With people sitting on either side of the fence with the “Violence in video games” debate, I’ve always been one to say that it has no bearing whatsoever on personal choices. Killing someone in a game does not make me want to kill someone in real life. Not once has a choice in a game given me pause in real life until I dove into the world of Albion during the epic adventure that is Fable III.
I purchased the game at its midnight release and hunkered down in bed to play all night. After checking the Achievement list, I was concerned about a few of the “LIVE only” awards that involved getting married and having children. As the night progressed and my husband watched me play, he decided to go get a copy, which eased my fears as I didn’t have to marry some random. All good right?
Yes, it started out that way. We found each other in Brightwall Village and made it official again, and I actually took pictures with my real life digital camera during our wedding. We had a baby (during said cut scene I cried real tears) and named it “Wenis” as we name everything that can be named in any game, adding Jr. and IV where appropriate.
He went about his adventures and I mine until all emotional hell broke loose. About three hours into my husband’s game, the infamous Sanctuary glitch happened and he couldn’t use the map or save the game. That was enough for him, so he gave the game away to my brother.
So, I’m out a partner and my baby is stuck on my husband’s hard drive. Should this bother me? Probably not, but it most certainly does. I am so desperate to have them back that I use my Fable Village Maker code and put a clone into my game. I give him my husband’s name and I have another baby and I pretend all is well. Yet I can’t stop thinking about my first born and how awful it is to live without her.
When my cloned husband gives me an STD, I yell to my real husband that he’s an asshole.
So what’s wrong with me?
I’m an emotional person, always have been and always will be. When faced with the consequences in this game, it ended up breaking my heart. I know people that have played the entire Fable series as evil who are genuinely saints in real life, yet there’s no way I could play the series if I didn’t have the choice to be good to everyone. When I married my husband again it reminded me how much I love him, while having a baby reminded me of the struggles I’ve had for ten years trying and failing to conceive. Losing my baby to my husband’s hard drive made me mourn all over again for the miscarriage I suffered.
When faced with the exact same choices, others have no problems coping and these things have little or no effect on them.
So I have to ask the obvious question….
I’m an emotional person and this game affected me emotionally out of game.
If a person with a violent personality plays a violent game, will it affect them out of game?
I’m not sure of the answer, but I do believe we are who we are, game or no game.
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