It didn't make me question my beliefs because at the time I didn't really have any. But the opening of Bioshock and Andrew Ryan's monologue got me thinking about that stuff for the 1st time.
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the Vatican, "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
It really got me thinking about who makes demands on whom about what in society.
It's been a while, but if I recall, wasn't Bioshock's plot a rather on the nose critique of these ideas? Particularly objectivism?
Since the city was eventually destroyed by research/monsters created by these scientists "not bound by petty morality" and their exploitation by the wealthy class?
I shored up a lot of my nonviolent leanings in the original Splinter Cell series, as well as Deus Ex and its sequels and others of the stealth action genre.
You can exploit a few glitches in the first Splinter Cell and play the entire game by killing exactly one person; Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a pacifist achievement, etc.
I recently tried a D&D campaign after a long time away from tabletop RPGs and found it fairly difficult to drop into the "kill orcs, get gold" mentality. Playing an elven ranger, and knowing full well that kobolds are lawful evil, ganking one on the road still felt ... weird.
It would be easier with an older edition of D&D, where you didn't gain XP but rather gold. Which changes the entire dynamic really, now stealth and nonviolence are viable options.
I prefer the milestone level system for the same reason, you're leveled up after important character moments or plot advancement so you're not incentived to kill everything
Undertale had an effect like this for me. [Warning: spoilers] Near the beginning of the game you are forced to fight a character who has been nothing but kind to you. The easiest thing to do was kill this character to progress, but immediately after I felt regret and a strong desire not to have done that. Fortunately I made the decision not to save and so was able to revert my decision by taking the more difficult – at the time, far less certain – path of refusing to fight the character. (Though I still felt bad; and the game doesn't let you forget entirely either.)
Another belief-altering moment from the same game came after reflecting on the gameplay as a whole – I had developed an affinity for the main characters in a way I hadn't in any other RPG. I realized that this was due to the characters initially not liking me, and me having chosen to do things which didn't benefit me at all in order to help the characters achieve their goals, which resulted in their friendship. The option was always there to simply kill them and move on. But the act of investing energy doing things solely for the benefit of these characters built a relationship – and I realized that this is ultimately the basis of all human relationships.
FTL: Faster than Light changed me. Its mantra of 'losing is part of the fun' really changed my approach to games, as well as towards picking up real-world skills.
Interesting. I never played more than a few minutes of this game, because the learning curve was more than I was willing to put in at the time, and I died on the first encounter.
Keep in mind that your success in FTL tends to be highly variable too, I still occasionally manage to die on the first encounter, even though I also often make it to the last sector.
Nier: Automata has made me think about the limits of games and how much untapped potential there still is when it comes to interplay of game mechanics and narrative.
The game also explores various philosophical topics without shoving (political) opinions down your throat better than any recently released (western) game I've come across.
What philosophical topics were explored? Honest question. I got all the endings but, like the other commenter in this chain, I don’t remember much of anything except some anime archetypes. I never understood what it was that made many people so emotional over the game. Perhaps I am stupid.
All true but it doesn't change the fact that it has fairly inconsistent characters who swap traits all the time.
It also doesn't help that they are fairly typical anime archetypes which sadly are often annoying.
Combine that with the occasional shock value quest that explains nothing and... I quite like the game in the philosophy department but it's not that great in several other aspects.
The Witness was one for me. The whole game made me look at the real world in a different light.
I played it with headphones on, and the volume loud enough to hear the crunching of gravel under my feet. The first time I found one of the "second kind" of puzzle, I nearly jumped out of my skin, and searching for them made me see things I hadn't seen before in ordinary places I visited.
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"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the Vatican, "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
It really got me thinking about who makes demands on whom about what in society.
Since the city was eventually destroyed by research/monsters created by these scientists "not bound by petty morality" and their exploitation by the wealthy class?
Deleted Comment
https://papersplea.se/
You can exploit a few glitches in the first Splinter Cell and play the entire game by killing exactly one person; Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a pacifist achievement, etc.
I recently tried a D&D campaign after a long time away from tabletop RPGs and found it fairly difficult to drop into the "kill orcs, get gold" mentality. Playing an elven ranger, and knowing full well that kobolds are lawful evil, ganking one on the road still felt ... weird.
Another belief-altering moment from the same game came after reflecting on the gameplay as a whole – I had developed an affinity for the main characters in a way I hadn't in any other RPG. I realized that this was due to the characters initially not liking me, and me having chosen to do things which didn't benefit me at all in order to help the characters achieve their goals, which resulted in their friendship. The option was always there to simply kill them and move on. But the act of investing energy doing things solely for the benefit of these characters built a relationship – and I realized that this is ultimately the basis of all human relationships.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CBF318nBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxWlJ_muK0I
I've always found it curious how anti-corporate sentiment disappeared from the Deus Ex sequels.
Hopefully, Cyberpunk 2077 will be in the same vein.
I might have to give it another go.
Watching a few better players helped me getting started.
The game also explores various philosophical topics without shoving (political) opinions down your throat better than any recently released (western) game I've come across.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJxNhJ8fjFk
It also doesn't help that they are fairly typical anime archetypes which sadly are often annoying.
Combine that with the occasional shock value quest that explains nothing and... I quite like the game in the philosophy department but it's not that great in several other aspects.
Mind elaborating on this? I haven't actually noticed any inconsistencies.
I played it with headphones on, and the volume loud enough to hear the crunching of gravel under my feet. The first time I found one of the "second kind" of puzzle, I nearly jumped out of my skin, and searching for them made me see things I hadn't seen before in ordinary places I visited.