I hunkered down during Hurricane Sandy and played an awful lot of this game. Luckily, it’s chock full of interesting morality!
Harm/Care
In many ways, this distinction is at the heart of the game, and manifests itself in a number of ways. The game, as implied by the name “total war,” is very much centered around harm. This is first and foremost in display during the sophisticated 3D battles controlled by the player. You command your men to fight others, with casualties routinely reaching into the thousands. Only by inflicting massive harm and violence can you grow your economy, expand your kingdom, and ultimately satisfy the win conditions of the came, which require the player to take and hold a set number of regions. The “taking” is impossible absent an ecnomy powerful enough to buy out the map, and enemies willing to sell it. In other words, attempting to care in M2TW is counterproductive.
Fairness/Reciprocity
This isn’t featured particularly heavily in M2TW. The tax system allows the player to increase or lower the rate paid by civilizations in the empire, but it’s done on the basis of economic and strategic considerations, rather than the concerns of the civilians. When the player enters into an alliance with other states, there is an expectation of gift-giving in order to keep the relationship strong. Usually, however this deters betrayal so that the ally can serve a strategic purpose, generally more war-mongering, later down the line. In other words, the fairness/reciprocity in M2TW only in order to serve a greater, geopolitical purpose. It certainly has no inherent in-game value.
Ingroup/Loyalty
This is incredibly important to the M2TW experience. Every facet of your empire, from individual generals to entire regions is affected by loyalty. Loyalty breeds happiness, as well as battlefield supremacy, and can serve every function from keeping an overpopulated city from rebelling to willing troops on the ground to hold their formation. As foreign territory is incorporated into the player’s empire, maintaining a sense of loyalty is essential to holding onto captured land — itself essential to winning the game. Loyalty is definitely elevated in M2TW, but it is worth noting that this role could serve as meta commentary on the Medieval time period depicted in the game.
Authority/Respect
This value goes hand in hand with loyalty/ingroup. Characters have an authority and respect value which affects both their battlefield performance and management of settlements. While less significant overall than loyalty, authority/respect still holds weight when dealing with other nations in the game. The military supremacy at the player’s command directly translates to the amount of authority — “diplomatic leverage” in the games terms — he is able to exert over his opponents. This doesn’t strictly translate into respect, aside from in the Machiavellian sense. Again, in-game it’s just another political tool in the player’s box.
Purity/Sanctity
Religion is a major factor in expansion. However, the game’s relationship with sanctity mirrors that of its fictional inhabitants. The people’s relationship with religion can spawn both crusades and defensive Jihad, meaning that religious commitment can be used as another means of military expansion. The whole thing really reads straight out of The Prince, with the player’s absolute authority and moral judgement (or lack therof) being the only really significant question at hand. All other ethical considerations are woven into the game to be manipulated and used to expand power, retinue and wealth. In fact, crusading armies, like any other in game, have the option of sacking cities and massacring their inhabitants. Purity is certainly, objectively devoid from this game world.
Really, this game is about harm/care (by which, I mean harm). Every other value is present in some senes, but only so that it can be used as a means of exerting further harm on the player’s opponents. The morality is logical and consistant but exists to be understood and utilized rather than respected. It’s an interesting, philosophical and, dare I say, realistic simulation of power.