The Evolution of the NPC & Morality Mechanics

I apologize for not posting last week. Real life kept me busy a bit more than I thought and I recently got into Magic the Gathering, so I was off learning about extort & detain mechanics

NPC's are without a doubt essential to gaming. They move the storyline along, provide goals & incentives for the player, help them out via actions, items, or upgrades & add to the overall immersion & ambiance of believably for a game. Having a town with no people is rather an eerie thing in real life, yet when working in the early days of 8 & 16 bit gaming, NPCs solely for ambiance were few & far between to where they are nowadays. Regardless of how such rendering has improved, the fact that they are there & interact with the player are crucial factors that lend to the immersion. 

Celadon City, the early days

In addition to NPC's being more present in current games, that means we have more and more ways to interact with these NPCs. New mechanics such as the paragon/renegade stat in the Mass Effects series (or morality as a stat which effects choices you can make in general), the morality mechanic in many of Bethesda's games & the Fable series, of which then alter your character psychically to reflect their inner self.

 In regards to a good/evil dichotomy which many games started out with when dealing with morality mechanics, many were either be too simplistic in its transparency of choices. By blatantly having you make choices that were extremes of good or bad, it could deter from the game in not giving the player interesting or ethical questions to think about. Such black & white sides often block out deviations of plot scenarios or force the player to make uncharacteristic choices according to the story. In addition, many games that utilize this mechanic do not have the player take responsibility for their actions. If you were to go and kill a village of people in a game, most likely the next town wouldn't react to murder on that scale and treat you as any other traveler. With a more grey scale system, such acts could either be accumulated in points or scale of the act. 

As with the  Mass Effect series, Shepard's morality is based on the paragon/renegade system. While the player is able to complete the storyline with a focus on either paragon or renegade, dialogue is changed or may not be present, and character reactions are different as well. Her physical appearance changes as well, if not to the degree of the Fable series. While the responsibility factor is not as highlighted as other games, this control and customization over the Shepard's personality & reputation help to form a better bond between Character & player through her interaction & decisions with NPCs.

Just because she's evil doesn't mean she can't do nice things now and again.

In regards to the utility of NPCs in current games, the Fable series is a great game that integrates morality & how NPCs can interact with the player as well, which change depending on the morality (and corresponding psychical appearance) of the player. It's a bit of a simulation, so you can eventually get married, have kids, and even rule a kingdom, which only highlights the choices you have to make. 

Yes minion, your  service is appreciated.

Having more interaction also means having more dialogue. We've come a long way from the one liners that never change, even if the protagonist is on the run from the royal guard or some princess gets kidnapped . By engaging and reacting to the players' actions with more realistic and empathetic responses, the NPCs within a game are another major factor in creating an established connection and giving a sense of a game being alive. Having a city with a bustling market & only 5 people in it doesn't lend to its credibility in this day and age. Before, having to create multiple characters for background purposes and aesthetics was cut down heavily in lieu of other mechanics that mattered more or because a developer might have had a deadline to meet. With the advancement of rendering technology, different textures on NPC's, more diverse character skins, gender markers (such as bows or beards) and bigger budgets from larger developers, such parts of games that were previously glazed over are seeing proper treatment as developers realize that these additions can lend to a more polished game.

Looks much more like a market now doesn't it?

In addition to these deeper bonds, some will lead to romantic relationships. Some games, such as Persona 3 & Persona 4, even track more advanced interactions usually seen in dating sims. By maxing out a relationship with a character, the protagonist can become closer to an NPC, which grants better stat bonuses and a greater affinity for the arcana she represents. This affects the ease of capturing certain personas and also unlocks the ultimate persona of that arcana. These added benefits are the driving force in how someone picks how they interact with another character, but the amount of choice required to build that relationship makes the gameplay much more morally ambiguous. 

I went for Yukiko myself, she was such an Oujousan

Having that "market feel" as a character is introduced to a city, the sorrow of seeing a child you helped in an earlier side quest get killed, the excitement to joining a guild and learning all about them & their secrets are all much more believable now that these choices must be made. And while imagination will always trump an  a a game with a certain visual setting, much like a movie of a book can change how you see the book from then on, the refinement of NPCs via their relationships with a character as well as their reaction to a player's choices all lend to the sustaining of believably and enjoyment of a game.