Fun fact: 96% of the population have at least normal levels of empathy
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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The other 4% are playing EvE Online.
Conclusion: spreadsheets corrupt human empathy.
*Looks at capitalism*
...Checks out.
When asked when the downfall of humanity began, alien anthropologists all come to the release of a single piece of media:
Lotus 123
* Angry Guilliman noises incoming
You better watch your tone heretic!
Idk, I've played a lot of Eve Online, and I usually try to be kind to players that are new or friendly. Sims on the other hand...
Idk, I’ve played a lot of Eve Online, and I usually try to be kind to players that are new or friendly.
Sure, if they are in your "tribe", you need to train new talent .... everyone else is fair game, though.
I used to gate camp a lot. If anyone was new and wanted to join, I'd let them. If they were new and does in the gate camp I'd usually send them enough isk to replace what they lost and then some.
When I would scam/lofty people, we never killed the noobs. Do that and you won't have anyone to scam when they are rich enough for it to be worth it. And by then they have enough it's not as big of a blow to them.
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Doesn't really mean a whole bunch if the "normal levels" of empathy are inadequate to create a humane society.
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It's not like the ancient Greeks didn't have that figured out already.
Have you seen their thoughts on chickens?
Dev's usually can't help but incentivise good behaviour. Unless it's Fable, Overlord, KOTOR, Torment? Any others that actually let you play the bad guy?
Most western rpgs let you be the bad guy (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Baldur's Gate, etc.). But then most npcs will try to kill you on sight.
Also Undertale.
Games often present moral choices that are too binary. e.g. kill everyone or save everyone. In that case being evil would naturally be a lot harder because most characters would try to stop you.
Would be more interesting if the moral question is more ambiguous, or maybe have some moral dilemmas. Like you thought you made a difficult decision but the right one, (perhaps even with many in game characters telling you that you are right), only to find out ultimately you were the bad guy after all.
I've been playing through Cyberpunk 2077 again and they're all bad choices.
The final level of Last of Us had me hesitating, too, because the "right" choice felt wrong. Not that you really get to decide, but it was a cool gameplay moment for me.
For cyberpunk 2077 I figured out the good ending. Just never take that job. You can't leave that one part of the city or see credits roll, but hey.
In most of them there are many decisions that are not black and white. There are many factions you can join or antagonize, and usually you have to decide to help one or another as they are confronted.
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I'm still bitter Morrowind vanilla didn't let you side with Dagoth Ur if you decided to also play an evil xenophobic maniac who wants to spread a flesh-eating disease on the continent.
I'd say very few games have a lot of effort put into the evil arc.
Baldur's Gate 3 also let's you take the bad side really well
to me, all you need as a counterpoint to the whole post is GTA-- it does disallow the player doing some terrible things, but not many. and it's enjoyed by millions.
that said, i've played every GTA since OG part 1 and have yet to turn into a murderous car jacking bank robbing mean person
Funny enough, GTA4 was the one I played the most, in part because Niko felt less like a legitimately bad person and more like just a very damaged man. I went out of my way to avoid headshots because I knew I could shoot limbs and the enemies would go down, while Niko would acknowledge it, saying things like "I don't want to shoot you again, stay down!"
Black and white [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_%26_White_(video_game) ].
Though being very evil was much harder than being good, if I remember correctly.
Evil god, good monster. Convert villages with displays of power while your loveable idiot puts out fires and gathers food. Slam dozens of worshippers into the pit to fuel your miracles. Having an evil beast is way more chaotic and you spend a lot of time cleaning up.
It's one of the reasons Tyranny is such a good game. You start out as a bad guy in an evil system. You can try to do good, but you never really succeed because you're trapped in an evil system.
You hace to really look for the non-evil options (yes plural), the game doesnt tell you explicitly they're there, and it still gets messy.
This is not the case for RimWorld, where running a slave labor powered human organ farm sounds like the "easy" way.
Yet here I am only imprisoning raiders who wronged me and even then trying to reform them so they can be part of the gang.
Least in games the good you do is rewarded. In real life the phrases " no good dead goes unpunished" applies more often then it should.
Fable. The only way to get the best bow in the game is to sacrifice a lot of innocent people.
Nah you just gotta do it right. Offer free drugs to the unhoused, watch how they love you
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Because it's my first run. First run is always the PARAGON OF MORALITY™ run.
I'm only an evil dick who doesn't care about the consequences when I am fully prepared to handle the consequences. And also know where the biggest weapons are.
Undertale leans super hard into this
Yea that is it and I fucking don't really know why it is so, starting to get boring. Just played BG I again as a priest of helm running to everyone's rescue and strongly rejecting very cool evil companions. I think I will do an asshole rerun who hires every drow available. Gorion will not be proud but such is life.
Every time I mention I like Undertale and get "Did YoU bEat Sans?"
No, because I'm not a genocidal monster and I never will be. I did the pacifist route. Game over, nothing else to see here.
To be fair, if he would just spar with people, genocide runs would be cut down by 40%
I tried the genocidal run and can't even pass the fish lady lmao.
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"Morality only derives from God" vs "Morals can be derived from thoughts" type of beat
I think it’s funny when you do something bad to video game characters.
I think it's good to be able to empathize with fiction, to naturally resist the choice that hurts people or things, even if it's fake.
But yes yeeting a fictional child over a building can still be hilarious to watch.
One of the Bioware devs posted that something like 92% of players were heavily to entirely Paragon despite them putting a lot of effort into Renegade content. People want to care about others, even virtual folks. You get invested.
That's it, philosophy over; turn out the lights and let's go home, everyone
Which way out of this cave, Plato?
points in a direction your mind can't understand, with the finger seeming to disappear as it bisects into a higher plane
"over there to the left after the bathrooms"
Me playing Rogue Trader trying to be all holy and emperor loving but holy fuck a lot of those dialogue choices are mean
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What if feeling bad is one of the consequences that no longer exists?
Then that person lacks empathy
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