I thought I'd share a recent thought I had about one of my favourite computer games (right now). The game is Fallout 3 and is set in the year 2277, 200 years after the world is destroyed by an atomic war. The creators of this game were suprisingly insightful it seems.
In the game you play the role of a young adult who was raised in a vault (an underground sealed community, locked away before the war. The door of the vault had never been opened since). I don't want to spoil the story so I'm not saying more
At an early point in the game you are forced to leave the vault and face the remains of Washington DC and its surroundings. The place is known as the 'capital wasteland' and you find the humanity had survived, but it is in a bad way. With no justice or government system io place humanity had settled into small cities dotted around the wasteland. There are people trying to do good, and people trying to survive by doing bad things. A key theme in this game is that you have to decide what sort of character you play as: good, neutral or bad. This is measured in the game by 'karma'. If you do unskillful things (like stealing food or killing) you get negative karma, if you do skillful things (like giving clean pure water to someone who is lost in the wasteland) you get positive karma. What's interesting is the the karma affects how people interact with you.
In the game there are LOADS of quests, and you get to decide whether to be good or bad, or neutral. The outcome drastically changes the game and your karma drastically affects how people interact with you. I love it.
What I find strange is that whilst playing as a bad person is easier (just steal what you want and kill anyone in your way), I find it harder to do. I find it much more enjoyable to play as a good person. It's one of the few computer games I've found where you get that choice and, if you want, you can practice the brahmaviharas electronically
Anyway, relating this back to the old 'is playing computer games bad kamma' jazz, I'd love to see more games like this where we get the choice, just as in real life, to do the easy thing or to do the hard thing that offer more longterm enjoyment.
Yeah, I recommend Fallout 3
Karma in computer games... no, not that again
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Re: Karma in computer games... no, not that again
I hear ya....
I haven't played video games in ages (except when I went on holiday recently and played on my friend's PS3)--the simple reason being that I don't own any game consoles. Well, I do have a PS2 but I got bored of that years ago. I'm thinking of getting a PS3. There's finally a price-drop and the new model will be released here on 3 September. I'd probably use it to play Bluray more than games. But Fallout 3 sounds like the kind of action-adventure/FPS games that I like.
I haven't played video games in ages (except when I went on holiday recently and played on my friend's PS3)--the simple reason being that I don't own any game consoles. Well, I do have a PS2 but I got bored of that years ago. I'm thinking of getting a PS3. There's finally a price-drop and the new model will be released here on 3 September. I'd probably use it to play Bluray more than games. But Fallout 3 sounds like the kind of action-adventure/FPS games that I like.
With metta,
zavk
zavk
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Re: Karma in computer games... no, not that again
...I'd love to see more games...
Re: Karma in computer games... no, not that again
I'd love to see more games like this where we get the choice, just as in real life, to do the easy thing or to do the hard thing that offer more longterm enjoyment.
If you like games where choice determines outcomes then i think you would enjoy
Mass Effect
Star Wars: Knights or the Old Republic (one and two)
Fable (one and two)
However, on a Dhamma note, ive found computer games to be very distracting (and of course sensual pleasure)
metta
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
Re: Karma in computer games... no, not that again
This is a warning to you all...
Kind regards
Ben
Now, step away from your computer and go and play outside!World of Warcraft addicts to get in-game shrinks
World of Warcraft is so addictive that a psychiatrist is planning to send a team of counsellors into the game to treat players before they lose touch with the real world.
It comes after a report published by Sweden's Youth Care Foundation this year found World of Warcraft was the most dangerous game on the market and "the cocaine of the computer games world".
Richard Graham, a psychiatrist who treats adolescents at the Tavistock Clinic in London, believes that, just as casinos contribute to the treatment of compulsive gamblers, Blizzard, the creator of the online role playing game, should fund help for World of Warcraft addicts.
He said in an interview that the catalyst for his new project was a "disturbing" case of a young man who told him that, in the 3½ years he had been playing the game, he had clocked up 450 days of playing time.
Read the rest of it here: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/g ... -f0h6.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Kind regards
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
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Re: Karma in computer games... no, not that again
Yes sirBen wrote:Now, step away from your computer and go and play outside!