Introduction
It's no secret that one of my favorite games this year has been the Dragon Age Series by EA Games and Bioware. Titles by Bioware that follow this Choose-your-own adventure type design are often full of moral goodies that can really challenge a player's perceptions thanks to good writing. It was just this year that I finished playing Origins, Awakening and Dragon Age 2. I have played through Origins 3 times, Awakening 2 times and DA2...I'm working on my 5th or 6th play through. I've lost count.
In this post I'm going to highlight some Catholic thinking in these games.
Free Will
First concept I'd like to cover is Free Will. Free Will is the human freedom to choose evil or good in simple terms. Animals do not have free will because they can not distinguish good and evil, they act on instinct. Our ability to reason and qualify an act as good or evil and the ability to choose between the two is our Free Will.
In gaming, this is often represented in "morality choices". I will speak more on this another time.
Much of the player character's Free Will is limited to in game dialog choices which allow for certain actions to take place. In Origins and Awakening, the choices were more numerous and often grey in moral standing. In DA2, things are made a little more limiting by labeling the choices as "good" or "bad" (peaceful or aggressive etc.) Between the two main titles, this change was a bit upsetting. The outcome was "freer" in Origins where the player was allowed to interpret for themselves what would be an "evil" or "good" response.
Morality
Thanks to the writing and scenarios in the game, there are lots of moral issues that the player deals with in the game. Immersion level really helps the weight of these choices to the player. However, the player is not only making moral choices but reacting to moral problems. The sheer number of scenarios make it difficult to pick and choose. However, there are several themes I notice in my playthroughs.
Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity
Most often, I will find the story saddles the player with the choice of either killing or releasing a person. The lives of criminals and innocents alike are set before you. Will you let one live and the other die? Most often, it is a choice to let a criminal live or die. The crimes vary from petty theft to outright slaughter.
Catholic teaching respects ALL HUMAN LIFE. That also means the life of a criminal, murderer, rapist, and pedophile. In both the game titles, there comes a point where you must spare the life or kill a key character. One choice will upset a party member and they will leave, usually the one who was portrayed as the "morally straight and narrow" type. It's one of my FAVORITE points in the game because the choice remains difficult. Because both instances, there is a chance for the perpetrator to redeem themselves if they live. Which is precisely why the Church (and myself personally) stands against the death penalty...in a majority of cases. (Church's Stance on Capital Punishment...it's short).
HOWEVER, because of the game setting, (roughly the middle ages), such matters of justice were more common place. In some cases, within the game, the player IS a figure of authority and it would be appropriate to dish out death to protect the community. In other cases, it's a personal choice. (Oh the woes of bringing modern thinking into primitive society!)
Sexuality
Yay my favorite thing to talk about in these games. One of the "selling points" of the game is the simulated romance and "sex scenes" (with awkward 3d models yay!). So where to start?
Well, let's talk about impact. Pursuing a romance in Origins offers more story related effects particularly to the ending of the game. At the same time, romancing each character in a play through offers a trophy award. A head mounted on the wall as it were. In DA2, the trophy award is simply "you romanced someone". I'm not sure if it qualifies as objectifying if its an object anyway but the concept of objectifying another person is still there. Church teachings are pretty clear about objectifying another person. (Hint: It's not good.)
There is one point in DA2 that somewhat GRINDED MY GEARS because it aptly shows a misconception rampant in society. That is the perception that CHASTITY = NO SEX. This couldn't be further from the truth in Church teaching. Celibacy...celibacy is the free choice to abstain from intercourse for life. Chastity is respecting and recognizing that sexuality is a gift to be given. It demands that you see others as a human being, not an object to be used. All people, married, single and celibate are called to Chastity. If you're curious, there is a point in a romance with the character Sebastian where he suggests a chaste marriage, suggesting there is romance but no intercourse.
Err...yeah, all marriages should be chaste but marriage is certainly NOT about celibacy. Dear God, it's so not! (Although there is a romance path with this character that ends in a non-celibate marriage too. :3)
Moving on to the concept of marriage. It's a bit "weird" in these game titles as the option to get married is only available in rare cases. It's kind of sad really. But I suppose that may be the comic guy(or gal) mentality sneaking in and not enough of the marriage is great guys(and gals). There are plenty of other popular beliefs about sex within these titles including, cohabitation, homosexuality, bisexuality, prostitution, and other such objectifying beliefs. These are usually viewed as "acceptable" actions in this world...well by most of your companions. That's the other nice thing is that each character's beliefs will be reflected in their dialog reactions.
All this said, sex is not bad or evil. It's very good. It's awesome and therefore special. It's also the one thing most actively attacked by Satan and used against us. It is a great lie to say that sex is bad and should be repressed. Also that its meaningless or only for your personal pleasure is a lie. There is a great deal of smarter men and women who write on this subject. I would point you to the blogs linked here to read more on Catholic Sexual Morality. (I just like talking about games.)
Good vs. Evil
An overriding theme is that you the player are in a conflict of Good vs. Evil. The theme is more obvious in Origins with the enemy is clearly defined as evil. In general, the player is always the "good guy" but things are taken a step further based on actions in key points during the game. How good was the Warden? Were things really that much better after the defeat of the Archdemon? Do the ends justify the means?
That's another big theme too. The Church teaching on this is that the Ends do NOT justify the Means.
Closing Thoughts
This really only scratches the surface of things I've gleaned from the stories in Dragon Age. Often I try to utilize my personal method of making moral choices when choosing in game options. It's really hard for me to play as a "jerk" in these games but I do try for the sake of exploring that option. I won't really get into the whole "is it a sin to..." kind of discussion but I may in another post. Because it's something to consider.
And of course, the millions of humorous responses to events and choices never fail to entertain.
In fact, I've made stupid comics about them...enjoy: Tale of Mage Angelo and Warrior AJ
