The moment that inspired this question:
A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.
The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.
One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”
I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.
… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.
I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.
I encountered a rogue AI in Starfield that was kind of a trip. I ended up letting it go to be its own person.
Loved that random little side quest.
If you go the other option, the outcome is quite chilling.
What happens?
The AI starts to die slowly but after you leave the ship, the 2 Ryujin agents stay with the AI, and in its dying moments the AI decides to shut off the oxygen killing the agents onboard then self destructs.
Damn. I’m glad I picked the other option. Though in sure it too much to hope that I’ll encounter it again out in the blackest sea
Yeah that’s basically why I let it exist because I didn’t want to have to encounter it as an enemy later on haha.