Games: The Moral Dilemma

As many current games encroach upon the realistic benchmark (although there is such a thing as too realistic), developers have to look for ways to draw attention to their product; one of these is via a dynamic storyline, where the actions that one makes influences the next few levels, and ultimately the ending.

Usually this would be a feature of a genre of games called 'role playing games'. I am sure that most of youare familiar with these games which have their roots in Dungeons & Dragons, with such titles like Planetscape and Baldur's Gate, one of the latest being the Star Wars' Knights of the Old Republic II (KoToR II). Usually these games would have clear cut distinctions between the types of replies (and thus alignment) of your character, but KoToR II blurred the lines considerably.

At any rate here's a little sample of a typical small NPC (a computer controlled character) problem.

Scenario: Your character bumps into a beggar asking for money. Basically you could have three solutions: help the poor guy out, show apathy towards him, or you even hunt him down in cold blood. In short, good, neutral, and evil.

Now, here's the problem. If I give him money, I get berated by my travelling companion. Why?

'If you help him, and everyone helps him, he will never learn to be independent and will continue to rely on handouts' <--- OMG does this sound familiar??? Let me know if you need a hint.

Okay fine, so neutral is probably a decent choice. But then the beggar would plead and weep. Again, OMG so familiar. Grrrrr. Makes you want to cut him down, no?

The only problem is that I can't. I mean, he's just a poor beggar who needs money. He hasn't done me any harm, like point a gun at me or threaten to decapitate me. Its just... not in my nature to be evil (although I'm very capable of being apathetic).

I remember that I had played KoToR II before, twice. In the first, I had no problems playing the good (or 'Light Side'). I enjoyed the great subtle dialogues and everything. The second time around, I wanted to play the opposite side (basically for the cool Force Lightning and to experience the other ending). However, I had great difficulty getting myself to do the necessary evil acts to be 'worthy' of the Dark Side. The only way I could do it was to not read the dialogue and options, but to quickly select the last options (usually the 'good' options were at the top, with the 'bad' options at the bottom.

So for me, the replayability was basically slashed into half. But that's fine, because its not within my character anyway. Ultimately, good would triumph over evil one day.

Have you any such problems with moral decisions in games?