{"id":42,"date":"2020-03-24T23:23:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T15:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalpatmos.com\/vol4issue2\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2020-08-13T17:17:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T09:17:49","slug":"amanda","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalpatmos.com\/vol4issue2\/amanda\/","title":{"rendered":"The Morality Behind Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undertale<\/em>: the game that makes you choose to care <\/h2>\n\n\n

by Amanda Lim<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Generic types of gaming genres and their features<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The field of computer gaming includes two major gaming genres: Role-Playing Games (RPGs) and choice-based games. In Role-Playing Games, the player is usually guided through the game with a linear storyline, where the player simply defeats every single enemy that they encounter to progress the storyline and reach the end goal. By defeating opponents, the player’s character will level up, before eventually combating the most powerful antagonist to reach the game’s ending. Some games in this genre are Final Fantasy<\/em> and Dark Souls<\/em>. Whereas in choice-based games, the player will be able to follow a more plot-driven narrative, where the player is given a range of options that they can choose from to drive the plot forward. The way the story plays out is based on the decisions made by the player, such that the player can arrive at one of the many endings of the game rooted in how the player chooses to navigate the game. These mechanics are found in games like Detroit: Become Human<\/em> and Until Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undertale and breaking the mold<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

  Undertale<\/em> manages to counter the tropes that have become entrenched\nin the two different gaming genres. Undertale<\/em>\non the surface is set up as another generic Role-Playing Game; however, on\ncloser inspection it is unique in countering regular RPGs in one important\naspect: it entitles the player to choices when engaging with other non-playable\ncharacters. This feature shifts Undertale<\/em>\ninto the territory of choice-based games, but Undertale<\/em> manages to challenge even the usual premise of such\ngames. Undertale<\/em>, much like most\nchoice-based games, has a \u201c<\/em>save\npoint\u201d function, but the way the \u201c<\/em>save\npoint\u201d<\/em> works is very much different\nfrom how it is usually employed in games. By managing to break the mold of\nthese two gaming genres, Undertale<\/em>\nsoared to popularity in the gaming community. This paper explores how Undertale<\/em> propels players to make more\nmorally informed decisions by using choice, memory and consequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How countering of tropes changes the way we choose<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

  Firstly, the absence\nof choice, seen in typical games of the role-playing genre, results in the\ndesensitisation of players towards violence. As players repeatedly kill others\nto progress in the game, they eventually mentally distance themselves from the\nviolence involved.[1]<\/a> In RPGs,\nplayers are required to mindlessly slay every character they encounter in the\ngame, as the game’s mechanics suggest to the player that all the characters are\nunquestionably enemies that need to be killed. By making it mandatory for the\nplayer to slay the enemy in order to progress in the game, the player’s\nautonomy to choose for themselves who they kill disappears. As a result, the\nplayer no longer questions their violence towards others, even if these\nactions, when framed against a moral backdrop, become immoral. The player\nstarts to focus solely on achieving their goal by any means possible and views the\nnon-playable characters as mere obstacles in their path. In the end, the player\nfails to care about other characters in the game and become apathetic, owing to\nthe dire lack of control over who they kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  However, Undertale<\/em> presents a different twist in\nthe premise of RPGs. In Undertale<\/em>,\nwhen the player encounters another non-playable character, aside from killing\nthe character, the player is now presented with another option: the ability to\ninteract through various means to \u201cdefeat\u201d them. Who was once invariably framed\nas an enemy is now humanized in the fact that players are given a chance to\ninteract with them in a non-hostile manner. An example would be through the\ncharacter Napstablook<\/em>. Initially a\nhostile opponent, he will eventually become friendly towards the player if\nconstantly complimented, before allowing the player to progress without the\nneed for violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The player’s apathy\ntowards destruction in other games becomes even more apparent when contrasted\nwith Undertale<\/em> due to the latter\u2019s\nunique twist on RPGs. Since violence had become so commonplace in RPGs, it\nbecame a norm that went unscrutinised by others; only when this normalised\nmindset was challenged by Undertale<\/em>\ndid players question their approach towards violence in gaming.   Undertale<\/em>,\nin contrast to typical Role-Playing Games, portrays how the presence of choice\npushes people to think twice about the impact of their actions on other\ncharacters in the game. By possessing the ability to choose what actions they\nwant to execute, players are now required to weigh their actions against their\nmoral standards. As previously mentioned, generic RPGs can result in\nthe player\u2019s desensitisation towards violence due to their lack of autonomy.\nHowever, once players are presented with a\nchoice, albeit one of the options still involving violence, they are forced to\nreconsider their actions. The power ensconced upon them spurs them into thinking\nabout the impacts of their choice, thus making them sensitive towards violence\nagain. Players start to care about how they interact with others, where a\nmajority actively chose not to use violence on the characters they encounter.\nIn fact, very few gamers actively chose the path of killing everyone in their\nway on their first playthrough of the game, despite this mechanic being the\nusual premise of RPGs. As no official statistics exist that record the choices\nmade by players, an informal survey on the \u201cUndertale<\/em>\nWiki\u201d[2]<\/a>,\nan online platform for Undertale<\/em> fans,\nwill be used instead. A majority of the survey respondents had actively chosen\nto take the \u201cPacifist\u201d route on their first round of playing the game; this\nhighlights how once choice is brought into the picture, people are usually\ninclined to choose what they deem morally correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Some may argue that\nas the consequences of making moral choices in the game is negligible, players\ndo not feel obligated to and are in fact tempted to choose evil paths out of\nmorbid curiosity. However, morality itself plays a large role in preventing\nplayers from choosing evil paths. A study on the effect of moral choice\npublished in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology[3]<\/a>\nfound that when people view certain issues as moral, they reflexively gravitate\ntowards the option that they view as morally correct. Thus, in Undertale<\/em>, even if the consequences of\nthe choices do not impact the player\u2019s lives directly, they will still be\ninclined to choose morally regardless. In a poll on the \u201cUndertale<\/em> Wiki\u201d[4]<\/a>,\nhalf of the fans surveyed could not bring themselves to complete the Genocide\nroute, as opposed to only a quarter of the fans who had managed to complete the\nGenocide route without aborting it. \nEspecially noting that the majority chose to satisfy their curiosity\nabout the Genocide route via second hand methods such as by watching others, it\nemphasizes how people would rather distance themselves from the guilty\nconscience of having to directly \u201cmurder\u201d other characters, even if they are\nnot real. Granted, there will still be players whose curiosity outweighs the\ngame’s impact on them, but it can be concluded that the game’s usage of choice\nand morality has a considerable effect on most of its players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Having established\nthe presence of choice in Undertale<\/em>,\nthe focus will be shifted to a comparison of Undertale<\/em> with choice-based games, specifically with a focus on a\ngaming mechanism found in this genre of games, known as the \u201csave point\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The persisting\nmemory of the choices made is also an important factor in impacting people’s\ndecisions, as seen through the \u201csave point\u201d function in choice-based games.\nAlthough presenting the player with choices will push them to reconsider the\nimpact of their choices on others, this is not enough to convince the player to\ncare about their decisions if these decisions can be forgotten about. In most\nchoice-based games, such as those like Detroit: Become Human<\/em>, players\ncan backtrack after they have made a decision by restarting the chapter to\nreplay certain scenarios. The player can change the game’s outcome by choosing\ndifferently, and their past actions are overridden, in a sense\n“erasing” their past choices from memory. None of the impact created\nby their previous choices remain, since the game will only progress from the\nmost recent choice made. The consequence of the player\u2019s choices then appears\nseemingly temporary and thus insignificant. As a result, the player feels as\nthough their actions are less impactful because their choices in the game are\nnot necessarily remembered and persisting, thus undermining the gravitas of\ntheir choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  In comparison, Undertale<\/em>‘s \u201csave point\u201d system\nfunctions differently from typical choice-based games as well. This difference\nhighlights how remembering one’s actions can change the way people react. In Undertale<\/em>, there are certain characters who\nare able to remember the player’s past actions, where even if the player does\ndecide to restart at certain points indicated by the game to change their\ndecisions, these characters will remark about the player’s change in choices.\nFor example, if the player accidentally kills one of the characters, Toriel<\/em>, players can use the \u201c<\/em>save point\u201d<\/em> to go back to the point in the game where Toriel<\/em> is still alive. However, the game’s antagonist, Flowey<\/em>,\nwill remark \u201cYou murdered her. And then you went back, because you regretted\nit.\u201d However, the rest of the game will not play out differently apart from\nthat remark. Although the player can still override their past actions in the\ngame, the game shows that the actions are not totally forgotten. Even in small\ninconsequential aspects, the lack of the idea of \u201cerasing\u201d one’s actions\ncompletely causes people to become more cautious in their choices. The thought\nitself of being unable to erase decisions is enough to invoke players to invest\nmore care into what they choose, than if players made choices that could be\neasily overridden, as is the case in typical choice-based games. Thus, choice\nalone is not compelling enough to encourage people to make better decisions if\nthe choice lacks memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Lastly, Undertale<\/em> pushes people into caring\nabout their actions through irreversible consequences in the game. In many\nchoice-based games, the player is allowed to restart over from the beginning\nwith a blank slate after having finished the entire playthrough to try out\ndifferent choices in the game. However, this is not possible in Undertale<\/em>. This is most prevalent in the\n\u201cSoulless Pacifist\u201d route. The player can choose between the two main paths of\nnon-violence (the Pacifist Route), or of violence (the Genocide Route). What is\nnotable is that if the player chooses to complete the game via the Genocide\nroute in their first playthrough, before restarting and playing again via the\nPacifist Route, the player is actually prevented from reaching the \u201ctrue\u201d\nPacifist ending. The \u201ctrue\u201d Pacifist ending can only be achieved if the\nPacifist Route was taken on the first round of playing. In this sense, the game\npermanently reminds the player of their immoral choices had they chosen the\nGenocide route initially, forever depriving the player of achieving the true\nPacifist ending. Choices of the past now result in a deterministic ending as it\nlimits the type of choices players can make as they traverse further into the\ngame. Knowing that their actions now have actual consequences that cannot be\nundone, players are influenced into giving more thought into their actions,\nstriving to make what they deem as the best choices possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

