Thursday, February 26, 2009

Fable 2 Ending - Moral Choice

In a previous post I made a list of games that I owned, but had not finished. One of those games was Fable 2. This is a game I was playing before I went to the hospital. Last night I was up late again, and decided to play some of it. It turns out I wasn't so far from the end. It took me about an hour to actually finish the game (so one less in the list of unfinished games). The reason for this post is something that happens in the ending of this game, an interesting moral choice.

Upon finishing the game, after the hero defeats the villain and all that, the hero is granted a wish. But it's not just any wish, he must choose from three possibilities:

  • The Sacrifice - "The Needs of the Many": if the hero chooses this, all the people that have been killed by the evil during this adventure will be resurrected, brought back to life, except for those close to the hero, that is, his loved ones will not be resurrected. These include his dog (a loyal canine companion that fights along the hero throughout the whole adventure, and sacrifices himself at the end to save his master), his sister, and depending on whether you decided to marry during the game, his family (wife and children). So, he must sacrifice his loved ones for the many lives of members of other families, hundreds or thousands of people.
  • Love - The Needs of the Few: the hero chooses to save his loved ones, at the expense of all the people that were killed by the evil during the adventure (hundreds or thousands of people).
  • Wealth - The Needs of the One: the hero chooses to receive huge riches and gold, at the expense of all the people sacrificed during the adventure... no one is saved, and the hero receives big wealth.
Now, when I finished the game and got to this point, I had a hard time deciding what to do. I should point out that I usually play RPGs with a "good" or "noble" alignment, yet this decision was very tough to make. I didn't know what to do. If it had been a binary decision between money and the lives of people, that would have been easy. But here I am... How do I choose between my loved ones, and the many, many, loved ones of other people? Sticking to the good alignment precludes the money, of course.

I didn't know what to do. I went through several changes of mind... and I considered all three options seriously. I mean, how can I choose between these two groups of people, perhaps I should just take the money!

So if you happen to be reading this, I would like you to comment and tell me what your choice would be, and why. I am not going to expose here what my choice was now... I will do so later in a comment to this post. But before I would like to know what other people would have chosen.

10 comments:

Scott Harmon said...

One thing that makes the choice a bit easier is that everyone is already dead. This might be a consolation to some, since they may have already come to terms with the people dying. I think bringing the unknown people back would end up being easier because I would not have to suffer the possibility of my loved ones dying twice. :-p

C said...

The path of a true hero / heroine is one that shoulders the burdens of the world without ever once considering his / her wants.

But since this is just a game, just save before the decision and systematically choose all 3.

Apolo Imagod said...

@Chris I assume by your answer that you would choose "The Needs of the Many".

In this game you're not allowed to do that. The point is not "knowing" what happens after you make the choice, as the results are pretty much what is stated in the description. The point is the choice itself... which one would you choose?

Apolo Imagod said...

OK, so the choice I made was:

The Sacrifice - The Needs of the Many

It was a tough choice. I pondered about this for 20 mins. At some point I had decided I couldn't decide between the lives of so many and lives of my loved ones, so I would take the money and leave them to their original fate. But then, it didn't seem right that the hero would pass the chance at saving lives. So I figured, that as much as the hero loved those close to him, that were lost in battle, they had given their lives for a cause, and the cause was precisely "The Needs of the Many". So, I made the choice.

I was curious, in part by a comment made by a friend (that they should post statistics showing what people chose), about what other people had done here. So I went ahead and collected some data from about 100 different gamertags of people that had played and finished the game, and this what I found:

- 52% of those surveyed chose The Needs of the Few (saved their loved ones).
- 35% chose The Needs of the Many.
- 13% chose The Needs of the One.

So, the majority actually chose to save their loved ones over the people, which I found interesting. It's a good thing that greed took a far last place, much lower than the others :-)

AlexIrvin(Killerpop89) said...

Even though it was a game I felt like my heart sunk deep. When I had to choose between my loved ones or people that have loved ones. I have a Girl friend that I love so much I don't know what I do with out her. I also have a dog that was with me at a young age his not that old but, he is getting their but, I loved them both. Now seeing on a game what I would choose in the real life. I would have picked love but, if not I would pick save others and let my self go with god because without my loved ones I can't live with a beating heart.

Anonymous said...

Your dog helps kill people, finds treasure chests, and shows you where dig spots are. For this reason and this reason only, I have and will always chose the needs of the few, and I believe this is the reason anyone else picks it. Those who don't probably have the Knotwood Island download, where there is a tomb that can bring your dog back to life.

Anonymous said...

i took the money because i am heartless and evil

Kelly said...

I picked love, hell my family I can replace but my dog I cannot. He gave his life to save me, and has always been there for me. I couldn't let him die. Besides most of those men chose to go there and that is what their fate was. I love my dog, and I wouldn't trade him for thousands of lives.

Anonymous said...

Here's my late addition:
I go with love. The reason for this is that Sparrow owes everything to his sister... she practically raised him, and she certainly kept him alive for many years. And your dog? Your dog gave his damn life for you! You owe a debt to these people, and you have one chance to pay it back. The people killed in the creation of the spire? Casualties of war. Sure, it'd be nice to right that wrong, but hero or otherwise, you must have your priorities straight!
Nevertheless, I spent a good 30 minutes making this decision.
I did, however, also cheat to get the achievements: save after acquiring the music box, and when you choose choice a, then exit to the dashboard before the credits finish: you will have the achievement, and will be back in front of Lucian again. Then pick the next, repeat, and finally pick the world you wish to live in.

Unknown said...

I think a lot of the reason as to why people chose "needs of the few," is because in game the many that died in building the Spire were not met or even seen by the hero. The decision isn't to choose the life of your loved ones over the rest of the world, it's to a save mass amount of people from their deaths or let your loved ones be saved from their fates because of your influence in their lives. The mass of other people probably lived and died and had their own experiences but still lived while your loved ones had their lives taken. For good or bad or even consciously they die because of the heroes decision.

That is not even considering they all would die and stay dead if it had not been for the hero so he at least deserves some choice =P. You could even rationalize taking the money to boost the economy of Albion through the hero's purchases of said money. Although that's quite a stretch.

Or it could be even more
simple. It is just a game and the gamer could realize not having his dog to help find treasures and dig spots. Perhaps the Demon Door that can only be opened by performing your dogs tricks? As a completionist such as myself I would be lying to say that didn't factor into my decion =]. My decion of course the needs of the few.