Stealth and Lockpicking seem to always be assumed by game developers to be "evil, stealing, thief abilities/skills." Lockpicking I can easily understand as you're going places not meant for just passersby. Stealth, however, is an ability or skill that is often used in simple scouting, getting a lay of an area.

Stealth. An ability/skill I usually enjoy taking in games. It gets tougher for me to enjoy it when it is automatically saddled with stealing, pickpocketing, and sometimes backstabbing. I know, "Stealth" starts out with "steal", but really, what about just scouting? Moving without being easily detectable? This is why I enjoy stealth.

I am just not a pickpocket. I really do not enjoy stealing in games, though I will. Backstabbing, however is very fun. Trying to get close up to an opponent without being seen ups the adrenaline for me I know, that's underhanded and "bad", too.

But I like stealth as a primary movement mode. I like poking and peeking into places without being seen, scouting out the territory before deciding what to do. I like how stealth slows a game down.

Lockpicking is kind of in the same category for me. I am just naturally curious. Put something behind a lock and I want know what is in there Yea, I'll more then likely take whatever it is, but that is not a given. I even take apart mechanical locks in real life, just to see how they work. What can I say? They fascinate me

When I play games with karma (good/evil) like consequences, I'll reload if I do an unknown "evil act." I just do not get any enjoyment from being evil. I usually want to be helpful and liked in the video games I play

What are others thoughts? Am I alone in this line of thinking? Is my premise all screwed up?

The problem lies in that there's a ton of overlap. Scouting and recon skills tend to be similar to those involved in heists- ability to move unnoticed, watch for patrols and gaps, locations of important things, means to bypass locks (by picking them or lifting a key from someone else), etc. Hell, it could easily be argued that the only real difference between the two is that one usually takes things that aren't their own for personal profit.

Hmmm, you're kinda right.

Most stealth based factions in games are either evil or in the grey area (like the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood, the hitman games to some extent).

Of course sometimes they're painted as the good guys (assassins creed)

As far as lockpicking being perceived as bad, yeah, that's a pretty common assumption, as you're usually breaking in somewhere, which usually means you intend to steal something etc.

The Splinter Cell series however is a series where you're the good guy, and you sneak around and pick locks and safes etc.

Now I usually prefer to be the good guy in games (unless it's star wars) though the baddies are usually the coolest (the enclave have cooler stuff than the brotherhood of steel, etc.) and I will usually have a good and an evil playthrough, and being evil doesn't really make me feel terrible or anything.

Don't know what you're talking about, considering that I've never seen "stealthy" skills ever labeled or implied to be "evil" in games. Sure, you can use them to kill innocents silently, break and enter, and steal people's stuff, but ever game that features them also allows you to avoid violence if you can help it, kill evil-doers or monsters without a fight, open locked chest and doors in dungeons, or other relatively benign actions.

And for what it's worth, even in games where you play as a morally dubious character, like Hitman, Thief, or Dishonored (to a lesser extent) being as stealthy as you can is the "good" option, as it allows for minimal bloodshed.

Doesn't a lot of this come down to streamlining? A lot of games have stripped down classes to rogue, mage, or warrior. It's not much of a step to follow that logic to remove the "redundancy" of separate skills.

But honestly, stealth gameplay rarely gets much attention in games, even when it's nominally present. Thief is still almost unique in that regard. The original Deus Ex had stealth options for all of it's missions, and Dishonored pretty much rewards you for choosing stealthy and non-lethal routes. I'm sure there are a few others, but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head. This might be part of the reason why all of those games are held in high regard.

Anyway, I agree that stealth doesn't have to be linked with other roguish skills, and that it makes a lot of sense for scouting or combat. But it takes a lot of effort from a developer to make it work well, and it doesn't suit a crowd that wants fast, frequent adrenaline-fueled "I win" payoffs. I think devs are wrong when they assume they have to do that, but it seems to be a popular formula right now.