i wouldn't say you're rambling, i'll eat up all food for thought, inspiration can come from anywhere, at any time, by no means do i have it "all figured out". any opinion or experience that comes from an informed place is of great value to me.Well, that makes sense. Truthfully, the MC is given the option to learn based on other's interactions around him, but ultimately he will decide for himself what sort of disposition he will embody based on those shared experiences.
Not necessarily spoon-feeding a generic representation of good vs bad, but more of a greyer/murkier undertone of sorts based on the MC's reactions to certain scenarios.
Sometimes, in games with choices that lean moreso towards good/evil, and don't necessarily address the in-betweens have players favouring min/maxing to choose the desired outcome that best suits their own moral philosophies/outlook on how they would address that situation if they were in the shoes of the MC. Escapism isn't everyone's cup of tea when they play such AVNs, perhaps they simply desire to make choices based on their own IRL moral compass.
Anyways, probably rambling a bit there. Interesting concepts nonetheless and narrative involvement between the MC and other parties.
your first statement there hits the nail on the head in terms of the direction the mc is gonna take. he'll be picking up a more active role in his own personal development after acknowledging how little he really understands, which is precisely why the people around him are written to be so bright (though i don't plan on making an idiot out of him either).
i've always played these kinds of games as "myself". i've found that making the decisions that i'd have personally made gets me more immersed and invested in the story. i'm not thinking about good boy points or karma, i'm thinking action and consequence and honestly, the good vs bad formula that devs often go with fights against that, preventing you from doing things you still would have, purely based on stats. it's something that has always irked me. i avoid certain language in the way i phrase my choices, specifically to avoid players from thinking along the lines of "good choice vs bad choice".
expounding on the grey area isn't gonna be easy, but none of what i've done so far was either. i'll get this done by any means necessary.