In a world of no consequences, my ‘helping’ people would inevitably result in hurting others, because there are some people out there that deserve to be hurt. As a result, I would make for a terrible Superman. I don’t like being the villain in games, but I’m 100% certain if I got power IRL, I would abuse it and use it to destroy people.
It saddens and frightens me, that so many people in the world are so open about how the only reason they don’t commit violence is fear of consequences. I bummed out both by how many people like that there are, and how normal they feel uttering psychohorrors like that
It saddens and frightens me, that so many people in the world are so open about how the only reason they don’t commit violence is fear of consequences.
Christian society in a nutshell.
Anyone who claims they could casually commit violence if they felt like it hasn’t tried.
You really need to beat the natural empathy out of people from a young age before they’re willing to do more than talk shit
Because there’s no such thing as no consequences. If I have the ability to rob a bank and get away with no consequences, there are still consequences for the bank guard that loses his job (or that I have to hurt in order to get into the vault). There are consequences for the people whose money I’ve taken. Just because there are no consequences on me personally, doesn’t mean there are no consequences.
Doing good comes from having empathy for other people, not because you’re afraid of personal consequences.
As someone who works at a bank, tbh the only consequences would be trauma inflicted on the tellers and customers. Taking money out of the vault doesn’t take money out of accounts, and no decent institution would fire anyone for being robbed. Most banks don’t have armed guards, so if someone comes in with a gun, we’re expected to follow their demands and hit the panic button if it’s safe to do so.
Absolutely, but this understanding requires more than a 6th grade reading level.
The only “evil power fantasy” I would want would be to continue doing good, while breaking the no-killing/bring them to courts rule; especially if it could be shown that the bad guys ignore/pay off courts.
It’s not fitting for Superman, but it’s basically why the Yakuza series feels compelling.
“…Who said that? Who told you I never kill?”
You could also just show up to a board meeting or similar and keep pushing them to the ground until they stopped trying to stand up, then tell them to give all their money away or you’ll just keep bullying them in increasingly humiliating ways.
The problem with taking people’s lives is that it erodes your soul. Once you submit to the grisley work of judge, jury, and execution, you lose the ability to see people as people.
Trigun also has this vibe
“I’ll take ‘Things a Billionaire Would Certainly Say’ for two billion dollars, Alex.”
In Fallout NV I tried to do a Caesar’s legion playthrough, it made me feel to bad and I quit halfway through :c
Me, every time I try to do an evil run:
When I first played GTA 4, and hit an NPC with a taxi… The ragdolling was so realistic, I felt bad for the old grandma… But only for a moment. Soon after, I was running people over, shooting people in the face, mowing them down with the helicopter…
Perhaps Superman has cheat days? You know, to stay sane?
Police Chief: “So we release these people and you hunt them for sports?”
Superman: “Pretty much, yeah. It’s my cheat day!”
Police Chief: “But with your super speed and x-ray vision they really have no chance!”
Superman: “Do the animals have a chance when you hunt them? It’s just for fun!”
Police Chief: “But why Republican politicians?”
Superman: “Even on my cheat day, I still like to do good.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one who just can’t do evil playthroughs because I feel like such a monstrous dick
It’s scary how much of the population views moral problems by “what’s in it for me and what are the consequences”
Very little altruism
I’ve had religious people ask me (am atheist) “without God what is stopping you from being evil?” and holy shit, I can’t believe people think like that
A good answer is “I rape and murder exactly as much as I want to, which is none. If eternal hellfire is the only think keeping you from doing those things then I hope you never lose your faith.”
I can hear Penn Jillette saying this…
That and the “without the Bible, how do you know what’s right or wrong” crowd. They have become so externally reliant on direction that they dont even have an independent sense of morality anymore. Also, they must think, in turn, that that non-Christian cultures and people are inherently amoral or immoral. The irony.
Unfortunately, you hit the nail on the head there. When you’re so used to having someone tell you what to do, for every little action from how to dress to how to speak, you become dependent on it for everything.
Source: Left a cult. Had to relearn ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in therapy.
Damn, that takes a lot of courage, good job. Not many people can handle it
Nothing like them being flabbergasted at the response of “I don’t need an external threat of eternal punishment to be a good person”
This is a real problem we’re facing.
