10 replies to this topic

[Stars]

Here's something it feels like we haven't done in a while. Game theory discussion, go!

 

 

 

When you're playing a game which touts player choice with lasting consequences as a feature, how much feedback do you like the game to give you about your decisions?

 

Do you prefer immediate and specific results, such as inFamous telling you: Your actions have made you more Evil?

 

Perhaps something more vague like The Walking Dead letting you know that you've (possibly) affected the story but not necessary how, e.g., Kenny will remember that?

 

Or is it best to have no idea which actions of yours have changed the course of the game? Maybe the game will tell you at the end, but certainly not before then.

 

Does your opinion vary depending on the sort of game you're playing, and if so, how?

[kspr]

i view them solely as a storytelling device. as a developer, i would want to balance my big open world, and its freedoms, with my need to tell the story of a good or bad character. it adds a lot of dimension to Cole if the player can do 4 evil things and 6 good things, or 6 evil things and 4 good things.

in a more abstract open fallout world, i use the karma system as a way for the game to tell the story of my character. then i as the player am told a story that i can write myself using the game as a medium, as many times as i want.

most times it's the story of the guy who killed everyone with a steam pressurized garden gnome,but you probably reread stuff too >.>

[legacyme3]

Personally, I prefer the method of letting everything be seen as inconsequential, and quietly totalling up the results of your actions.

 

"Or is it best to have no idea which actions of yours have changed the course of the game? Maybe the game will tell you at the end, but certainly not before then."

 

This is very much how I feel about choice in gaming. I prefer when it's not obvious as to what is changing or if anything is changing at all.

 

When choice is brought into the picture, a big deal is made about it being our story.

 

It's hard to be our story if we have foresight to know that being mean to one seemingly inconsequential character actually changes things. It's ok for it to change things, we just shouldn't know about it then and there.

[Vicious Parker]

I rarely get too deep in to role playing a character, or when I do, they're pretty much always lawful/neutral good. I enjoy feeling like my actions have improved the situation of people and places around me in the game, but for me personally this doesn't mean there has to be a bad or evil path that I chose not to take--I'm OK with linear story telling.

 

This doesn't mean that I'm completely against bad consequences. One thing I try to do when I play again with multiple possibilities is to simply let things happen as they happen. If a character dies, as an example, I need to accept that, even if I discover later that I could have prevented it. If I ever replay a game, I may try to cheese my way in to more preferred outcomes, but that's the lovely thing about video games. If things don't go our way, we can usually try again.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't mind consequence at all, but I tend to play in such a way to achieve a specific style of outcome.

[Kamau]

I like storylines that I can follow for the most part, mostly because when choices are involved it makes me go "what if?" From there I always want to replay the game and see what the other "paths" could be, but I never get around to it because I'm lazy, so I'm left feeling unfulfilled.

 

However, to this discussion everyone should go play Until Dawn, because that's a game where everything you do has the potential to alter fates, but you have no idea how.

[Kyle]

I like the idea of a morality system that can change the games ending, but in a game like SWTOR when saying certain things gives you access to certain gears and companion dialogues it really kills the premise of how Bioware made the SWTOR story.

[Puffin]

I love games with choices. In general, I'd rather the game not tell me exactly what consequences there will be (even with vague hints or some impact to alignment), but just show me how my choice has affected the story. I'd still be cool with other responses to my choices, though. The only thing I dislike is when the game makes you think you have a choice, but the decisions you make have little to no bearing on the characters or plot. :/

 

I really like it when there are multiple endings. I don't always play through multiple times and get every ending, but it's still fun.

[Maelstrom]

I'd prefer to have more longer term consequences as well as immediate ones.

 

Like for instance, you run into some snotty noble and you have choice of joining him in being a general asshat for good pay and intimidating asshat style missions, or just fucking with his plans in some way.

Then you go travel further on and he ends up important. And you either end up on his side as his flunky, and your life in the game is to work for him to subjugate his lands for him. Balance how much violence you mete to people, to either scare them into obedience or accidentally cross the line into full out rebellion. My break into places to frame people. Or you work with some other powerful nobles keep him in check and deal with other matters of greater importance. etc, etc. To the end result of very different game endings.

 

I want the effects to be obvious and immediate as well as unforeseen in the far-off distance. Have some more human element of reaction to shit you do, good and bad. village and/or nationwide in scope. A lot of games just don't give enough real consequences for the smaller stuff that happens.

[Stars]

Thanks for resurrecting this topic. I had posted it to probe for opinions before starting on a game I want make, but then I forgot about it. xp

[Maelstrom]

Thanks for resurrecting this topic. I had posted it to probe for opinions before starting on a game I want make, but then I forgot about it. xp

 

Well, more consequences are good but, I also feel like it would be a nightmare to program. To program all the different scenarios and triggers, and really just create that much more story to cover all the deviant story lines. I guess it would depend on how you compartmentalize and branch and track a morality guage (if you even choose to). I kinda like how ME had a gauge that tracked the accumulation, but the fact that it blocked actions if you didn't have enough unnecessarily limits choices. Like, you can be seen as virtuous and good in the eyes of your faction and in the social spotlight but then still be incredibly brutal and unmerciful to enemies on the battlefield. Or just be judicious between using tough love or being very solicitous of a person's woes... on a case by case basis, instead of the overarcing assumption that you can only do all one or the other.

[Stars]

Yeah, I don't plan to use any kind of morality slider. At most I might track how individual people and groups feel about you, but mostly I'm aiming for specific consequences for specific actions.