In fact if anything else this place was a good place to test reactions in stressful situations considering one of the earlier scenarios involves you fleeing the only place you've known as home due to your father's sudden disappearance. Your actions do have effects on the game. The most basic being if you shoot someone they're not exactly going to be around later (this isn't a issue in other Role Playing Games; non-hostile characters are untargetable for attacks. Not so in Fallout 3. Careful with the splash damage on that rocket launcher)
The games immersion is dependent on how much you feel you can soak yourself into it, like a bath in the games many radioactive pools. My immersion for me was absolutely cemented one day when I told a friend (who was watching me play in real life) that I was going to find this drug dealer who lived in an abandoned railway station and offload all the drugs I had accumulated through my travels (mostly through shooting and looting bandit hideouts). A issue cropped up when I arrived there to find that the dealer had absolutely no money to buy things off me. I considered that since his utility to me was now squat that it might not be a bad idea to kill the dealer and take his stock to sell somewhere else. What is one less drug dealer in this blasted hellscape? Unfortunately (fortunately for him) as I shouldered my Chinese made Assault Rifle and sighted on his face he referenced my Karma level (basically scales from Very Good to Neutral to Very Bad depending on your actions in game. Which affects how people treat you) and said "Its so nice to know that there are still good people like you in the wasteland" Could not shoot him. Could not press the moue button to gain a few thousand dollars worth of drugs over a dealer's corpse in a nuclear hellhole. My friend would not stop laughing about it, but I simply could not pull the trigger. I slung my rifle and went off dumbfounded into the distance.
What I appreciate about the game was that due to the Post-Apocalyptic setting most of your responses were written weighted towards the cynical end. Which was more in line with my mindset rather than "I'll do this quest for free because I am the stalwart hero of the land" writing I normally encounter. Bugger that, if you want me to end up knee deep in ogre guts I'm asking for double standard pay. Whatever standard pay for this nonsense is. Also, sometimes you come across non-hostile people who are downright obstructive in your travels. Not hostile, just obstructive. In most RPG's you have to do something for them to get around it. In Fallout 3; happily, the option to use your various assortment of weaponry is always an option. However if you need them for something in future then well, maybe you should have been less hasty cowboy.
I like using games as introspection into one's own character. I think how you decide to play to some extent does reflect upon your core character. Not all the time. When I was playing GTA I certainly didn't have vehicular murder in mind to act out in real life. It really depends on how much escape you seek in a game. But at the same time video games aren't that different from any other form of games or recreation especially when played with other people. Your character shows through. And I find it interesting to reflect upon those.
I'll give an example with the latest game I've been playing so far "League of Legends". A game belonging to the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre. The basic idea of the game is two opposing teams have a headquarters building. The first team to destroy the opposing headquarters wins. Battle takes place on a symetrical map with headquarters on opposing sides of the map. Team composition normally consists of up to 5 heroes/Chamipons each with different abilities and playstyle. A good team is one that combines the ability of all its members to take down the other team quickly and push on towards the headquarters.
The different classes can be split into 3 main generic classes with further sub division along the way. The 3 main classes being tank (a person who bears the brunt of the damage for the team.) Mage (person with a lot of spells slinging high damage fire balls around. Very frail) and Carry ( person who has abilities late in the game that can decimate the other team quickly normally but requires babysitting early on to not die. Very frail as well)
In a lot of low level/public matches you can find most people picking a Carry because they want to simply get the highest kill rate (ignoring the actual objective of the match) and then immediatly lock their choice in. Then start demanding someone tank (normally whoever hasn't picked yet) These are the sort of people who never stop to discuss with rest of the team what a balanced composition should look like and that maybe perhaps everyone shouldn't be fragile people with no early game presence. The games have a lot of nuance but I was hoping to illustrate with this that the people who actually choose the tank class are much rarer (willingness to scarfice for the greater good by absorbing the damage). Those who can tank well are even rarer. In this sense I feel you can tell some aspect of a person's character from how they game.
I was chatting to a friend's brother about these games and I asked him what he played "A carry uncounterable by disorganized teams was his response (well, not accurately, but that was the hero type he chose). Unsurprisingly he was boring conversation...
Well, this ramble on games has gone on long enough. I'm curious if others use games as a means to test themselves in stressful simulations and see their character. Leave a comment!
NB. The picture of the post is a Operant Conditioning Box. Yes, aspects of it have been used in games. Fun stuff.
Ps. I play tank and nuker if you're asking. I go mad if I try carry. I do enjoy it from time to time. Just don't have the solo-hunter mindset. In the middle of chaotic battles the good carry is the perfect assassin. Picking off vulnerable targets swiftly and departing. The mage throws spells from safety. The tank wades in and disrupts the enemy's plans as much as possible.
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