  Overall, Undertale<\/em> demonstrates how the use of\nchoice is crucial in allowing people to have a feeling of autonomy over their actions,\nand consequentially influences people to care about their choices. However,\nchoice alone is not impactful enough, and the choice only holds weight when\nboth memory of the choice and the irreversible consequences resulting from that\nchoice are included. With these three factors combined, people are then spurred\non to care about the impact of their choices on themselves and others.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
References<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Matthew Grizzard,\nRon Tamborini, John L. Sherry & Ren\u00e9 Weber (2017) Repeated Play Reduces Video Games\u2019 Ability to Elicit Guilt:\nEvidence from a Longitudinal Experiment, Media\nPsychology, 20:2, 267-290, DOI: 10.1080\/15213269.2016.1142382<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a>\nr\/Undertale – [POLL]Which route did you play first? (n.d.). Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Undertale\/comments\/4hqshb\/pollwhich_route_did_you_play_first\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Kouchaki, M., Smith,\nI. H., & Savani, K. (2018). Does deciding among morally relevant options\nfeel like making a choice? How morality constrains people\u2019s sense of\nchoice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115<\/em>(5),\n788\u2013804.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> Poll Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/Undertale<\/em>.fandom.com\/wiki\/Undertale<\/em>_Wiki:Poll_Archive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Amanda Lim Generic types of gaming genres and their features The field of computer gaming includes two major gaming genres: Role-Playing Games (RPGs) and choice-based games. In Role-Playing Games, the player is usually guided through the game with a linear storyline, where the player simply defeats every single enemy that they encounter to progress … <\/p>\n

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