http://www.gamedesignideas.com/video-games/morality-in-games-the-developer%E2%80%99s-side-of-the-story.html

The point is really that developers as a group don’t have enough experience with deep moral choices. The safety of our environment, especially in developed countries, where most games are made, has shielded us from extreme hardships and thus dulled our capability to understand such choices… and if we don’t get it,…how can we make the player get it?

I believe that the more complex the story lines get, and the more real the characters become, the more effect these types of games will have on fans of the genre.

I would also take into consideration of the age difference, because gamers are getting older (myself included) my style of play has evolved. When I was younger and graphics and stories were much less sophisticated, I would blast my way thought a scene. Now, I’m cautious, weight out my consequences vs. rewards, then proceed.

I hope that this trend continues and that games continue to grow more complex.

As for KOTOR2, I haven’t played it so I can’t comment upon it but playing Dragon Age Origins I was struck by the fact that relative morality works so much better in games than absolute morality. Games can happily keep track of how much you piss off other characters but they really struggle with morality embedded in the world because, frankly, most systems that do embed morality in the world (i.e. religions) tend to be full of caveats and exceptions that make the rules pretty much unenforceable except in extreme cases :

Christianity works quite well when you’re butchering innocents. When you’re giving your critically ill child an overdose of his medication in order to end his pain then the system falls apart.

Games tend to reflect that problem. As a player you are forever going “That’s not why I did it!” or “there are more than two options!”.