History Main / VideoGameCaringPotential

** The cuddlefish in is basically designed for this. They are cute, pudgy fish with big eyes, a face that looks like it's smiling, and four little tentacles. There are only four eggs in the game, and once hatched they behave like dogs, following the player around unless told to stay and doing tricks for treats. You can even pet them. Players will murder any predator who even looks like they might be a threat to their cuddlefish, and many a player has become upset when they finish the game and realize that they can't take their cuddlefish with them when they [[spoiler:launch the Neptune escape rocket]] and leave the planet.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', the wealthy merchant Fournival is accused of multiple serious crimes, and it's up to the PlayerCharacter to decide his guilt or innocence with a guilty verdict resulting in his teenage daughter Symone being thrown out onto the street as their home is repossessed. You have the option to buy it back for her, although less wholesomely this also unlocks the option [[WifeHusbandry to romance her]].

-->-- '''WebVideo/{{Markiplier}}''' talking to [[CanineCompanion Bullet]], ''VideoGame/BlairWitch'' [[https://youtu.be/ZW-f_btEmoU?t=271 playthrough]]

** Even moreso in the sequel. You'd be shocked how much more incentive you have to protect them when they call you 'daddy' and all the creepily cute dialogue they have is directed at ''you''.

---> '''Shepard:''' You'll dream of a warm place. And when you wake up, you'll be in it.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' was ''built'' on it. For starters, your main protagonist begins as a six-year-old, and about as competent in combat -- but your father Pankraz frequently helps you travel the world, fights your enemies, and heals your wounds. Come the second act, you're on your own, with nothing more than an enigmatic quest to find your mother and make your father proud. Along the way, you will marry a woman and bear children (and name them, as well) -- [[spoiler: Only to be separated from them for eight years and forced to watch the childhood, and subsequent capture, of another boy.]] Come third generation, you will almost feel the determination the protagonist has to save the world, his mother and his wife with the help of his kids, his father's right-hand man, a ragtag group of {{Mons}} (some of whom you recruited in the second generation and fought beside you when you had no other allies) [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and a random soldier]].

** The ''Hearthfire'' [=DLC=] allows you to adopt and raise orphaned children. They will live in one of your houses and you can give them gifts and play games with them.

----> "...'expel'? Is 'expel'... good?"

-->'''Snowman:''' [[spoiler:Everyone may think you are a good person, but this snowman knows the truth.]]

-->'''Burgerpants:''' Little buddy... thank you. You've brought a tear to the eye of this old man.

** No matter how you play the game, one of the characters will always pass judgment on you right before the final boss. If you didn't kill anyone, he'll say that you didn't gain LV, but you did gain love, and that though you didn't kill anyone, that doesn't make you naive or a coward, it only means you kept a tenderness in your heart and that even when you ran away from a fight, you did it with a smile.

-->'''Lambert''': Fisher! If you compromise this mission for those men--\\
'''Fisher''': Save it, Irving. You gave me my orders already.\\

'''Lambert''': Alright Fisher, good job. He should be safe from the blast here, designate the wreckage with your EEV.\\

'''Lambert''': Sam, you need to designate the--\\
'''Fisher''': No point rescuing one and leaving the other.\\
'''Lambert''': You don't even exist, Fisher. You can't get a medal for this.\\
'''Fisher''': [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Medals don't help me sleep at night, Lambert.]]

* Somewhat averted in CDV games, notably the Conquest series. Despite almost EVERY SINGLE UNIT having its own experience, morale, and even phobias! ''VideoGame/AmericanConquest'' is especially bad for this, as human wave tactics are pretty much the only way to take a fort due to the sheer number of defences. See, even though you have all these stats, non-hero units tend to take damage like the squishy pink fleshlings that they are... Just created or alive since the start of the battle, a few shots from a musket will ruin any militia or trapper's day. The damage indicator is more an indicator of how accurate their weapons are, as you may see if you watch the spot of the impact graphic closely. Bullet impacts seem to deal percents, not numerical, while high health only really helps in melee. Also, cannonballs can mow through troops ridiculously accurate for their time period. One of the largest reasons behind the human wave requirement is how deadly fort cannons can be.

*** In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' (''Civilization'' [[RecycledINSPACE in space]]), Democratic Politics gives a boost to Growth and Efficiency, which you can combine with Knowledge Values and Cybernetic Future Society to achieve a Paradigm Economy (i.e. maximum Efficiency) with pretty much every faction (even the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Peacekeeping]] [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations Forces]]), meaning you can run a very large empire with ''far'' less money lost to corruption than under any other system, or combine with Planned Economics and Eudaimonic Future Society (which is basically Videogame Caring Potential in the form of a Social Engineering option) to get to a state of Population Boom (i.e. maximum Growth), which is a GameBreaker. (The direct boost to income is provided by Free Market Economics.)

** Despite the game's reputation for VideoGameCrueltyPotential, Paradox once released the statistics on what the most popular "ethics" were among the player base. "Egalitarian Xenophile" (ie, a free and equal society eager to make friends) was the most used ethic combo by far.

* Your main goal in ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'' is to cure patients and gain their trust by talking to them every day and helping them out with their problems.

* Heck, this is the whole point of "virtual pet" games... ''Franchise/{{Tamagotchi}}'', ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', etc.
** And the plaintive pleas to reconsider will make you feel like a real bastard if you ever put a Neopet up for adoption and leave the game.

** When Eggie loses sight of her pet cat Guylian, she asks you to find him and give him a warm smile after work. It doesn't give you any immediate benefits, but doing so will make the little girl happy.

