Are you Good or Evil?

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 23 October 2008 07:59

Opinion and Analysis

When there are no consequences, would you be more inclined to evil rather than good deeds?  In the warm glow of a dynamic story line based around good/evil choice that is the Xbox 360 game Fable 2, Microsoft have unveiled the results of a study into the evils that lurk at the heart of man.

I have tried to be bad, one of Peter Molyneux’s previous masterpieces Dungeon Keeper had the by-line “it is good to be bad”.  It was truly fun to beat the living goodness out of those heroes that constantly invaded your magnificently designed underground lair.

But apart from the more recent Overlord, Destroy all Humans and the MMO City of Villains, there have not been many video games that let you live out a comic book evil genius/lord/mastermind.

Fable 2 , like its predecessor presents a great deal of opportunity to mould your character into a hero of good, evil or a mix of emotional predilections.  

For Lionhead Studios games creator Peter Molyneux, this type of software has always been his vision, from the aforementioned Dungeon Keeper, through Black & White and a smattering of other titles that culminate in Fable 2.  Molyneux has always given tools to experience a fantasy morality through in-game characters.

With Fable 2 he has even pleaded to the Fable 2 game reviewers to let traditional non-gamers have a dabble with the game to... “watch them play it and see how their world turns out, because I think it’s only when you see those differences that the unique experience comes through”

Fable 2 has also been the inspiration for Xbox Australia to conduct and reveal the results of a study of opinions towards the fundamental nature of human kind.  Unsurprisingly much of it is based on how we look. 

Funnily enough, this is a major mechanic in the Fable 2 game, where your deeds manifest themselves in your ‘heroes’ visual on screen representation.  Check out the survey results from page 2 onwards.