The moment that sold me on the game was... (spoilers)

[Kylestien]

When you have to keep the secret of pocketing Joe Duval's earnings, because SOMEHOW that is the morally correct thing to do in hindsight..

Ok, so. First time playing the game, no idea how any of it works. The option to hide the money comes up. I take it, because a million dollars is everything right now. I have NOT been asked to build a security building yet, and have no legal protection, not even mid level.

The secret gets out. Duvall's father and his aunts threatens to sue me if I don't pay up. I tell them I will see them in court. We go to court and I have a 10% chance of victory because no legal protection. I spend my remaining 50 Influence points to round it up to 35%.

I fail. Joe's dad and aunts gets the money. I have to pay 2 million in damages.

7 days later, they are found dead in a pool hotel. Heroin overdose. They took the money and went on a binge. A binge that killed them.

It was then I realised that in this instance, pocketing the money was actually the morally right thing to do. Which is ironically the opposite of what you'd expect. You would expect "pocket the winnings from the money" to be the bad guy choice... but when giving them it results in their deaths, is it really?

That was when I knew this game would be something special. The right choice is not always obvious, not until way later or a second play though. Ever since then, Security and Mid level Legal Protection are among my first upgrades.

I would be curious to hear your thoughts on what moment sold you on it.

[veevoir]

It was not morally good thing to do, decisions morality has to be judged at the moment you make it. Because when you make the decision - you do not know the effect. The decision is: I am going to steal the money that is owed to Duval's family. It is morally wrong - it's stealing.

The fact that a year or two later you will learn they use the money and kill themselves with it doesn't matter. IF you knew at the moment of making the decision "hey, they are dope fiends and giving them money will kill them" - then we can talk about more murky moral ground ;)

But yeah, in general this is what Weappy are good at - writing non-obvious scenarios. Where not every good deed goes unpunished, not every bad deed is punished and life has its own twists and turns.

[Kylestien]

Originally posted by veevoir:

It was not morally good thing to do, decisions morality has to be judged at the moment you make it. Because when you make the decision - you do not know the effect. The decision is: I am going to steal the money that is owed to Duval's family. It is morally wrong - it's stealing.

The fact that a year or two later you will learn they use the money and kill themselves with it doesn't matter. IF you knew at the moment of making the decision "hey, they are dope fiends and giving them money will kill them" - then we can talk about more murky moral ground ;)

But yeah, in general this is what Weappy are good at - writing non-obvious scenarios. Where not every good deed goes unpunished, not every bad deed is punished and life has its own twists and turns.

Oh at the time of the first playthough, I wasn't doing it ENTIRELY out of morals, I needed the cash. It's only with the power of hindsight and in future runs that it became the "Moral" thing to do.

BUT they also did hint at him drinking it all away when the question was raised initially, so that WAS a factor for me too. A lesser factor, if I'm being perfectly honest, since my studio was also in a bad spot at the time. But still one that influenced the decision.

[The Queen Salis]

My first playthrough I was trying to run a clean ship so I sent the money because that was still net profit. I reasoned that rich fokers can be way more annoying later (exactly what happens)
I stand by this being the correct approach even tho when you cheat them they lay down the bs THICK.

I'm unsure if it is possible to either keep the secret or win the lawsuit because I failed both in my second run.

So they're going to self-destruct with this money. Not my business. I am not their keeper. They are adult people.

The only morally correct to restrict someone's self-destructive tendencies in a situation like this would be if the money was allocated into something beneficial to the owner, even if not given directly. The game offers no avenue to do that so the choice was "Give them X money" and "try to cheat them for my benefit and end up giving them way more money"

This is said without any data on if it's even possible to keep this secret/win the lawsuit, so I am curious

[Kylestien]

Originally posted by The Queen Salis:

My first playthrough I was trying to run a clean ship so I sent the money because that was still net profit. I reasoned that rich fokers can be way more annoying later (exactly what happens)
I stand by this being the correct approach even tho when you cheat them they lay down the bs THICK.

I'm unsure if it is possible to either keep the secret or win the lawsuit because I failed both in my second run.

So they're going to self-destruct with this money. Not my business. I am not their keeper. They are adult people.

The only morally correct to restrict someone's self-destructive tendencies in a situation like this would be if the money was allocated into something beneficial to the owner, even if not given directly. The game offers no avenue to do that so the choice was "Give them X money" and "try to cheat them for my benefit and end up giving them way more money"

This is said without any data on if it's even possible to keep this secret/win the lawsuit, so I am curious

Can't speak on the moral stance, but it's entirely possible to keep the secret, I managed to do so on every subsequent run so far by building the Security building and hiring a guy to put on it.

I have no idea on if you can win the case. Maybe if you get Mid Level Legal Protection before they find out? Without it it was only a 10% chance, (boostable to 35% with Influence Points) i don't know what the chances are if the upgrade's got since it leaked before I got it.