* In ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Choice of Broadsides]]'', you can become good friends (and even lovers if you take the GayOption!) with Villeneuve, an [[FriendlyEnemy honorable pirate]]. If you do so and have high enough combat skills, you can choose to merely disarm him/her instead of outright killing him/her, upon which he/she will surrender voluntarily and say that if he/she has to give up his/her ship, [[WorthyOpponent at least it's to you]]. Tends to be much more satisfying than just offing him/her.

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'': Many Examples. Here's a few of them:

** The first time the player enters the city of Markath, they have a front row seat to a man drawing his weapon and sneaking up behind an NPC named Margret. ''Most'' players, the first time they see this will be so shocked and confused that they won't have time to act before the man kills her. Unlike most other games, you can not only protect this person, but the questline will continue on as normal with slightly changed dialogue to reflect your good deed. It's a really feelgood moment when you speak to Margret afterwards and she sincerely thanks you for saving her lifge.

** If you maintain your kindness throughout the game, it eventually proves to [[spoiler:your OldFriend Jihye]] that [[spoiler:you're Jisu Cha, the caring researcher who defied AVAC by trying to develop the cure for [[EmotionSuppression Fixer.]]

* ''VideoGame/MyChildLebensborn'' is very much a StrugglingSingleMother simulator in its RaisingSim aspect. The resource and time managment is built in such a way that meeting one of the child's needs all too often results in neglecting another. Doing one's best to care for the child as well as possible remains the caring way to play the game.

** When Eggie loses sight of her pet cat Guylian, she asks you to find him and give him a warm smile after work. It doesn't give you any benefits, but doing so will make the little girl happy.

** You're encouraged to be kind to your customers, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished even if it risks making you an enemy to AVAC for defying their laws]], and you're rewarded with a boost to your store's reputation. Some customers even ask you for money for things such as medical bills or advocating good causes, but giving it to them will eventually have them pay you back in kind by decorating your store.

** Despite the game's reputation for VideoGameCrueltyPotential, Paradox once released the statistics on what the most popular "ethics" were among the player base. "Egalitarian Xenophile" (ie, the generic good guy ethics) was the most used ethic combo by far.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' allows the player to protect young species and even ''uplift'' them (that is, give the technological knowledge for a species to ''take to the stars''). Just hope there's no kinks in the process, and that the science teams don't pull a species-wide prank.

** Another woman will say "I don't have anything to offer" when you offer to trade with her -- naturally if you give her a map, she will say "Thank you!" because it helps her find what she's looking for.

** You're encouraged to be kind to your customers, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished even if it risks making you an enemy to AVAC for defying their laws]], and you're rewarded with a boost to your store's reputation. Some customers even ask you for money and nothing else, but giving it to them will eventually have them pay you back in kind by decorating your store.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', you're encouraged to be kind to your customers, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished even if it risks making you an enemy to AVAC for defying their laws]], and you're rewarded with a boost to your store's reputation. Some customers even ask you for money and nothing else, but giving it to them will eventually have them pay you back in kind by decorating your store.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''. The nameless Grove Street mooks you pick up to assist in missions will chatter with C.J. on the way to the goal, giving him shit like all his named friends. Makes it hard to watch them mowed down like wheat. Of course it doesn't help they tend to fire wildly at every cop that comes by.
** An even better example is [[http://venturebeat.com/2010/06/05/my-four-year-old-son-plays-grand-theft-auto/ this story]] of a four-year-old whose father let him play San Andreas, only to discover that the innocent kid used the WideOpenSandbox potential to arrest criminals, help firefighters, and drive the wounded to the hospital in an ambulance, refusing to steal any cars or drive recklessly because that would be wrong.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' actually gives you the chance to spare several targets that you've been assigned to kill. Some of them even show up with little sidequests you can follow if you proceed to do so.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' has several moments of these: often you'll randomly encounter people in trouble, such as being held hostage, having their valuables stolen, or even trapped in a car wreck. You can ignore 'em, make things worse, or even go out of your way to help them out.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'': Ness abandoned the cookie.

*** Subverted with Cawlin who asks you to deliver a love letter to a classmate, or give it to a [[MythologyGag disembodied hand in a toilet]]. If you give it to the classmate, she rejects him and he balls up in his bed, crying. If you give it to the hand, the same scenario will play, but [[HilarityEnsues the hand falls in love with him.]]

* In the Downpour DLC for ''VideoGame/RainWorld'', you can eventually find and even adopt slugpups, which are juvenile slugcats. Take an already RidiculouslyCuteCritter and make it smaller, give it bigger eyes, and the personality of a kitten--that's a slugpup. Slugpups will sometimes help you in combat, but that's no guarantee, and it's hard enough to survive as is. Yet many players will adopt one or even two of the little guys to keep them company, and go out of their way to keep pups fed and sheltered. It helps that pups are very much randomly generated and as such each pup is unique in its own way, encouraging players to get attached.

* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'':
** The cuddlefish in is basically designed for this. They are cute, pudgy fish with big eyes, a face that looks like its smiling, and four little tentacles. There are only four eggs in the game, and once hatched they behave like dogs, following the player around unless told to stay and doing tricks for treats. You can even pet them. Many a player has become upset when they finish the game and realize that they can't take their cuddlefish with them when they [[spoiler:launch the Neptune escape rocket]] and leave the planet.
** Other fish sometimes are treated as pets by the players and left in time capsules for new players to find when they complete the game. Hoverfish are particularly popular.