Some say that video games are the only medium th🅷at can make us feel guilt.ꦗ As someone who read Crime and Punishment for a college class and felt secondhand shame when Raskolnikov killed the pawnbroker, I disagree.
But, by giving players a choice in how the story plays out, games ask us to impose our sense of right and wrong on their worlds. And, even if it would be fun to be bad, sometimes we just can't bring ourselves to do it. Here are the video game choices we would love to do, but just feel too guilty to pick.
7 Romancing ♔Triss
"Guilty" is one way to say "terrified." Do I think Yennefer is a better fit for Geralt? Yes. Am I also afraid of what will happen if I cross her? Yes. Add in that, in the games, Triss has done some deeply sketchy things to Gera🌃lt and, despite Yen being kind of mean a lot of the time, she's the only one I could possibly pick.
6 🔯 Going Full Chaos In Dishonored
The Dishonored games are full of supernatural powers you canꦐ use to cause magnificent, l🧜imb-severing chaos — like blinking into the position where a guard is standing to cause their body to explode like a pinata of bloody meat candy.
But, knowing that a perfect stealth playthrough is possible 🅷often pulls me back from going all in on violent destruction.
5 Violent Playthrough In Undertale 🧔
For my first playthrough of Undertale, I went with a pacifist run. It made the game extremely difficult, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I'm sure I would have if I had just engaged with all that the battle system has to offer. But now I've seen all these weird creatures vibing, transformed by the power of love, and I can't bring myself to cut them down where they stand.
4 ꦛ Saving The Town In Life Is Strange
Life is Strange has one true ending and it involves Max and Chloe driving away from the destruction the storm wreaked on Arcadia 𝓀Bay. 🍰Sure it involves a lot of innocent people dying, but there was no way I was going to let Max and Chloe miss out on their shot at love.
3 Siding With Jo🔜jaMart in Stardew Valley 🍃
I am a socialist. I simply cannot do it.
2 Returning To My Nintendogs 👍Save File
At first, I hadn't played for a few days. Then days became weeks, weeks became months, and here we are. At least 15 years have passed since I last checked in on my Nintendogs. I know that they must be mangey and starving and that their digital ribs must be showing through their patchy, pixelated fur, but I just can't bring myself to go back. It's too sad.
I had a similar arc with Animal Crossing: New Horizons (and, really, this can happen with any game that features a real-time clock). If I return to my island, it will be overgrown with weeds and my villagers will make passive aggressive remarks about how they haven't seen me around in a while. The guilt is just too much, so I must stay away.
1 Destroy🥀ing ꦅMegaton
Early on in Fallout 3, you encounter a settlement, Megaton, with an undetonated nuclear warhead in the middle. You can either disarm it or rig it to explode. Either way, you get 300 XP. But, if you detonate it, you get the deed to a luxurious suite in Tenpenny Tower, 🏅an obelisk of con🔯spicuous consumption that rises above the wastes. You also take the in-game blow of losing 1000 karma. And, more importantly, the real-world guilt of wiping a town off the map for personal gain.
To add💞 insult to injury, the townspeople you got to know are transformed into ghouls when you return and the community that had scratched out an existence in this harsh world is reduced to a crater. This one takes the yellowcake.