***DISCLAIMER: This article is entirely the opinion of the author, Jeff J. Wilson.  Any issues you have with the statements in this article should be directed at him and him alone via the comments section.  That is all.***

Gamers have been faced with choices in games for many years.  Sometimes they are weapon & class choices (like Soldier, Archer or Mage), sometimes it's simple survival (hop on Goomba or BE KILLED!), and sometimes it's moral choices (do good things & be a Jedi or do bad things & go Sith).  With the exception of class choices, virtually all video game "choices" are actually just binary options, Option A or Option B.  Well, we finally have reached the zenith of binary options, the choice between Heaven (salvation) & Hell (damnation).

I am, of course, discussing the latest Visceral Game, Dante's Inferno, based on everyone's favorite epic poem about the nine circles of Hell.  As a piece of full disclosure, I have only played the demo of this God of War clone, so my impressions are based on that and Giant Bomb's quick look of the game.  However, that's enough to discuss what I want to discuss here, so keep in mind this is not a review, but my opinion on what this game tells us about the human mindset.  Bail now if that doesn't sound interesting.

Throughout Dante's, you are given the option of saving or condemning the enemies and tortured souls you encounter in the game.  Both of which are noticably brutal methods of sending someone to their eternal reward/punishment, but that's the game world we're in.  Dante doesn't have time to administer the Last Rites or perform an exorcism to EVERYONE, so both processes are sped up quite a bit into pretty simple quick time events.  The in-game upshot of all this is that you get experience points to power up your good or evil skills (I am unclear if this effects the plot whatsoever, but I'm lead to believe it does not).  This is a mechanic we've seen in countless games (such as Infamous, Knights of the Old Republic, Bioshock, etc.) but none of them framed it as providing ascension to Heaven or banishment deeper into Hell.

What I find interesting is that while human beings are presented with similar binary options on a daily basis, albiet with less serious consequences, it is our heroes in film, comics, literature and television who often find ways to avoid making such decisions.  Present John McClain with a binary option (put the gun down or I'll shoot your wife) and he finds a third way out (put the gun down, but draw the second gun you taped to your back when the adversary least expects it) and wins the day.  Video games are unique in this field in that there are only ever two options, A or B.  We aren't allowed to improvise a third option, unless it's an option the developer thought of themselves.  Perhaps this limitation will be overcome in the future, as more emergent gameplay surfaces, but I feel that it will ultimately remain.  Reason being, we define ourselves by binary choices; Good or bad, gay or straight, rich or poor, pretty or ugly.  Walking the path between is difficult and not often done.

Which brings me back to the ultimate binary choice of the western world: Heaven or Hell.  As a note, if it exists, I, Jeff J. Wilson, Athiest & blatant comma over-user, WILL go to Hell.  Being that I don't believe it exists, however, I'm allowed to walk the path between the light & dark, where I can make genuine choices about the situations I face.  People who believe in the concept of Heaven & Hell have their choices tainted by such knowledge.  They don't do good things for the reasons I do them, but rather to ensure your ascension to Heaven or to avoid your descent into Hell.  This can be blanketed in morality, but if your morality is based on fear, you are acting out of fear and fear alone.  Morality should require neither punishment nor reward.  A truly moral person will do good things because they make life better for someone else, not because of an eventual reward for doing good.

So, how does all this tie into games and the human mindset?  The choices we make in games are not, after all, a mirror of what we would do in a similar situation in reality.  Most of us realize we are playing a game with definate mechanics and will act in the way that benefits us the most.  If that means harvesting Adam from little girls in Bioshock or being cruel to old men in KOTOR so we can use Force Lightning sooner, that is how the majority of us will act.  Is everything we do boiled down to a cost vs. benefit equation?  Are we incapable of making a genuine choice in games?  For the time being, the answer is probably yes.

However, there is hope in the form of the Mass Effect series.  I have heard from many a podcast over the last couple of weeks that the choices made in Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2 are at times so complicated in their outcomes that the designers themselves can't remember what happens.  Being unable to know precisely what the cost or benefit of a choice is allows us to make a genuine choice.  In this age of walkthroughs and FAQs available at our fingertips however, the time when we can stay uninformed is largely dependent on our own self control, not a trait most gamers share.

Think about your own behavior in games for a second.  When was the last time you didn't check the acheivement list or use a FAQ to get through a difficult part or just follow your friend's advice on how to best play the game?  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe people are freeer than I give them credit for, but it doesn't look like the designers listen to them very much.