Don’t forget poison, Mara.
Poison is just the ice of the cake, and another persuasive sneaky method to win.
I’d say it’s not about being a jerk, it’s about not liking a character (or yeah, being a jerk).
In Breaking Bad (no spoiler, no worries) people loved Hank, while others hated him (which I find strange). Regardless, even if the character you write feels good to you, maybe the player will hate him.
Why not let him express his feelings?
If it’s a proud character, the player might just find it inspirational “He’s great? Awesome, him and I = two great people now!” or get pissed off “When are you gonna shut up? We know you’re good, stop shoving it in our face”
Or you could give the character a good reason to hate one of them
*fake_choice
How do you feel about him?
#He stepped on my sandcastle when I was a kid. He still didn't excuse himself
#We may think differently on certain things, but I don't mind him
#I like him
#I he's marrying my sister; I'd kill him if they weren't together.
It’s not a great example, it’s just to point out you could make real elements from the past, or the present, that gives the player a reason to be a jerk towards him/her.
I think a lot of people play “themselves” (I do) but with opportunities like this, it can allow the player to play someone else.
*choice
What do you think?
#I don’t believe in tips. The waitress is doing her job, like she’s supposed to. She did a good job yes, but not an Extroardinary job, so no, no tip. I don’t believe in tips.
#She’s working working hard, she did a decent job. Of course, I’ll leave a tip.
This example is based on this movie scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4sbYy0WdGQ
(if it makes you watch the full movie, kniw that there’s a lot of blood - this scene is just talk however)
In this case the guy who won’t tip isn’t a jerk, he just thinks differently. Could be the player’s case about some of your characters.
Or you can make a character a jerk, and give the player the option to be disrespectful as a reaction.
For immersion, the player doesn’t need to have the option to kill someone, but having the option between nice, polite, rude and mean are enough choices that EVEN if he never picks the other option, it feels as if the choice he makes mattered, and was actually a choice.
In real life, assuming I’m not a decent person, I don’t beat people not because I don’t want to but because:
*if (attackedHim)
*goto jail
*else
*goto hospital
So it gives a similar feeling, which makes it more immersive.
2 Likes
I thought more about it;
Let’s say the player asked a character to do something, or that characther is expected to do something.
Or maybe he just shares a chunk of his life. If the player is very empathic, he could say
“No worries, I know it’s hard. You did your best”
If he’s a jerk, he could say
“Bullshit excuses. Start taking responsability”
Now that’d fit in most people’s definition of “nice/understanding” and “jerk”. While in reality, the differences between the two is in the first response, the belief is: “Things happen. We can’t always help it” or maybe “People sometime have difficulties, doesn’t mean we should be mean about it”
While in the other case, the belief is “Everyone should take responsibility for what happens. Be the cause of things, not the effect of everything. Things don’t happen “to” you, either they happen because of you, or it’s not initially your fault but if the problem stays, it becomes your fault”
So, a difference in beliefs. Other example:
“Family is family, no matter what - nothing can ever break that”
“Family means nothing; what matters is the individual. If the individual is great, he’s family. If family member sucks, to Hell with with him - you don’t get charity from me because we share some DNA”
For the player, you’ll never actually write it and it isn’t mentioned. You have to be able to borrow different beliefs and see what someone else might want to say.
A last one:
“He cheated on her? He’s [inster bad attribute] and she should leave him, he’s a [insert bad comment]”
“He cheated on her? Of course he did. We’re all human. Now they should move on, not destroy a relationship for a little mistake - could happen to anyone”
“He cheated on her? See, another proof people should either be in open relationship or polyamorous relationship. How many couples would it save if they stopped putting useless rules? People need to stop being [insert bad comment] and grow up.”
What usually happens is instead of giving the opportunity to be “a jerk” (someone with different beliefs) games only allow to be an actual jerk, meaning rude. Unrelated to the beliefs of the character or the player, you get to say the same thing either politely or rudely. If it’s regarding a situation or towards a character, it’s actually in relation to what happens rather than the character’s belief. (I’m not interested in a friendship vs. No thank vs. Go away you disgust me, are simply a level of politeness/rudeness rather than having anything to do with the character’s beliefs or the player’s beliefs)
1 Like
I believe that games like this have a good response from the public precisely because few games really offer this type of choices, so this darker audience is more abandoned and goes to the few remaining works, there is no need to focus only on dark gameplay, but it would certainly be profitable to implement it.
I completely disapprove of the use of morals and ethics in creating the most evil choices. I am particularly fascinated by cruel choices in games. I really love them and usually always take as much of this path as possible. My defense for authors to focus more on creations like this is that it is important in terms of quality to really have the maximum number of choices at your disposal, including being really cruel and greedy. Tin Stars, for example, is a wonderful example of a work full of this type of choices that I love, but also full of the opposite for other tastes. I consider it my favorite book of choices so far, full of murderous possibilities and robberies. Although I only took crooked paths both times I played, I know that the opposite was not far behind. It is important to bring all gameplay tastes,