Adventures that force you to do bad things.
Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 2:25 am
Warning: the topic of this thread discusses to the puzzles of several games, and their outcomes, therefore it contains spoilerzzz.
Recently it occurred to me that several adventure game pose some challenges to you, and you have to be a very naughty, bad boy (it's a boy usually) in order to overcome them.
Such challenges have to do mostly with items that you may need, and unfortunately are guarded by annoying people, so that you have to create a diversion and 'borrow' or steal them.
Of course, the circumstances are such that water down the evil of your deed: usually you have a noble mission to complete ('the ends justify the means' argument); usually the sufferers have been annoying, grumpy, arrogant, and generally less-than-good so they deserve what you did to them and sometimes they are old people who are oblivious of what just happened, so that they just won't miss what you just took from them; and usually there is a bitter humorous scent when you imagine the outcome.
An early example is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where if you don't have enough Marks to buy a zeppelin ticket...
you can distract a man in the airport and have Indy or his dad steal his ticket from his pocket. It isn't as bad as it seems, since that man is rude and shoos you away when you try talking to him, and after all you must save the world
Another example is the storekeeper from the first Monkey Island...
You have to send him away in order to steal a credit note from him in order to buy a ship from Stan. The credit not says specifically that the storekeeper is accountable for the holder of the credit. Yes, the storekeeper is a bad character who likes to insult you and be grumpy all the time. So it is fun just to imagine his face when Stan gets to him and asks for his money.
Another example from the second Monkey Island when Stan...
must be sealed inside a coffin. Ok, Stan is an annoying character, an immoral merchant and it is funny just to see his unstopping comments while he is inside the coffin But still... isn't it a bit too much?
Neither the Storekeeper or Stan are enemies or "evil" characters. They are not LeChuck or his henchmen. It is perfectly OK for me to punish evil characters/enemies such as by pushing the witch Dalia in her boiling pot but such 'neutral' characters have to suffer simply because they stand in your way.
Another example is when you have to cheat in a game or contest in order to win a useful item. Such is the spitting contest in MI2, the beauty contest in Day of the Tentacle, and the diving contest in MI3. And not to mention cruelty to animals: You have to abuse a couple of monkeys in the MI games; in The Dig, you have to kick an (occupied) bird nest simply because it was built on a device; and in a couple of games you have to freeze a rodent
Other things that annoyed me are instances when I had to use a bone from a human skeleton (eg. to give to a dog), or fooling someone who asks something by giving him a substitute (the blind Deadeye Dave in MI4). Oh and there was that sick puzzle in Runaway where you must make a coffee out of ancient Mayan coffee beans.
Not to mention the whole voodoo sidequest in MI2.
Now I am thinking of it, such puzzles qualify as black humor, which is acceptable, but some strike me as bad taste. And they are seen mostly in LucasArts games; Sierra games in that matter are more family friendly, with the occasional exceptions of course (eg. keep the pimp occupied in LSL1 so that you don't pay him; or the Thief in QfG).
How have you felt on such puzzles? Anyone which you judged as being bad taste? And would you think that such puzzles can 'teach' wrong things to minors?
Recently it occurred to me that several adventure game pose some challenges to you, and you have to be a very naughty, bad boy (it's a boy usually) in order to overcome them.
Such challenges have to do mostly with items that you may need, and unfortunately are guarded by annoying people, so that you have to create a diversion and 'borrow' or steal them.
Of course, the circumstances are such that water down the evil of your deed: usually you have a noble mission to complete ('the ends justify the means' argument); usually the sufferers have been annoying, grumpy, arrogant, and generally less-than-good so they deserve what you did to them and sometimes they are old people who are oblivious of what just happened, so that they just won't miss what you just took from them; and usually there is a bitter humorous scent when you imagine the outcome.
An early example is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where if you don't have enough Marks to buy a zeppelin ticket...
you can distract a man in the airport and have Indy or his dad steal his ticket from his pocket. It isn't as bad as it seems, since that man is rude and shoos you away when you try talking to him, and after all you must save the world
Another example is the storekeeper from the first Monkey Island...
You have to send him away in order to steal a credit note from him in order to buy a ship from Stan. The credit not says specifically that the storekeeper is accountable for the holder of the credit. Yes, the storekeeper is a bad character who likes to insult you and be grumpy all the time. So it is fun just to imagine his face when Stan gets to him and asks for his money.
Another example from the second Monkey Island when Stan...
must be sealed inside a coffin. Ok, Stan is an annoying character, an immoral merchant and it is funny just to see his unstopping comments while he is inside the coffin But still... isn't it a bit too much?
Neither the Storekeeper or Stan are enemies or "evil" characters. They are not LeChuck or his henchmen. It is perfectly OK for me to punish evil characters/enemies such as by pushing the witch Dalia in her boiling pot but such 'neutral' characters have to suffer simply because they stand in your way.
Another example is when you have to cheat in a game or contest in order to win a useful item. Such is the spitting contest in MI2, the beauty contest in Day of the Tentacle, and the diving contest in MI3. And not to mention cruelty to animals: You have to abuse a couple of monkeys in the MI games; in The Dig, you have to kick an (occupied) bird nest simply because it was built on a device; and in a couple of games you have to freeze a rodent
Other things that annoyed me are instances when I had to use a bone from a human skeleton (eg. to give to a dog), or fooling someone who asks something by giving him a substitute (the blind Deadeye Dave in MI4). Oh and there was that sick puzzle in Runaway where you must make a coffee out of ancient Mayan coffee beans.
Not to mention the whole voodoo sidequest in MI2.
Now I am thinking of it, such puzzles qualify as black humor, which is acceptable, but some strike me as bad taste. And they are seen mostly in LucasArts games; Sierra games in that matter are more family friendly, with the occasional exceptions of course (eg. keep the pimp occupied in LSL1 so that you don't pay him; or the Thief in QfG).
How have you felt on such puzzles? Anyone which you judged as being bad taste? And would you think that such puzzles can 'teach' wrong things to minors?