Rockstar Might Introduce a Karma System in the Next Grand Theft Auto

Well, even the greatest videogames have room for improvement. One year after the release of GTA IV, which was one of the best selling titles of 2008 and made it on many Game of the Year lists, Rockstar is apparently already prototyping some concepts for the next release in the series.

A survey spotted by forum users seems to be asking whether morality should be featured in Grand Theft Auto, via a karma system.

The question that gamers were asked was “Do you think the Grand Theft Auto series would benefit from having a karma system or good vs. evil actions mechanism that allowed you to choose your overall path by doing good or bad actions, where those actions have a cumulative impact on how the game unfolds?”

The question came courtesy of a Play Insights survey and the results will probably be intensely scrutinized back at the Rockstar headquarters, as introducing a morality system in a series that is praised for the chaotic destruction the player’s character can inflict may be a deal breaker for some gamers.

In all the GTA games available at the moment, the only concern a player has when running someone over, high jacking a car or gunning down some opponents is whether the police can see the crime and give chase.

Basically, the threat of the law was the only limitation for what you could do. A karma system would mean that killing someone, as opposed to letting them go, would drastically change the way the rest of the game plays out. On the one hand, it would offer a more repayable experience. On the other hand, it would probably limit the options that the player has, as there is a certain tendency for videogames to favor the “good” patch. Of course, much depends on the way in which Rockstar plans to use this rumored karma system.