Consequence and gaming: The fall of the reset button

This wonderful little post from Mister Xbox aka Larry Hyrb aka Major Nelson details his wife racking up a nice little debt for him to look forward to in the upcoming Fable 2. You see, money you earn in Fable II Pub Games tranfers to money you can spend in the upcoming game. As does debt. While this is funny and cute, it brings up some interesting issues to do with consequence in gaming.

Knowing that my own poor luck could lead to a more difficult gaming experience, I am actually quite hesitant to play Pub Games. I aint no gambler. So I am literally turned off a game, that by all intended purposes should be encouraging me to play.

Here are some other games that have used effective and innovative means of implying conseqence;

Animal Crossing
Man, this one was a BITCH. There was a lot of random in this game (ignoring the batshit insane babble the characters would spout) and if you got a shitty deal, you're stuck with it. If you dare to switch off the game without saving, you will be verbally pummeled for damn near 10 real world minutes by the infamous 'Mr Resetti" the next time you load the game.

Grand Theft Auto 4 *SPOILERS ABOUND!*

A good chunk into the story you are offered a choice to off either the douchie Playboy X or the sad sack Dwayne. If you choose Dwayne, you are in for a rude shock, as you are treated to a brutally cold execution, an AMAZINGLY infuriating phone call from Playboy X and you lose the chance to own a sweet safe house that will never again be offered to you.

Mass Effect
Spare/Wipe out a particular species and you may erase a whole string of missions . Not to mention the typical Bioware Good cop/bad cop/indifferent cop approach to extracting information from NPCs. You want the right answers? Then watch your mouth!

Those are the first few that spring to mind that are actually able to wrap your knuckles in an effective way. So what do you prefer?

Do real consequences alter the way you play?

Hit the comments with more examples.

-Brother N-