We learn quite a few lessons from playing video games - almost all of them horrible.
Among these lessons is the surprisingly vague concept of "ownership." In the real world, people own things in their homes. In video games, homes are just storage places to keep the hero's loot.
In a lot of cases, it's "no harm - no foul." There's nothing wrong with picking a loose herb or two off the ground. After all, no one was using it anyway. But the line gets iffy when you start looting graves. And the lesson gets worse when you realize all the coolest equipment is from the oldest and most sacred graves.
Things only get worse in towns. Sure, the hero will occasionally buy something and support the local economy. For the most part, though, it's just a matter of wandering through people's unlocked homes (which is already trespassing) to find stuff you want. In life or death situations, you might argue the end justifies the means, but still.
Link was a particularly bad offender. Not only did he steal stuff, but a lot of it was right in sight of the homeowners. And, in the worst cases, he'll steal their stuff, hold it above his head so everyone can see it and then have musical fanfare playing. That's theft with a touchdown dance at the end.
I'm not really sure what to make of "Resident Evil" games. I mean, it's a zombie disaster and whoever is still living deserves the guns and stuff. Then again, how carefully do you really check to see if there are still survivors? If it were me, I'd just be finding stuff I wanted in houses and taking it. Because I seriously think your high-end DVD player is a key for a puzzle. Somewhere. Probably.
Then again, if there's a zombie disaster, I'm probably locking myself in the bathroom and pointing a shotgun at the door for a week - I might be a bit too timid for looting.
What do you think - is video game "looting" right or wrong?
I remember a few examples right off final fantasy where this was pointed out.. like when in ff7 (since the guy up there looks like cloud?) you try to pick up an elixir from a house just in front of the owner, and he suprisingly yells at you... my, i was so shocked!
ReplyDeleteIt was Cloud, yes - I hadn't figured out a way to work him into a comic yet.
ReplyDeleteThat part IS scary. The rules have always been one way and suddenly someone calls you on it. I remember laughing about that for, like, ten minutes afterward.
A few games threw the concept of theft in with small quips from an NPC here or there, but the first I played to have any real consquences was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Stealing is an art in that game and requires skill. You can also choose to steal or not to steal and there are differing benefits to choosing one path or another. You also can get chased by guards, fined, have stolen goods confiscated and be thrown into prison. Cool concept, even if it did mean I had to kill a few more trolls to get that shiny new silver set of gauntlets.
ReplyDeleteYes! That's an excellent example of a game that added in a load of consequences to balance out the fact that you could steal from literally anyone in the game. In its own way, I think the Elder Scrolls games were more entrenched in morality than even Fable.
ReplyDeleteI remember my one friend pretty much threw the main game's goals out the window and wiped out entire towns of people just for fun.
Link didn't just steal your crap (sometimes from locked chests), he'd break all your pots and such to find the money you hid in case you got robbed.
ReplyDeleteYep. He was kind of a jerk. Then again, he deserved a little money, since he DID cut all the weeds in front of the houses.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of seeing doing an entire article on just the stuff Link did.