[greifental]

Originally posted by The Queen Salis:

I'm unsure if it is possible to either keep the secret or win the lawsuit because I failed both in my second run.

Build security building, hire a security officer, assign him to the secret and you should be safe. At least I was in my playthroughs.

Lawsuit is a game of chance. You definately can be lucky (saw it on a stream twice) and win it, but the odds are against you.

[CryonicSuspension]

You don't know if they would have used the money for rehab. I think your brain is doing mental gymnastics, to justify an immoral choice after the fact, and the suggestion never came from you, it was from the other guy... but the outcome had my jaw on the floor.

It made me think of an Emilia Clarke movie, "Above Suspicion (2019)" based on a true story.

It's a difficult decision because you have to weigh the lives of employees in the company. I did pocket the money in both of my playthroughs but I had the voice in my head saying, "This is wrong".

I would have tried to delay payment in real life, and probably fired the guy who found the secret, if it got out ( in the second playthrough, game spoiler: the secret did not get out ).

[Padelboot]

I paid the money, because I want to be as clean as I can be. Sure, it''s a Weappy game, so some "everyday corruption" will be needed, but in this case I felt it was wrong to pocket the money. Duvall delivered a fantastic last film and I felt the need to honour that. The heroin binge leading to their deaths doesn't happen here or at least isn't reported. Besides Duvalls page (accessible through the film page) shows that he also has a son. Are you sure you want to stiff said son, probably a young child, on that money? He could become a photographer and police sniper, who then becomes a murderer out of pure greed and spite and it would be all... because you didn't pay what the contract said.

Not sure if there was an exact moment I was sold, but by the end of the demo, where I finally got a good studio running, I was like: "No please don't stop here! I want more! I'm about make friends with the chief of police and the irish feller!"
I do like that not every character is an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, too. The mayor may not be the cleanest, but he uses his power to make his daughter happy. Compare him to Stewart Rogers... yeah, no way. I definitely helped Fred Carpenter and already like him much more. Even without his services later. The chief of police (surprisingly) and the irish feller also seemed rather sympathetic. I will probably not think the same about the KKK grand wizard, though...

[CryonicSuspension]

After watching this trailer, I realized, "Wow! They are really going full bore on this one":

https://youtu.be/axAnawzi7Y0?si=0ggDj57VwMXeUQ3M

[ActuallyDenz]

I won the case on my second play through (I had boosted to 35%). The father swore he’d get revenge against the judge, but I didn’t see anything further

[Kylestien]

Originally posted by Padelboot:

He could become a photographer and police sniper, who then becomes a murderer out of pure greed and spite and it would be all... because you didn't pay what the contract said.

Ok out of curiosity, is that a thing that can actually happen? Never happened to me, hell, my knowledge was his only relatives were his dad and two aunts.

[Padelboot]

Originally posted by Kylestien:

Originally posted by Padelboot:

He could become a photographer and police sniper, who then becomes a murderer out of pure greed and spite and it would be all... because you didn't pay what the contract said.

Ok out of curiosity, is that a thing that can actually happen? Never happened to me, hell, my knowledge was his only relatives were his dad and two aunts.

No. This was referring to This is the police 2 (and Rebel Cops as well) with the police sniper being one Vic Duvall. Joe Duvalls face reminded me a lot of Vic Duvall Jr. from Rebel Cops and given Joe Duvalls profile states he has one son I immediately made up the headcanon, that Joe Duvall is Vic Duvalls father.

So basically it was a joke. ^^'
Given that I had two people called Boyd in my first run, it was likely coincidental with the devs reusing names they used before.

[Kylestien]

Originally posted by Padelboot:

No. This was referring to This is the police 2 (and Rebel Cops as well) with the police sniper being one Vic Duvall. Joe Duvalls face reminded me a lot of Vic Duvall Jr. from Rebel Cops and given Joe Duvalls profile states he has one son I immediately made up the headcanon, that Joe Duvall is Vic Duvalls father.

So basically it was a joke. ^^'
Given that I had two people called Boyd in my first run, it was likely coincidental with the devs reusing names they used before.

Ah, I see. It's probabky either name reuse or a deliberate reference then. Fair enough. Makes sense to me as a headcanon, but I just had game knoweldge and the game when making that choice told me "Joe only had a drunk uncle and two aunts." So I assumed when they died that was it for the Duvals.

[Padelboot]

Whatever the case may be, it is not acknowledged in this game proper. I only know about the son, because I was curious enough to look up Joe's profile. It does make me question though, why the drunk father and the aunts are the only who get anything.

[greifental]

Maybe because the son is underage and they are the caretakers of the fortune?

[LoneWolf4796]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

After watching this trailer, I realized, "Wow! They are really going full bore on this one":

https://youtu.be/axAnawzi7Y0?si=0ggDj57VwMXeUQ3M

Oh yeah...they are NOT pulling punches on this one. I love it!