Trigger Happy
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impossible, task). The old-style scrolling shooter Metal
Slug already has a rudimentary version of such a
“consequences” system: if your plane is shot down, the
game doesn’t instantly stop; instead, you get captured
and have to fight your way out of prison.
This idea could eventually induce a gnawing sense
of personal guilt that is not evoked by novels or films,
where we pity or regret the fates of characters who
remain distinctly “other people.” Outcast, as we saw,
has made some steps toward this system of moral
causation, yet it simply requires the player to rebuild
his or her reputation after an act of foolish violence, so
mistakes can in effect be erased.
Enriching this idea, if attempted, will not be a
trivial design task. It would only come to work
properly if the paradigm of replayability were
abandoned, for as Alain and FrÉdÉric Le Diberder
argue, if you are able to wind back to a stage before
your error, you have not made a moral decision but
simply explored a branch of a system. So videogame
creators interested in a new moral architecture would
need to somehow create a template for action that
doesn’t stop, yet still offers the adrenaline thrill of
physical danger or swordplay and firefights. One way
to do this has been suggested by the fascinating though
