FFVIII: A Leader's Dilemma (Thinking While Gaming)
Some choices don't affect the story of the game, but still leave impressions on you. #ThinkingWhileGaming when I was role playing Final Fantasy VIII.
Lately I watched a video about Morality systems in games, the YouTuber wonders if these systems make players less moral. Citing the rewards these games give players for acting certain ways, turning a moral choice into a strategic one.
I kind of agree, because when the answers aren't tied to rewards, we can explore our decisions more... The older games are amazing in doing it right!
As with many games that play the illusion of choice well. Final Fantasy VIII choices don't really impact the story much (or at all.) But they give more insights into the character, especially Squall. He ALWAYS has an obvious reason for every listed choice no matter how inconsistent they seem.
for exactly one scene around the 1/4th of the game.
One of the strongest moral choices in the game is in Disk 2. Where Balamb Garden (the home of the most party members) was about to get attacked by missles.
The group is supposed to split into two teams, one led by Squall to warn the Garden. The other led by Selphie to destroy the missiles base. If one of the teams failed, the other will die. As the leader, Squall had to choose which of his friends to put on each team. He didn't want to, but he have to make a decision.
I stared at the menu for minutes!
"I've had it up to here with this leader thing... Alright, alright... I'll choose."
Who to send, and why? Who would Squall take? Will my chooses differ if I was focusing on gameplay rather than being in-character all the time? (<-- yeah, I do that.)
Character Motives?
Selphie choose to destroy the missile launcher. Few scenes ago, the same missile base attacked her previous home Trabia. So she had the revenge as motive, (actually Selphie is interesting because she always says deadly things with innocent smile on her face.) But who else has that motive?
"If there's anything we can break, we break! We'll blow this place to smithereens!!"
Quists & Zell are part of Balamb Garden, should they return with Squall as warning people there would be easier for them than Riona & Irvine? Should they go to stop the missiles to save their home?
Irvine likes Selphie, it's a good reason to put him on her team. But while he acts cool all the time, he's bad under pressure. Is it even a good idea to send him to such a dangerous mission in the first place?
Riona is unrelated to the case, she's not even a SeeD member. But she choose to be with them, I bet Squall wanted her to be the safest, but which was safer? Garden team could die if Missile team failed. But Missile team is in a more dangerous mission. What will be the most safe choice for her?
Conclusion
One thing I noticed while writing this, is that all player characters have intertwined motives to be there and help each other. Even before the revelation mid Disk 2 which cemented the relationship between them. That's something Final Fantasy series is great at. It shows even in the
Of course, this is just a game and probably people won't overthink on this scene that much. But games are great in putting us in these situation and make us think what is the better choice to make, in a safe environment where we can change things if we fail.
"This mission is unlike any other."
Final Fantasy series isn't the best at this, I think Telltale games are magnitudes better at this being actual interactive movies. But maybe because of the series it is in, this one scene of FFVIII made a big impression for me.
But as of Disk 3, this is the longest time where I stopped playing: To Think!
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Yep. Just because the given choices will eventually lead to the same ending in the storyline doesn't (always) make a game crap, which is something I heard about so many times. I think the game wants you to question yourself without being distracted by rewards, only consequences that won't change the story much but will affect you for your decision. But that's just my thought... .
I recently played a game that made you question your moral choices a few days ago. And the only 'reward' I get is the brilliant storyline itself. It's Spec Ops: The Line, to be exact.
There's a moment where I need to decide whether I want to save a couple of civilians or a soldier from getting murdered. The pressure is increased by your squad's different thinking. One guy insisted that I save the soldier because he got some critical information that could help my mission, the other insisted that I save the civilians. I chose to save the civilians, and my reasoning is because the soldier knows what he got himself into, dying is only part of his line of work.
The way I see it, the 'reward' here is how impactful the given moral choices to the players.
Great post! Always like this thoughtful series of yours.
I totally agree and I love the example you used. The best thing in these types of games is that, as long as there isn't any type of gameplay reward, your choice will be so genuine and make you think more of it.
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I am a firm believer that because one simply will always manage to get the "same" ending, it doesn't imply the crass of the game. One has to only look at MGS3 exampli gratia to see all thing wild and extravagant things you can do: from speed-running it to going to exploring every corner of the map to even committing to Euro-extreme difficulty. All these still lead to the end where we see Snake succeed in his mission, yet the gratification is there no matter the path and choices taken. To be a pacifist or to be the best stealth-master there ever was, the player is rewarded.
But of course this is more on the morality of choices, which I wouldn't exclude MGS3 from the seriousness of discussion despite being a campy and tragic piece. Yet let us move on unto the morality of gaming when brought directly at the consciousness and not indirectly to it. And I would say this, however hypocritical it may seem, that the possessions of different endings doesn't imply variety nor actual choice. Peck, every choice that can be fathomed was QA'd to all Heck and thought of very carefully where it makes D&D a still clear liberating game. What should matter is what I bring to the table when the game is about to close as to further increase my chances of grasping the Final Scene.
Really, this cry for choices stems very clearly from the reaction of the power-fantasy that Doom, Quake and Unreal Tournament brought to gameplay. They want to have their choices not only overpower the enemies but force different outcomes that wouldn't obey the dictum of the universe's canon laws and ultimately would have to settle with the "finger in the page" principle (which I think Life Is Strange with all its flaws pulls off very well). The reason we can tolerate the creators of Life Is Strange or the FF guys or even Telltale's Sam&Max (love that series) at all is because of the very story prohibitions that they place on it. Those prohibitions allow us to have our desire, which ultimately allows us to come back and attempt to fulfill it, but never able to do so - yet the fantasy that surrounds the desire makes us feel positive and content of our steps towards fulfillment. Really, the power-fantasy coupled with choices ultimately must reflect established series like D&D, the Metal Gear Solid series or even Minecraft. But in their reflection, betray them and tread their own path to explore the known unknowns or display another version of a known known.
Because in the end of the day, it's not what we want to do that makes the thing but how we are psychological and how we reflect ourselves towards the video-game that makes it. We know what can happen, but we are willing to do the heavy lifting to make the once thought possible be actual. We can be forced down two paths (different from non-choices or actual choices), yet the efforts we done to that point, which reflects someways of our psychological structure (which we can then state that our psychology is manifest from our socio-economic backgrounds and how we choose to go from there), will ultimately inform us of what we shall do. Yet three choices stems in any and all scenario regardless of the present amount of choices to input: enact what we shall do to reproduce our current self, forestall 'til we are forced or disobey and make new departures. These three choices we are always granted regardless of how they really turn out and we're compelled to choose one of them, which is the bare minimum that all other choices need and what allows us to change even when the thoughts of change were thought impossible because of material conditions. For even the educators where once educated, the governor once governed and the mother once a fetus.
I agree that our psychological in making the choice and reflect on it afterwards, is more important than the choice itself (more so in games.)
I think that's why we all play games, we want to have something that we know is achievable (in real life, that's not always obvious.) The desire to reach that goal is what makes us go back to play every time, we have an end goal and we imagine how would we feel when we reach it.
Maybe that's why I don't like to play card games, where we have all the cards from the start... The goal is already achieved, why would I go back to play?
:^D