference 2011















































"What makes Spiderman an icon is that sense of responsibility ± so that would pretty much

have to be in the game, right? Well it¶s not. I

want to have a Spiderman game that allows me

to explore my relationship with responsibility."

- Clint Hocking Far Cry 2 Creative Director







1985 2011

?



CLARITYof

INTENTION

1:



CHORUS

Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventu'd piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

from Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare









³[The Twilig ht Z one] doesn't use scripts as

vehicles of social

criticism. These arestrictly for

entertainment.´

- Rod Serling

The Twilig ht Z one Creator/Writer













- Louis Castle Blad e Runner Executive Producer

³The choices in Blad e Runner were intended to drive the

narrative to adapt to what the player did naturally. To have a

meter would invariably guide players to push to one extreme

or the other when the very point of the story was to leteveryone... feel they were doing the ³correct´ thing.´



MULTIPLE

POINTSof

VIEW

2:























-Brian Reynolds

Alpha C ent auri Lead Designer

³We designed our game/characters/government around the

following three ideological clashes:� Environment vs. Business

� Faith vs. Science

� Security vs. Freedom

We wanted to emphasize moral choices and ³the clash of ideologies,´ make the characters seem more interesting and

unique, and have the player's actual gameplay actions affect

their relationships with the factions.´



REDEMPTION

3:



³[The Twilig ht Z one] doesn't use scripts as

vehicles of social

criticism. These arestrictly for

entertainment.´

- Rod Serling

The Twilig ht Z one Creator/Writer











Mass Effect 2 Morality

Maximum Paragon & Renegade Points: ~1900

Typical Conversation Choice: 2

Typical ³Interrupt´ Choice: 5

Major Story Choice: ~15 ± 20

Heretics¶ Fate/KillMorinth/Tali Treason: 30Killing Samara: 45





Fallout 3 Morality

Karma: capped at -1000 to 1000

G

enericG

ood Actions:+10 to +50

Killing an ³Evil´ Character: +100

³Noble´ Game ending: +1000

Generic Evil Actions: -10 to -50

Killing a ³Good´ Character:-100

Blowing upMegaton: -1000

³Evil´ Game Ending: -1000



"Very early into the game you have the opportunity to nuke

[Megaton]. And it's so fun to do it, it's kind of hard to resist. So,if you're at the beginning of the game, and your Karma is in the

toilet, how do you come back? Well, we realized how many hours

Fall out 3 was going to offer players, and knew we had to give

them opportunities to change their Karma radically to make upfor some earlier decisions. The idea of redemption, especially in

the very late game, was very important for us. We wanted players

to change their mind, to come around."

-Emil Pagliarulo

Fall out 3 Lead Designer



COMPLEXITY

4:



























³[The ³Savior´ Achievement] rewarded the player for sparing the

lives of three adult story characters who were deliberately writtenas ethically ambiguous, where one could meaningfully argue that

ending their lives would be the just action... or even the merciful

one. By awarding the player an abstract badge for ³good behavior,´

we accidentally undermined one of the game's central themes... The

Savior achievement slipped past me, and candidly, I wish I'd caught

it in time to remove it.´

- Jordan Thomas BioS hock 2 Creative Director





THEQUANDARY

5:









³I would legalize drugs in a heartbeat.... You know

what, you talk honestly with some of the veteran andsmarter detectives in Baltimore, the guys who have

given their career to the drug war... and they'll tell you

this war's lost, it's all over but the shouting and the

tragedy and the waste. And yet there isn't a political

leader with the stomach to really assess it for what it is.´

- David SimonThe Wir e Creator/Writer

















THOUGHTFULNESS

andRESPECT

6:











³I think any comment [ N ever Let M e Go] makes about society is

secondary, almost incidental. I was trying to write this very humanstory, almost like an allegory about the human condition, about

having a limited lifespan, how do we face it, how do we go from

childhood to adulthood to old age and facing death. But when you

build a story and you put it in a setting, ...you find yourself having

to treat with respect some of the issues that arise out of that world

that you¶ve created. But for me those are secondary themes.´

- Kazuo Ishiguroauthor of N ever Let M e Go





³... when people play it for a while they think it¶s very

materialistic. It¶s only the people that play it a long time that startrealizing the downside. Just about every object has some built-in

failure state or maintenance requirement. If you keep buying

stuff, it will eventually go bad or die or need to be cleaned or

whatever. So in some sense it¶s like you¶re filling up your housewith all these potential timebombs... it¶s the hard-core players that

say, ³God, I¶m not going to buy that much crap next time I play.´

-Will Wright

The S ims Lead Designer





MEDIUM

GENREandMESSAGE

7:



³Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be

ever'-where - wherever you look.Wherever they's a fight so hungry people

can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a

cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in

the way guys yell when they're mad an' -I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're

hungry an' they know supper's ready. An'

when our folks eat the stuff they raise an'

live in the houses they build - I'll be

there, too.´

- Tom Joad, from The Grapes of Wrat h by John Steinbeck



























AFINAL

THOUGHT



























Seven Ways aVideo Game

Can Be Moral

Slides available at:

http://www.paranoidproductions.com

Richard Rouse III

Narrative Director - Ubisoft Montreal

[email protected] to Emil Pagliarulo, Jordan Thomas, Brian Reynolds, Harvey Smith, Louis Castle,

Noah Falstein, Will Wright, Clint Hocking, Lee Sheldon, Damian Ebanks, RussellLees, Simon Aresenault, Jonathan Gingras, The Game Designer¶s Workshop

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Richard Rouse Design Seven Ways a Video Game Can Be Moral