The Fable of Good and Evil 

Platform(s): Xbox
Released: Aug 2004
Game Type: Role-playing action

Rating: M (Mature)

Developer: Lionhead Studios

Publisher: Microsoft

Homepage: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/f/fable/default.htm

Good and evil are two very real properties of our world, but the relationships that are drawn in videogames rarely paint a true picture.  Nor are they intended to.  There is one game, however, that will be an interesting platform for a discussion of good and evil in human beings. 

In this visually stunning role-playing game (RPG), you play the part of a young boy whose home town is attacked by bandits and all the members of his family are slain or taken away.  It is a scenario we have all heard of before — Lancelot comes to mind.  Fable deliberately draws from well-known fantasy archetypes and themes to create an interactive ‘fable’ we will all be familiar with.

The young boy is trained at the Guild of Heroes and goes out into the world in typical bildungsroman style, to make something of himself.  He starts out by doing battle with standard baddies such as bandits, trolls, werewolves, nymphs, giant wasps and countless other monsters.  The hero can also ‘emote’ other people by burping, farting, flirting or sneering, for example.  The more renowned you become, the more ‘emote’ abilities you have access to and the more power you have over other people.

The interesting thing about Fable is that, to a certain extent, you can choose what kind of person your character becomes.  The character literally becomes pale (blonde-haired) with a halo over his head if he does lots of ‘good deeds’.  A character that does mostly ‘bad deeds’ becomes dark-haired and fearsome.

Recently, gamers have experienced a new dimension in RPG character development.  A good and evil gauge is affected by each choice the player makes.  In Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR), the player’s actions determine whether they will become an evil Jedi of the dark side or a virtuous Jedi of the light side. 

Fable has a similar gauge system whereby the killing of civilians, stealing, vandalism or similar adds ‘evil’ points.  Major plot events are often defined by the character’s choice, whether ‘good’ (killing the bandits) or ‘evil’ (assisting the bandits).  The Hero gets paid either way.  For example, at the end of the Arena battle, the Hero must choose whether to show mercy to a fellow student of the Hero’s Guild or to kill her.

It is interesting to see games take a new path down the road of cause and effect.  Fable, KoTOR, Morrowind, World of Warcraft and many other games now seem to be highlighting the fact that there are consequences to our actions.  But are good/evil gauges like those in Fable and KoTOR oversimplifying things? 

Of course they are, but that doesn’t mean they are a bad addition to a game.  In fact, these alliance gauges seems like a step toward making games more immersive and possibly adding more value to the game as a piece of ‘art’. 

That’s not to say that the ‘good-aligned’ Hero is entirely good, mind you.  In this game, he can quite easily have a wife in every town.  There is a record in the character’s profile that lists the number of shags he’s had.  Another action of dubious morality is the buying and selling of houses in Fable.  But then, is buying and selling houses in the ‘real’ world ever a morally sound exercise?

Despite the game’s constant hinting that you can buy certain items and sell them for more elsewhere, it is difficult to make any profit trading in items.  There is a way to ‘cheat the system’ however.  When you buy a house, you can put a trophy you’ve won up on the wall and sell the house for more than you paid for it.  But trophies are only worth a few thousand dollars and you lose the trophy when you sell the house unless…  If you smash the door to bits before you sell the house, you can run right in and take the trophy off the wall.  You can then buy and sell the house all over again, each time making a profit equal to the value of the trophy.  Neither the smashing of the door or the ‘stealing’ of the trophy incurs any ‘evil’ points.

It is even possible to get the Hero drunk by tossing back ale at the local tavern.  By about number 8, the Hero staggers around a bit and the game visuals become blurry.  You can still walk around, but you should expect some funny reactions from NPCs (Non-player characters).  Thankfully, this effect wears off much more quickly than it would in real life!

So in some ways, Fable highlights the fact that people cannot be completely perfect or completely evil.  Unless the player knows the game world very well, he or she will inevitably blunder and earn ‘evil’ points or, if they’re trying to be ‘evil-aligned’, they may do something that inadvertently benefits somebody and earns ‘good’ points.  Like in the ‘real’ world, it seems to be impossible to be perfectly ‘good’ or perfectly ‘evil’.