Infamous Karma System

The third-person action game InFamous features a "Karma System" that is influenced by the player's actions in the game and, in turn, changes how people in the game world react toward the player.Joystiq: InFamous karma system revealed InFamous has a release date of May 26, 2009.

1. Hero
2. Champion
3. Guardian
4. Neutral
5. Thug
6. Outlaw
7. InfamousIGN: Karma System Hands-On

Moral dilemmas in video games are nothing new. From harvesting Little Sisters in BioShock to running over pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto IV, gamers have had to make choices based on basic human decency for a while now. InFamous takes these choices and expands upon them by allowing the player to directly influence the way the in-game world reacts to him. For example, if the player decides to have posters hung around the city that announce him to be a ruthless enforcer, the world will fear him. If the player chooses to instead hang a poster that promotes him as a savior and hero, the city general will adore him.

Some of the choices aren't so black and white, though, and it will sometimes be difficult to separate the good choices from the bad, adding to player's own personal influence within the game world.IGN: Karma System Hands-On

In a live chat posted on the PlayStation.Blog, game director Nate Fox stated that there is no neutral karma option because players tend to want to be either really good or really evil and, during testing, ignored the neutral option.Destructoid: Neutral karma, not in inFamous because no one cared about it (May 21, 2009)