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Originally posted by chill_rx:
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Karma is counter productive, it is also fustrating if you've ever had a bad karma in a game and tried to eneter a town and everyone tried to kill you on site then you can relate, it prevents you from finishing the game and reaching all of your objectives , anyway you can use karma in a different manner other then like in Ultima, for example you could do Karma like the luck stat in all other games the better your karma the less chance of random battles,higher escape percentage, critical hits etc,... tha way you can still finish the adventure if you behave like the stuff on peoples shoes, you'll just get the tar beat out of you...
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now, people are (I'm sure) going to spout out with replies like "nah, Chill just likes to play the bad guy, so he doesn't deserve to get hero benefits, blah, blah blah." well, I've gotta say that I agree with the chill here (and I think people take board personalites a little too seriously). Karma has, so far as I've seen it, rarely been implemented effectively in games. I'm a moma's boy when I'm playing RPGs, so I never dip my cup into the pool of evil for a drink. Still I find karma problems at every turn. Once your karma drops to a certain point in most games, you can never recover it, and it doesn't always get registered in the right way -- even in the most advanced of games. for instance:
in Baldur's Gate (in which I played one righteous SOB of a character), I discovered the problem that when you kill town guards or civillians that have been proclaimed "evil" by your sources, your group karma gets lowered. now, it makes sense that the unsuspecting townsfolk would take offense at your grievous actions, but your own partners? I think not. those with the inside scoop should not lower their oppinion of you when you do something for the accepted group good.
that's only a single example, but I encounter annoying little issues like that wherever I seen karma implemented on a global scale. sure, say what you'd like about morality being difficult in the real world, but these are games. you're building an enjoyable product, not a realistic one. so, I'd say either stay away from it (chill's solution was quite good), or really, really get it down pat.
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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi