I have had a hankering lately to play a game that does not exist.  Specifically, a Western RPG as they used to be, before Bioware and Bethesda took up the reins of Western RPGdom.  Of course, many of you will say there is nothing wrong with those two being in charge, but I’m afraid that Dragon Age and Fallout 3 just don’t scratch that itch for me.

So, why?  Why am I dissatisfied with the current crop of Western RPGs?  What are they missing, what are they doing wrong?

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Now that we’ve seen the distant past of moral choice in games as well as recent history, let’s take a look at what it all means, and where it all could be going.

Choice is a powerful thing for a gamer; it can be the critical difference between a player simply playing a game and a player really experiencing a game.  Choice draws the player in, makes them feel like they really have a say in what’s going on in a game. Obviously, some choices are more important than others, and players want to know that the decisions they make have an actual effect.  Simply offering them the choice between going down the left hall or the right hall may be a choice, but it’s not one they are likely to remember. Moral choices, though – especially the ones that carry real consequence – those are the ones that players really remember.

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I have always had a soft-spot for post-apocalyptic fiction.  From movies to comics to games, if something is set after the end of the world, I’m usually willing to give it a shot.  Sometimes this turns out for the best, such as when I find something I enjoy like Jericho. Sometimes it doesn’t go well at all and I end up spending $9 to watch something like I Am Legend.

I trace most of this strange love of mine back to a little game called “Wasteland.”  Released back in 1988, Wasteland was an RPG in the mold of Bard’s Tale, but set in an America destroyed by nuclear war.  As a team of Desert Rangers (the law and order of the wastes), you wander the shattered lands of Nevada solving problems, saving lives, and kicking ass. I played the hell out of Wasteland, trying to make my way through it with various teams and skill sets, seeing what worked out the best. And, for years, Wasteland stood alone in terms of RPGs sharing the post-apocalyptic setting.  There were rumors of sequels (and one sort-of sequel called Fountain of Dreams, but we won’t talk about that…), but for the most part Wasteland was a lone oddity in a world of swords and sorcery.  That is, it was alone until the mid 90′s, when Black Isle Studios released what most called a “spiritual successor” to Wasteland.  That game, of course, was Fallout.

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Moral decision making is not one of those things people tend to associate with video games. Shooting, racing, twenty-minute unskippable summoning sequences: those are things that immediately pop to mind, but not soul-searching ethical quandaries. And, for many years, that was entirely understandable – Eating the ghosts in Pac-Man had no visible ramifications, and as far as the player knew, none of the spaceships they shot down in Space Invaders had any family to worry about.

Most early games were about fun, simulation, or escapism. They were also, more importantly, incredibly linear in general. Linearity, by its definition, does not offer much in the way of choice, and choice is ultimately the engine that allows moral decisions to make themselves known in games. Choice is what starts to allow a player to break out of the lines and start to delve into questions of Good and Evil and everything in between. Pen and paper RPG systems such as Dungeons & Dragons had their built-in systems of alignment, and these were easier to play out when a human being was running the show as dungeon master. If the players chose to follow a path different than what the DM planned, he could simply adapt. Video games, it was felt, either couldn’t, or shouldn’t, have to worry about player choice.

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