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Ideology versus Motivation

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3 comments, last by sunandshadow 17 years, 3 months ago
Now most storylines in games are ideology centric when it comes to choices actions are either good or evil. But what if those choice where based on Motivation instead? Each choice would affect what motivates the character and their overall goal in life based on the character’s play style and thus affects future choices. So rather then a good or evil path you would have the paths of honor, greed, power, altruism, love, hate. For example: You come across a group of injured travellers. A rich business man, a beautiful woman, a mother, a badly injured friend you haven’t seen in many years. Do you: 1) Provide basic first aid to everyone and then carry on your way. 2) Carry the business back to town. 3) Carry the woman back to town. 4) Carry the mother back to town. 5) Save your friend. You can only choose one option. None are good or evil but each choice will affect your characters motivations in different ways.
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Its a good idea (I think I've seen it somewhere but maybe not to the same extent). But what is your actual question?
____________________________________________________________________Through Chaos sprouts order...through order emerges chaos - If you destroy either then neither exists.-Xtlk
Your post (referring to TechnoGoth) lacked any sort of direction. It was an interesting thought, but your intentions are unclear. Are you looking for feedback in regard to that sort of writing/gameplay? Or are you looking for specific ideas?

Regardless, motivation (while important in a story) should theoretically never counteract ideology. One's idealogy can be considered motivation. And in many cases it should (ideally) never be superceded by one's personal gain. Honor, love, and the like can be considered as much ideology as motivation.
Your scenario reminds me of a Batman story with Two-Face. In case you don't know, Two-Face is a villain who makes key decisions by flipping a coin, one side comes up he does the "good" thing, the other side comes up he does the "bad" thing. In this story, psychologists have taught Two-Face to use a deck of cards to make decisions, in order to get him closer to being able to process the nearly infinite number of choices people have every day.

In your scenario, of course we all imagine the day when it will be possible for us to carry the businessman around the bend, rob him blind, bring the money back to the others, and rescue everyone else?

What's the purpose of setting some other arbitrary choices?
I've probably said this before somewhere, but I'm fond of the idea of giving the player choices and using the choices they make to analyze their personality and respond to it. The Game Tender Loving Care did something like this.

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

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