

“By killing people, not only are we depriving them of the chance to change, but we are also affecting their families and loved ones. “I think looking at complex problems from this perspective will change the way we think about people who are viewed by society as ‘bad’” These people are driven by their circumstances to engage in the use or sale of illegal drugs,” he continued. “A lot of the victims of the drug war in the Philippines come from low-income families. Our current laws are very punitive and the government policy seeks to arrest and even kill people who are using or selling illegal drugs.” Let’s take the drug problem in the Philippines as an example. “As a human rights lawyer, I realized that killing people is not the best way to solve the ills of society. It seems as if the game is telling you that if you get rid of this singular evil entity or person, the world will instantly become a better place. “I’ve played several RPGs and JRPGs, and based on my experience, the narrative is usually ‘save the world by killing the evil boss’.
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“In a way, knowledge of the law is like knowing how to cast magic spells.” Arabejo says when people play Lawmage Academy, he wants to get players thinking about what is truly evil, what it means to be good, and what are the consequences of one’s actionsĪrabejo, who has been practicing law for close to three years now, used his experience providing legal support to victims of human rights violations in giving his story a real-world perspective.

You can use the legal systems properly to your advantage and you can also protect yourself,” Arabejo told Rappler. If you know the law, the systems, and your rights, you can make things happen. “When I was in law school, I learned how important it was for people to know the law. But the concept of the game itself, he said, actually comes from knowing the importance of the law. He conceptualized and laid out everything about Magusgaia from its history, its government, its laws, and its landscape in such a way that made sense for the overarching narrative. Real-world perspectiveĪrabejo said that he had to do a lot of world-building to come up with a meaningful story. Like any RPG worth its salt, you’ll learn spells, craft potions, meet new friends, and go on adventures as you discover the dark secrets that await you. In it, you play as one of the privileged few to be invited to the titular Lawmage Academy, an institution built to produce Lawmages who protect the country of Magusgaia.
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Instead of a “morality system” Arabejo, who goes by Verinius online, created a story that deals with the moral and ethical conundrum of what it means to be “good” in his role-playing game (RPG), Lawmage Academy.Ī demo for the game is out now on PC via Steam and itch.io with a full release targeted for 2022 to 2023. This is something that indie game developer Gian Arabejo knows is true from his own experience as a human rights lawyer in the Philippines. It’s far too complex and nuanced to be narrowed down to two choices. Your choices usually affect the gameplay, changing how the story plays out, what abilities you have access to, or how characters in the world might react to you.Ī lot of games, however, fail to take into consideration that morality is not exactly black or white, as many of us know from real life. Over the last couple of decades, it’s become a common trend among games to incorporate “morality systems” where you as the player can decide whether you want your character to be “good” or “evil”.
