[Discussion] Morality in games

[Astraea]

Okay yeah writing might not be the best idea in that case.

[MrLacksOriginality]

You could write some (short) fiction instead. It's not easy either, but you don't need the manpower you would for making a game. It might be a good start to get people interested in the idea, who knows what will come from that.
I don't think a game like that would necessarily "fail" in an art sense. Profit wise, I guess it would probably fail but so do 99% of the other games. But in the end the most important thing is that people know who you are or at least the works of art you made, as long as you don't starve ofcourse.

I wish I could make a good narrative. I am too numbers oriented. I can recognize good narratives when I read books etc but I can never make a compelling flowing narrative that is good. As i said, I am too numbers oriented.

[Astraea]

I think that they should definitely be rated R or MA. I have this idea for a game "Alone", where you are in a world where absolutely no one can get alone and everyone is out to kill each other. The main character is dying and has 30 days to acquire a new "elixer of immortality" which has unknown side effects, you will interrogate and torture your way to finding it or die. The next game is "Not alone" when you are slowly losing your mind because of the elixer but gained immortality. You find a child that you have to teach to survive in the world as you last act before going insane, you will be teaching the child many immoral things that would count as child abuse in our world but common sense in that world. If the child dies because you didnt teach him/her properly, you lose. The third is "Alone Two" where you control the child as he/she searches for a cure for the first guy and have to constantly deal with being attacked by the fist guy but avoid killing him.

But there is no way such games would get the go ahead in today's society and I have no skills to make the game myself so it is just a dream at this point.

You could write some (short) fiction instead. It's not easy either, but you don't need the manpower you would for making a game. It might be a good start to get people interested in the idea, who knows what will come from that.
I don't think a game like that would necessarily "fail" in an art sense. Profit wise, I guess it would probably fail but so do 99% of the other games. But in the end the most important thing is that people know who you are or at least the works of art you made, as long as you don't starve ofcourse.

[MrLacksOriginality]

I think that they should definitely be rated R or MA. I have this idea for a game "Alone", where you are in a world where absolutely no one can get alone and everyone is out to kill each other. The main character is dying and has 30 days to acquire a new "elixer of immortality" which has unknown side effects, you will interrogate and torture your way to finding it or die. The next game is "Not alone" when you are slowly losing your mind because of the elixer but gained immortality. You find a child that you have to teach to survive in the world as you last act before going insane, you will be teaching the child many immoral things that would count as child abuse in our world but common sense in that world. If the child dies because you didnt teach him/her properly, you lose. The third is "Alone Two" where you control the child as he/she searches for a cure for the first guy and have to constantly deal with being attacked by the fist guy but avoid killing him.

But there is no way such games would get the go ahead in today's society and I have no skills to make the game myself so it is just a dream at this point.

[Astraea]

I'm of the opinion that nothing is too crazy to be featured in any work of art. And we did a pretty good job over the centuries to seperate fiction and the real world. For example we've had Poe with works of horror, which have been pretty well received over time, a book like Lolita which was very controversial but society managed to handle and even works of fiction where the lines between reality and fiction blurred like pieces about Jack The Ripper who went on a horrible crime spree in reality.
Even in modern day we had very controversial works of art like early Marilyn Manson who made the news year after year at the peak of his career. I don't have a sense that any of these examples made society any worse, if anything I had a good outlet during my teens by listening to Marilyn Manson which allowed me to channel any grievances with society and personal life into the music and lifestyle.

I argue that unlimited freedom in art and entertainment is most important.