{"id":13,"date":"2017-10-17T02:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T02:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/thehomoludens\/?p=13"},"modified":"2017-10-17T02:00:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T02:00:34","slug":"making-choices-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/thehomoludens\/2017\/10\/17\/making-choices-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Choices Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Player choice is one of the most frequently cited aspects of value to the videogame medium.\u00a0 Since interactivity is the core component to any game, developers and players have been fascinated with making the choices players make interesting and meaningful.\u00a0 Often this can take the form of a branching storyline or multiple ways of completing game objectives.\u00a0 But how do successful developers actually create compelling choices for players to make?<\/p>\n

For a long time, branching stories generally involved just two separate endings, based on a binary choice or series of binary choices.\u00a0 For example, Bioshock offered players a Good and Evil ending based on how they chose to deal with \u201clittle sisters\u201d in game.\u00a0 The problem with Bioshock, however, isn\u2019t even that its storytelling is simplistic (either ending feels didactic), but rather that the choices that accumulate to either ending are barely meaningful in terms of the actual gameplay for the player.\u00a0 Most of Bioshock\u2019s play mechanics deal with exploring and fighting in the game. \u00a0That is the primary way the player interacts with the game. \u00a0The \u201clittle sister\u201d choice mechanic is a secondary feature\u2014in fact it\u2019s actually tertiary, since it simply feeds into a secondary player resource economy\u2014and the difference between the two player options is minimal anyway (besides the endings).<\/p>\n

The Stanley Parable is perhaps one of the best examples of a branching story done well.\u00a0 Perhaps this is in part because it\u2019s a work of experimental meta-fiction.\u00a0 Players are the eponymous Stanley, whose actions are narrated by a particularly British narrator.\u00a0 Player interaction with the game consists solely in obeying or disobeying the narrator in a series of binary choices.\u00a0 There are no other choices or considerations for the player to make, except whether they wish to comply with the narrator.\u00a0 These binary choices branch the game\u2019s progress repeatedly, crossing and connecting at times so that the narrative can diverge or converge to certain scenes and moments across multiple different play-throughs.\u00a0 Many endings are unique, and specific to a particular path through the game.<\/p>\n

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Because of this, player choices have weight and meaning.\u00a0 Disobeying the narrator can lead to the reward of a new, original and probably funny scene with the narrator, and players are encouraged to try new combinations of choices to try and reach every ending.\u00a0 Players\u2019 sense of discovery is rewarded by the only content the game has.\u00a0 There\u2019s no getting distracted by other aspects or rules of gameplay\u2014it\u2019s a game all about players asking, \u201cI wondering if the developers accounted for me doing this?\u00a0 Did they write a special piece of content just in case a player did this unlikely thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate just how large of an impact player choice has in affecting The Stanley Parable\u2019s storyline, here is a flowchart illustrating every single possible permutation of playing through the game.<\/p>\n

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Player choice is one of the most frequently cited aspects of value to the videogame medium.\u00a0 Since interactivity is the core component to any game, developers and players have been fascinated with making the choices players make interesting and meaningful.\u00a0 Often this can take the form of a branching storyline or multiple ways of completing … <\/p>\n

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