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Do You Ever Feel Bad for Killing Enemies in Games?

SuperFakerBros

SuperFakerBros

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,827
Really depends on the enemy. For the most part, I don't as you're supposed to kill them and none of them really feel like people but, in games like Undertale or with certain enemies with sympathetic backgrounds, I actually do. For Undertale, I didn't kill any enemy at all but, in most other games, you don't really have a choice
 
Ubik

Ubik

Member
Nov 13, 2018
2,473
Canada
Tackling and choking out npc's for money in Red Dead Redemption 2 felt really icky. Only did it to a woman once after realizing how brutal it looked. In GTA games I can basically commit terrorism and just not give a shit about the random npc population, but RDR2 was different and seemed way more personal and dirty about that shit.
 
APOEERA

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,061
For me, Maiden Astraea in Demon's Souls and Sif, Great Grey Wolf in Dark Souls. They are just trying to do the right thing.
 
Rivenblade

Rivenblade

Member
Nov 1, 2017
37,118
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I'M SORRY. I'D RATHER WE WERE FRIENDS!
 

PrimeBeef

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,840
Only one time. I had to kill a Tauren as part of my DK intro quests to prove my allegiance to the LK. It felt bad killing on of my own. Other than that, never.
 
Radrigal

Radrigal

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
163
I felt bad when I watched the cinematic in Fallout 1 where the
mutants converge on Vault 13. I mean the overseer is a huge asshole even in the ending where he survives, but seeing the vault inhabitants die made me feel a little guilt.
 

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
Not really. When the game tries to make me feel bad I usually will during the story moments, but when I'm actually in combat I don't really care, even in the same games.

Because the thing about killing in games is that well made feedback for your actions feels good, it feels inherently fun to kill enemies if the combat is any good. But if they try to make it bad on purpose to not make you feel good about it, then it's more likely that the player will just drop the game before they even get invested enough to feel bad. The opposite of "fun" isn't "thought-provoking", after all.
 
Bony Manifesto

Bony Manifesto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,583
I feel bad for killing enemies when there's a way of progressing without killing them, but if the game assures me that killing them is the only outcome it supports, then I'm fine with it and don't give it a second thought. Not sure what that says about me...

On a similar topic, if there's an option in an RPG to say 'no, keep the reward, you need it more', I will pretty much always pick it, even in a game like The Witcher, where it's made clear that you're just throwing money away by doing this. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever played a game as the 'dark side' path. It just doesn't make me feel good to be needlessly nasty to characters.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,968
Nope.

I did feel bad killing some innocent NPCs in Oblivion though lol. Had to. Dark Brotherhood yo.
 
Skade

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,846
Nope.

I mean... One of the greatest pleasures in life when playing Skyrim is to Fus-Roh-Dah anybody in any circumstance at any time you feel like it. Who never did that on the kids in Whiterun for instance ?

So... No. I definitely don't feel bad when i kill enemies in a game.
 
Delphine

Delphine

Fen'Harel Enansal
Administrator
Mar 30, 2018
3,658
France
Bony Manifesto said:
I feel bad for killing enemies when there's a way of progressing without killing them, but if the game assures me that killing them is the only outcome it supports, then I'm fine with it and don't give it a second thought. Not sure what that says about me...

On a similar topic, if there's an option in an RPG to say 'no, keep the reward, you need it more', I will pretty much always pick it, even in a game like The Witcher, where it's made clear that you're just throwing money away by doing this. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever played a game as the 'dark side' path. It just doesn't make me feel good to be needlessly nasty to characters.
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Highly relatable.
I will agonize about characters' deaths if they were avoidable. If they weren't, then what happens to them isn't my responsibility anymore, so I play along the rules the game has given to me. And yeah, I'm the same, I don't enjoy nor seek the dark side path in games. I entertained the idea of making a dark side playthrough of Life Is Strange when I first finished the game, but I honestly wouldn't have been able to follow through, I would have felt way too fucking bad real fast.
 

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
Bony Manifesto said:
On a similar topic, if there's an option in an RPG to say 'no, keep the reward, you need it more', I will pretty much always pick it, even in a game like The Witcher, where it's made clear that you're just throwing money away by doing this. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever played a game as the 'dark side' path. It just doesn't make me feel good to be needlessly nasty to characters.
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Yeah, me too, but I feel like that's a failing of the game's economy. I wish Witcher 3 made me feel like I need the money, I wish it made me take it even though they needed it more, just because I also need it a lot.

