Morality of Skyrim (and roleplaying in general)

I was thinking about how my actions in Skyrim compare to my actions in real life and how I kind of wish I could learn stuff from that game.

There's a lot of negative things I do that I would never do in real life, like burglary, theft, and murder, but there's even more positive things too. I go out of my way to help people in this game, I give to beggars and I'm careful to be polite. I mean the game rewards you for doing the right things but I think I would do them anyway, and it feels satisfying when I do. I love exploring and meeting new people and winning people's trust. Comparing this to my real life actions makes the real me look like a total douchenozzle in comparison. Even when I'm stealing people's shit I prefer to steal from people I don't like or am neutral towards and leave people that I like alone. (unless they have some really awesome stuff) And I try to avoid killing innocent people. I've never acted like this in a game before, it's really weird. It's kind of the opposite of what you'd expect with this kind of freedom. Maybe all the MLP I'm watching is making me soft, I don't know. Maybe I'm just yearning to feel useful because I feel like I can't in real life.

I'm probably taking this way too seriously

Actually, I found myself being way more cautious in this game than I usually am in Fallout. I don't know if it's supposed to work this way, but for example, if I steal something, even if I'm hidden, I get goons sent after me. It's like the game's designed so that if this were IRL and you could reasonably be suspected, you almost always will be.

When it comes to wishing games were like real life, I often find myself wishing I could just fuck off from mainstream society, built a little tin shack somewhere, grow some plants and set some traps for sustenance - or if I so well please, take my remaining money, spend it on drugs and/or booze and get fucked off my face 'til I OD like in half the unmarked locations you find in Fallout. Or, on the more positive side, I wish you could increase real life skills as quickly and directly as you do in Skyrim. Except in Skyrim, you don't learn anything extra by reading a book more than once, but IRL it's pretty much the only way you learn anything except the basics.

But when all the bs is stripped away, if law enforcement, economies and the social fabric as a whole were nearly as stable, consistent and effective IRL as they were in games, I might not find myself even wishing for the other shit.

I know how you feel. The only people I steal from in skyrim besides for thevies guild quests, are assholes. I only kill, save for quests, people who first attack me. Even my vampire character, I just don't go biting random necks. I find someone who is either an asshole, or someone who is out of the towns and even then I feel the need to reverse pick pocket a gem onto them. Its weird. They need to do a social experiment where you drop a few hundred people into something of a skyrim style enviroment.

I haven't stolen anything. There are more than enough bandits to kill the shit out of, and they have plenty of stuff. Bandits aren't people and they don't have property rights, btw. I'm honestly fascinated by all the racism in Skyrim. It makes it very interesting to play through as Khajiit.

My morality in gaming tends to be based on how much the game convinces me that my virtual peers in real people. In a game such as Skyrim, this effect is lost, so I feel like the only person in the world and don't have any qualms killing and robbing everything.

Animal Crossing, though.... D: Ohgoddon'tmoveawayyou'remyfavoriteneighborrrr

Wolf-Bone wrote:

Actually, I found myself being way more cautious in this game than I usually am in Fallout. I don't know if it's supposed to work this way, but for example, if I steal something, even if I'm hidden, I get goons sent after me. It's like the game's designed so that if this were IRL and you could reasonably be suspected, you almost always will be.

Yeah one of the first things I did in the game was steal ALL of Alvor's Iron and Steel ingots in Riverwood. And then he sent a group of three assassins/thugs after me Three! Later I went over to use his forge and he was acting like nothing happened, he must be terrified of me now

Brace wrote:

I haven't stolen anything. There are more than enough bandits to kill the shit out of, and they have plenty of stuff. Bandits aren't people and they don't have property rights, btw. I'm honestly fascinated by all the racism in Skyrim. It makes it very interesting to play through as Khajiit.

I too treat bandits like they aren't people. My sadistic tendencies come out fighting them, it disturbs me a bit how much I enjoy impaling them on my sword...

Speaking of bandits and racism:

First, I actually do see bandits as people, albeit incredibly cowardly people who run away and beg for mercy once they realize you're not a pushover. That said, I try not to rush every bandit camp I know of, because I figure there's a chance I'll have to as part of a quest anyway. But more importantly, I've failed quests before they even start because I attacked what appeared to be a bandit encampment that was actually another faction's.

As for racism, I think the game is both a pretty decent demonstration of what it really is, but also how fundamentally absurd the concept of race is. Can you seriously tell the difference between Nords, Bretons and Imperials just by looking at them? I sure as hell can't. Of course we have the stalwart amalgam of Africans and Arabs in the Redguards, but even they aren't nearly so different from their lighter skinned counterparts as Argonians and Khajit to each other, let alone the other humanoids. But the thing is, no one in this game seems to see each other as anything resembling human. When taken to its logical end, that's what race is, a negation of humanity.

As a black separatist once put it on another forum I used to lurk, "no one has ever tried to argue whites aren't equal to the rest of humanity except whites themselves".

I think the racism in the game is actually a quality touch. Especially in places like Windhelm. The population of of dark elves that are forced to live in what is essentially a ghetto and are prejudiced against at every turn there is very nice. Adds quite a bit of realism and even more so, a place I prefer to go instead of Windhelm proper. Then you have places like Riften which is actually my favorite town personally. Its more varied there with race and is pretty nice.

blackfuredfox wrote:

I think the racism in the game is actually a quality touch. Especially in places like Windhelm. The population of of dark elves that are forced to live in what is essentially a ghetto and are prejudiced against at every turn there is very nice. Adds quite a bit of realism and even more so, a place I prefer to go instead of Windhelm proper. Then you have places like Riften which is actually my favorite town personally. Its more varied there with race and is pretty nice.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about the Dark Quarter... Where is that, anyway? I looked all around Windhelm and couldn't seem to find it. That whole place disorients me. It's like if X-Zibit had a show called "Pimp My Castles" where the place is one big castle, with loads of smaller castles "outdoors" so you can have a little castle inside your castle inside the big castle.

I hate Windhelm
It's a fucking maze where it's always snowing, and everyone is racist
Who cares if it has the biggest house in the game, I'd never want to live there

On the other hand the dark elves like me, and there are a decent amount of argonians

Wolf-Bone wrote:

blackfuredfox wrote:

I think the racism in the game is actually a quality touch. Especially in places like Windhelm. The population of of dark elves that are forced to live in what is essentially a ghetto and are prejudiced against at every turn there is very nice. Adds quite a bit of realism and even more so, a place I prefer to go instead of Windhelm proper. Then you have places like Riften which is actually my favorite town personally. Its more varied there with race and is pretty nice.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about the Dark Quarter... Where is that, anyway? I looked all around Windhelm and couldn't seem to find it. That whole place disorients me. It's like if X-Zibit had a show called "Pimp My Castles" where the place is one big castle, with loads of smaller castles "outdoors" so you can have a little castle inside your castle inside the big castle.

Okay, when you first enter Windhelm and go to your right. Then just kinda poke around there but you'll keep going down as you move through there. Eventually you'll find it. I do like it more there though because for one, the Nords piss me right the hell off in that city andd so I kinda wanna fuck them over whenever. And two, its more Legion friendly.