» Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:15 am But if a Christian were to ask me if Skyrim was a satanic game? There's one main reason to say 'yes'. And that's when a quest line doesn't allow you; the player, to make anything but an evil choice; to kill, to steal, betray or do some other kind of evil service for a demon. i.e. For example the The House of Horrors. Where you initially go in to help a Vigilant out and enter a haunted house. Once inside, after the demon's voice tells you to kill the Vigilant, your choices are kill or be killed when the Vigilant fears you will follow the demon's instruction and turns on you to kill you. You can't leave the house it's locked when you're inside. And from thereon you're basically the demon's puppet. The Whispering door is another one, you go to assist the Jarl of Whiterun out with his strangely behaving kids, doing the right thing an' all. And if you follow it through, you basically kill or pick pocket you're way into a room wherein lies an evil weapon that is empowered by slaying your followers, companions, spouse or those you've done good deeds for. It's an over powered weapon and an easily obtained weapon, if you have no scruples.
There seems to be a few of these type quests and I found them really disturbing. I got around the House of Horrors by simply re-loading the game up to the point where I hadn't accepted the vigilant's request for help. I suppose in-game I could simply be killed rather then kill an essentially innocent man. And then load the save to ignore the quest. But in-game - there's no choice. The Whispering Door, I just started that and haven't continued as I've read the conclusion... you don't get to fix the corrupted son or report to the Jarl that his son is being influenced by a demon. If I were to continue, I would have to steal the key to a forbidden door and take The Ebony Blade to complete the quest. There is no other option. There is a book in the room that warns you of the nature of the blade, so you can discontinue it at that point in-game discovering what an evil weapon it is. But the quest-line will still be incomplete. But to get to that point you are doing the bidding of a demon to pocket or kill to retrieve the key, so you're still doing evil deeds in the service of a demon.
Why does that disturb me? Well one reason is that your good intentions to assist or help end up betraying those you went to assist. But the main reason is this for me, in any part of my life whether in work, play or otherwise I don't want to choose evil. It may be coincidental but this morning I came across this story on the Net - and it was like 'BOOM' it got to the guts of why I find these guest-lines are dead-set wrong;
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
“One is Evil – It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
“The other is Good – It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Bethesda Softworks, you need to change these quest-lines, even if its 'just a game' you take away the fundamental right of person to do the right thing.
And I don't buy the 'it's just a game get over it response' - because I've used and know of others who have used role play games to change bad behavior by allowing the 'bad person' to see they actually had a choice. For example there was a group of social workers 10 or so years ago, who found that a large proportion of bullies don't have social skills. They made a game up, which involved mixed groups of children who played roles online and they got the bullies to play particular types of avatars that allowed them to learn social skills in a virtual world setting. Without going into the ins and outs of the game. What they reported is that many of the behaviors of their 'nice avatars' crossed over to the bullies real world, they acquired skills that could cross over to the real world. But the biggest thing is that they learnt they had a choice about who they were - and they chose to do something other then hit out to get attention.
If I had a description of evil, I think it's where you get good people to do evil things because they feel they have no choice.
You guys need to rethink some of these quest-lines they're wrong in design.
