Andréa, Canis Lanonbinary

@CERESUltra

Music Nerd, Author, Yote!

She/they/it

30s/white/tired/coyote/&
Words are my favorite stim toy

Andréa, Canis Lanonbinary @CERESUltra10/19/2023, 4:07 PM

Heather "hthrflwrs" Flowers @hthrflwrs

Heather "hthrflwrs" Flowers @hthrflwrs10/19/2023, 3:44 PM

A subtle note to the idea of an 'interesting choice" in games is that the results don't need to be interesting in order for the choice itself to be interesting. Kentucky Route Zero is an expert at this: full of hundreds of choices with absolutely no mechanical consequence, each of which nonetheless feels textured, consequential, even devastating

Heather "hthrflwrs" Flowers @hthrflwrs10/19/2023, 3:49 PM

Will Conway's choices when fixing the TV affect the shape of the Zero? Will Junebug's lyrics affect the arc of her story? Will Shannon's decision to linger a little bit longer listening to a mournful country ballad change whether she'll see her friend again? Absolutely not. But that doesn't change the fact that the choice must be made, and it is interesting to make it.

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @hthrflwrs's post:

@damon10/19/2023, 3:46 PM

very important and true! you can still build meaningful and rewarding narrative reactivity to these too without having to do bespoke stuff

Heather "hthrflwrs" Flowers @hthrflwrs10/19/2023, 3:49 PM

you don't even need narrative reactivity! sometimes a choice can go direct to the void and it's still meaningful!

@damon10/19/2023, 3:53 PM

oh absolutely. ffxiv does this all over the place, doesn't track a single choice (with one exception), does a lot of heavy lifting!

Heather "hthrflwrs" Flowers @hthrflwrs10/19/2023, 3:53 PM

yeah! and that rules imo

Bazukinier @Bazukinier10/19/2023, 3:48 PM

me playing Armored Core 6 and the game treating how much blood on my hands I'm willing to have through going out of my way to explode freedom fighters purely in realms of end of mission payout

in reply to @hthrflwrs's post:

Nire Bryce @NireBryce10/19/2023, 8:59 PM

each choice is a memory anchor and that's enough

cassie @porglezomp10/19/2023, 9:25 PM

The thing it feels like to me is that the game wants you to be an actor: you’ve got the script you’re following, but you direct the emotion and interpretation of your character with your acting. This is emphasized by the fact that the game likes to make itself a literal stage play at parts.

BexM @BexM10/20/2023, 1:50 AM

This. The game very much changed how I thought of choice and meaning in games, especially in comparison to the BioWare ones, where there's an insistence on ever little choice having some little bit of feedback and so much of it ends up feeling inconsequential.

Snazzy the Dragon @snazzy10/20/2023, 3:23 PM

I actually like when there is no tangible story impact by some decisions. Because a lot of games get negatively impacted by feeling compelled to look at guides to make sure that a choice doesn't lock you out of content in the future.

Scribble Sheep @Scribble-Sheep10/23/2023, 12:51 AM

That's been more or less my experience with most "choice" games tbh. Just a lot of anxiety over if I'm gonna ruin the game or not.

Pinned Tags