With the recent announcement of The Novelist, we take a look at how choices and their impacts have been used to video games.
The "no right answer" choice.
I think a much more satisfying experience would come from not making the outcome of my choices so obvious. That type of dynamic behavior is exactly what makes decision making so interesting. You don’t know if the outcome will be quite what you expect, but it is what you feel you should do at the point in time. It’s what made Walking Dead games so engaging. It helped Spec Ops: The Line stand out from other third person shooters (except for that damn gate chapter). You are living with your choices, for better or for worse. You might even be going through some second guessing. “I wonder if she would have lived if I had done that other thing instead of this.” And on top of all of that, you are truly owning the experience. The events that play out are not just a string of points put together by some writer that you are witnessing. They are the direct consequences of all of the choices you made. Again, this is exactly why the game The Walking Dead resonated so much with me. I was responsible for all of the decisions that Lee made. I guided him through that world and into the ultimate conclusion.
That being said, I understand that from a game designers point of view this could be a major risk. Decision options are not always perceived the same way by all people. The result to the choices might not be what was original intended. It’s much more like real life mind you, but that could be the problem. The developers need to ask themselves: is my user interested in having a dynamic real life experience or a completely fantasy based one where they know exactly where they are going? I think that we are starting to see a shift in the consumer point of view on this matter. The game player is ready to see a story where not everything goes exactly as planned. I think The Walking Dead game of the year award is a good sign of this.
Here's hoping for more games like The Novelist in the near future.