Or at least made me suffer the consequences for not taking that money.

As it is now, the only reason to take the money is if you want to roleplay as an asshole, even on the highest difficulty, because you definitely don't need it.
 
Mupod

Mupod

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,860
I almost always take a nonlethal path where possible but that doesn't mean I care about killing video game enemies or anything. I just feel like it improves my immersion and overall experience when I play that way. Likewise, when a game starts giving you shit when it doesn't even give you the choice, it falls totally flat for me. I thought TLOU was a great game but the entire angle of portraying Joel as a bad guy for taking the only option available to him was the lamest part of it.

Undertale is so ham-handed with those guilt trips it got on my nerves. I tried to spare enemies where possible but sometimes the way to do so is obtuse as hell, no reason to 'feel bad' when you give them 100 chances to give up and they refuse.

I think MGS games found some interesting ways to promote nonlethal playstyles, but even then I only do it because I find it more fun that way. I do admire the persistence in trying to get that message across though. The Sorrow's river is an obvious one, but I wonder how much effect the FROGS had on players used to just shooting up male soldier enemies all the time. I'd be really curious about others who played through MGS1-5 by starting off killing everything and by the end going totally non-lethal. My reason for it might be boring but Kojima's scheme worked on me all the same in the end.
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
I just finished RDR 2 and it happened a few times......I kept pointing my gun at people in town instead of saying hi.......then they would freak out and I'd have to finish them off,lol....quite annoying.
 
KillLaCam

KillLaCam

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,382
Seoul
Only if I'm playing as myself and the person I have to kill is a good person in the story. But the last time I played as myself was in the Mass Effect trilogy.

Most of the time I play as a crazy person in every other game I can create a character in.

Maybe I'll do it again in my first playthrough of cyberpunk.
 
Dervius

Dervius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,896
UK
thelostone said:
Yes I feel bad for killing lines of code who thinks of this
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You can use this silly argument to criticise anyone for getting any kind of enjoyment out of a game. Feel good about beaitng a game?
Just lines of code.

Like where the story is headed?
Not real, just lines of code.

Come on now.

Games are often designed to get you at least passingly emotionally invested.


For me it's animals. Monster Hunter was a tough one, even the aggressive ones are just animals. Feels like marching into their natural habitat and laying waste to it all.
 
sappyday

sappyday

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,781
Only if the game provides a good contractual reason to feel bad like in Spec Ops The Line or Nier Automata but only in service of the story. Do I literally feel bad? Hell no it's a work of fiction.
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,484
When those enemies are animals that make hurt-animal sounds, absolutely. Shit is the worst.
 
Brotherhood93

Brotherhood93

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,775
Nope. The feeling is the same as when an extra dies in a movie or TV show. I'm not feeling bad about Gangster #4 biting the bullet.

The one caveat is in games where the character killed has some degree of importance and it isn't a kill or be killed situation but that isn't very common.
 
Blindy

Blindy

Member
Nov 16, 2017
3,929
Never. When enemies refuse to give me a 1v1 and decide to gang up, the honor standpoint goes out the door. That if anything enrages me more. When I die in Dark Souls due to a mob ganging up on me, I go nuts. You didn't win in my eyes when you rely on numbers to survive. Let your dude fight me Mono e Mono.

If I die to a boss straightup I can't be angry but shit like Shadows of Ynarnam in Bloodborne is cowardly shit. That one PISSED me off. Keep in mind that was my first Souls experience LOL. I was VERY fired up after beating those pieces of shit after they 3 on 1'd you throughout, them and their multiple phases.
 
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LiK

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,043
Yup, I don't like hurting NPCs who did nothing to me. I don't go out of my way to hurt anyone in open world games. It sucks even more when missions force me to do it like in the Rockstar games.
 
Unaha-Closp

Unaha-Closp

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,723
Scotland
I go non-lethal no kills no alarms in games that allow you to do it. Not through feeling bad about killing the enemies, I find it more interesting to sneak around and knock out than to murder everyone with guns. The number of guns in MGS games I haven't used lol
 
Hippopuncher12

Hippopuncher12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,256
Cincinnati
Bobo Dakes said:
Wait, they aren't?
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Maybe, they are and I have just been misinformed. In all seriousness though I just don't think I invoke any form of emotion for anything in a game outside of characters that you play as or are integral to the story. Random NPC's/Animals/Whatever? Nah. So I do feel bad if someone that have grown attached to dies or I have to kill them but outside of that I don't think I even think about it.
 
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