In an interview over at Gamasutra, Rob Yescombe, the writer for the upcoming PS3 FPS Haze, describes one of the developer’s goals for the project:

We want people to feel a little bit guilty about what they’re doing… We want you to feel claustrophobic, trapped inside this body doing these things and thinking, “Well fuck, I’m responsible for it.”

I plead guilty, Judge Dread!I can’t speak for everyone, especially retarded people because I have no idea what’s going on in their crazy heads, but I don’t think I want to be made to feel guilty during a game. Usually, when games present you with a moral choice, most people pick the one that doesn’t make them feel guilty. That’s the thing with guilt. People don’t really want to feel that way too often.

For example, when I smacked an old woman with the front of my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot, I felt pretty guilty about it. It wasn’t exactly a desired feeling, so I immediately thought to myself that she would have died soon anyway, with or without the help of my enormous metal death mobile. Needless to say, I felt a whole lot better. Guilt, gone.

Don’t worry, old people lovers. After I helped her up and she still had the strength to smack me in the face with her large black purse, that must of weighted fifty pounds from all of her colostomy gear, I knew that she would be just fine.

I guess the point, if there is one, is that I’ll pretty much avoid feeling guilty if I can. I don’t sit down at the end of a long hard day of avoiding all guilt and culpability in pretty much everything, to wind down by feeling guilty playing a game. Usually, when presented with an option, I’ll pick the one that makes me feel less like a terrible human being.

If you’re actually trying to make me feel guilty, and I can’t avoid it, then I’ll take the only other option and shut off the game that makes me feel like crap. I’m sure I’ll miss out on whatever valuable message I’m supposed to be learning from my entertainment, but maybe making me feel bad isn’t the way to go about it in the first place.

Later on in the interview Rob Yescombe says that they are definitely trying to keep the game fun, despite the guilt. Let me emphasis: a good way to do that is to not try and make us feel guilty in the first place. What are you, Catholic?

Good luck with that PS3 exclusive, though!