Whose fault is it if you don’t like what a game shows you about yourself?

[StaceyPowers]

@Shagger mentioned in another thread that gamers sometimes blame devs if, while playing a game, they discover something they don’t like about themselves or their choices.

I try to blame myself for those moments even when a quest seemed to “lead” me to finish it—after all, it was my choice to keep going. But I do see people who blow up at devs for trying to “steer” them toward a bad decision.

When this happens to you, do you feel an impulse to blame the dev? Under what situations?

[killamch89]

This is a very complex scenario but I'll say that in most instances, if the game starts "forcing" you to follow a path you don't want to, then the devs have to take responsibility for that. If you're given the option but another choice can be made and you still choose to follow that path, they you the player has to bear the consequences of that choice.

[m76]

I'm not sure what does it mean to "discover something they don't like about themselves or their choices"? About the protagonist?

I blame devs when a logical solution to a problem does not work, because that's not what they had in mind. When only one specific solution works for every problem in a game then the game becomes "Guess what the level designer was thinking here" instead of being able to immerse yourself in the world.

[The Blackangel]

Are you talking about a game revealing a negative aspect of your personality?

[Heatman]

Seriously, anything you don't like about your personality when it comes to what you see in games is absolutely your problem and not the developers fault.