It’s part of the overarching authoritarian worldview, that fear of consequences from someone above you on the food chain is the primary motivation for anyone to be “good”.
The problem comes from it being extremely time consuming to explain how “being good” benefits you personally, even if all possibility of consequences are removed. Essentially you have to explain the entire concept of the word “honor” to them. What are the benefits of being honorable, and how do these benefits (for you personally) outweigh the benefits of being dishonorable?
But if someone wasn’t raised that way, then it really does need to be explained to them. Otherwise it’s unrealistic to expect them to just somehow figure it out for themselves.
edit for grammar
edit2: To elaborate a little bit, the benefit of honor boils down to efficiency and the advantages of cooperation. People can perceive patterns, and when someone is dishonorable, even if people won’t come attack them somehow, they’ll still be reluctant to ever cooperate with that person. An honorable person thus has far more resources from their community that they can draw on in the pursuit of their own personal goals. In addition, it simplifies their lives. Instead of having to, say, track the lies you’ve told so you don’t mess up and create inconsistencies, if you live honorably you free up all that energy to devote to your goals in other ways.
Note, my summary argument is not overly compelling just on its own. I had to boil it down too much to make it a reasonable length. You need many examples, or preferably actual life experience on how it works, for the argument to actually become somewhat convincing.
I don’t need any benefit though, I just like being good
Personal preference is fine too. For many people, though, they will require a personal benefit. They won’t just enjoy it. Especially if they see other people who aren’t good and are doing better than them.
Everyone needs to watch the 90s movie Clifford, it explains this awesomely. Clifford is an annoying and manipulative brat who only cares about one thing. He gets it, and then he decides that he’d rather be well behaved, because he wants people to like him.
Can confirm, how corrupt does one have to be to think like that? Isn’t it logical to just think to behave towards others as one would like them to behave towards oneself?
I feel like there’s something wrong with me and I’m at a disadvantage for being like that when it should absolutely fucking be the other way around.
Modern conservatism necessitates that society is a zero sum game. And we are seeing exactly how that plays out in the US.
Back in like 2008 I was playing the single player campaign for the first COD: Modern Warfare and I almost failed the first mission because I didn’t want to kill noncombatants on a boat.
Meanwhile in 2025 that’s what our military is doing these days in Venezuelan waters.
Hey to be fair “civilian collateral” has been a favorite pass-time of the US military long before 2025.
in the distance Fortunate Son can be heard
How can you shoot women and children?
Easy! Don’t aim ahead as much!
There’s a surprise quick time event in Assassin’s Creed 2 where Leonardo Da Vinci goes in for a hug, and if you don’t press X reasonably quickly he pulls back looking a little bummed out.
I ripped my power cord out of the wall to make sure it didn’t save.
your first instinct for missing a hug from a completely fake video game character was to risk permanent damage to expensive hardware? seek help
Well hugging Leonardo DaVinci sounds like the experience of a lifetime.
What is even the point of that hardware
Besides it feeling nice to do good, it also fosters a better world around you. It’ll be paid back to you in subtle ways you might not even realise.
This is why I can be a fairly good person without believing in eternal damnation for one
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The opposite also applies. If there’s no actual power or reward or suffering, what’s the point of being bad?
There always is a reward because resources are limited.
It’s a video game, the only actual reward is the satisfaction or pleasure playing the game will give you.
Which you might get more if you play as a good character?
Of course. But resources are zero sum games. So if somebody wants more, somebody else gets less. That inevitably creates bad feelings somewhere.
Me in my second run through KCD2: “I’m gonna make Henry a real bastard this time.”
Ignatius the Knacker: “Kill that dog.”
Me: “Noooooooo!”
Whenever I’ve played an evil character in any RPG, I’ve always decided what their code is, and their internal motivation for their actions. Makes it more fun in my opinion.
Hitler loved his dog, and was obviously a piece of shit.
I see no reason why your playthrough of Henry can’t be a real bastard to everyone except for dogs!
(Never played the game and don’t know who Henry is)
Honestly, most games with a good/evil dichotomy (or even good/evil/neutral) just don’t make evil make sense, it’s always about senseless violence and backstabbing people like it’s a sport. Yet even people who would never kill the dog in a game usually still steal from commoner NPCs and often happily murder NPCs that were a bit of a dick to them.
