Rule Breaking - Sort Of

I've been really really REALLY busy this week since Wednesday because we've had over 10 employees quit over at Kroger, so I'm putting what little experimentation time I've had on my blog here. Bullshit aside, here's what I did. I examined rules, in the video game world.



Surprised? Well I thought not. There's always been a lot of "Don't do this" or "Do this and something bad will happen" stuff since video games have existed, and a lot of instances of these rules have been set. Most, if not all of them are meant to be broken in order to beat the game, but I found 2 rules that you can break that have different repercussions, that aren't required to beat the game.

GAME 1 - Paper Mario - The Thousand Year Door




















One of the more notable moments of this game is where you have to examine an empty train car because someone heard noises from it. Upon entering, it is empty, but when you hide yourself for long enough, a ghost will appear.

Creepy, Right?

Anyway, your goal is to get a blanket from his room, and he says he'll exchange it for his diary that he's kept in the train for the many years that his luggage has been left on here. Just before you leave, he tells you that "If you read the diary, your luck will turn terrible" It's then that you have an unwritten rule of Don't Read the Diary. 

So you get to the back and you get to the diary, and sure enough, you have the option to read it. And good lord was I ever curious. It even gives you a warning when you pick it up that "You shouldn't read it". And even when you choose to read it, there's an even longer rant about how bad it would be if you read it, 2 warnings pop up even after you say yes the first time. Boy you REALLY want to break this rule!

Well you get a page in, and he shows up, SCREAMS AT YOU about reading it, and promptly kills you. Can't say you weren't warned! 

GAME 2 - Legend of Zelda - A Link To The Past

First off, this game is entirely exploration, there's almost no rules. There was on instance in this game that I remember there being a rule, and it turned out to be one of the coolest moments ever. In the Northwestern Part of the Dark World, there's a small pond area, with rocks surrounding an area in the body of water.

Just before this there's a sign stating DO NOT THROW ANYTHING INTO THE CIRCLE OF ROCKS. I believe there was an 'or else' warning there as well, but the statement was clear. Don't fuck around with those rocks. 

So what do you do? Well, pick up a rock and chuck it in of course. Then the whole screen shakes and a giant catfish jumps out of the water in the circle. Shit. Not good. Again, you were warned...

Well this Catfish was just a little pissed that you woke him up, and gives you an awesome attack item and tells you to go away. And with that, this area becomes useless now. Even if you chuck another rock in there, nothing happens. But hey, breaking the rules here lead to awesome stuff.



The creativity aspect comes from the repercussions. If I were to be a game designer and make a bunch of rules in games that could be broken, I could come up with really bland "don't do that" or "because of this you can't do this anymore" Or I could come up with something really unique and reward, or punish the player depending on the rule or situation. In a more real world sense, this can also be implemented in workplace or school environments, set them up as guidelines, but make them breakable to a point, so long as there's some direction.

What I think I'll do is go the route of Paper Mario for my book and warn people not to read it on one of the first pages, more than likely, that rule will be broken. I wonder how I can get a ghost to pop out of the book though... Another time...