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now at last we can talk about that
question that started this whole choice
series how much choice do you need in a
game to make the player feel like they
have agency like their choices matter
the answer is simple it depends on the
game I know that sounds like a cop-out
but think of it rather as a way of
reframing the discussion this whole
series came to be because James was
having a conversation with someone and
they said but I like linear games I
think all this asking for more choice in
games is actually ruining things it was
then that James realized that almost
every time he's heard a discussion
amongst players about choice and games
it's not really been about choice it's
been about open-world games or games
with more narrative choice versus more
directed experiences people especially
on the internet seem to often use the
concept of choice in games as a
shorthand for the amount of open
exploration or branching dialogue they
get to experience but putting it this
way makes it binary framing this
discussion like that puts these game
types in opposition making the tacit
assumption that one's inherently better
than the other and while you may have a
personal preference sales numbers and
reviews show us clearly that there's no
Universal consensus on which type of
games are better so the real question we
should be asking is does a particular
game have enough choice to give us a
feeling of agency and again by agency we
just mean the feeling that your choices
matter that by your actions you can
impact the outcome of the game this
changes the question from is more choice
inherently better to asking if whatever
game you're looking at users choice
appropriately so let's look at an
example from a recent game consider the
early minutes of The Last of Us if you
haven't played it I'm not gonna spoil
anything but I encourage you to try to
at least play the first 20 minutes and
try to play it yourself if possible
because we're specifically analyzing
play here a let's play isn't gonna cut
it for this one think back to the first
few minutes where you walk through the
house you remember how quickly that
sequence sucks you right into the game
how playing through it emotionally
engages you almost immediately putting
you in control of that character makes
that section all the more vivid and
effective it's just a tiny bit of
freedom really but by putting you in
their shoes and making you guide them
decide for them
it carries so much weight whether or not
you open that door to the bedroom is a
big decision it feels like a tense
moment even though in terms of actual
narrative there's nothing much that
happens if you do now they could have
easily made that section of cutscene and
this is Naughty Dog they can make one
hell of an emotionally resonant cutscene
and there are numerous cutscenes
throughout the game that technically
have a greater narrative
impacts than the sequence but a cutscene
by definition offers the least possible
amount of agency and for this moment in
the house giving the player control was
the far more immediately engaging option
and it's not even a lot of control your
choices in that house are very
constrained but here you don't need much
freedom to feel as though you're making
choices to feel as though you're really
looking for someone in this house and
that what you do might lead you to
finding them or maybe finding something
much much worse the amount of choice is
perfectly tuned to what that moment
needs there's just enough choice to make
you feel like you're in control and that
your actions matter that's the power of
agency we don't need a morality bar
dialogue options or an open world to
feel it it all depends on what the
specific moment requires to achieve the
greatest impact the real problem and I
think this is what a lot of people are
tapping into and they say they don't
like linear experiences comes when a
game becomes a paint-by-numbers exercise
when the designers require you to do
exactly what they want you to do in
exactly the order they want you to do it
or otherwise you can't get through the
section this is very often true for big
set piece moments where you have to jump
from collapsing pedestal a to hanging by
a tinges Barbie to get through but it
can also be true in the play itself this
is most often a complaint I hear about
bad shooters so let's look at those in
poorly designed shooters you'll often
find yourself sitting behind a box and
then popping up when the enemy stops
firing to try to pick off of you it has
all the choice of a shooting gallery no
matter how much window dressing they try
to give it these types of shooters have
very few combat scenarios that force you
to use different weapons figure out how
to flank your enemy or change up your
play style there's no choice involved
there's just doing from the first time
that you figure out that you can just
hide behind the crate until the enemy
reloads it's just rinse and repeat no
agency no volition it's like an assembly
line no choice involved compare that to
something like demon souls or Dark Souls
in those games you always feel as though
you have options as though you're making
decisions within the level and within
the combat you feel as though your
choices matter so you have agency and
thus you feel more emotionally connected
to the combat there's a reason that you
can come back to a lost battle and demon
souls or Dark Souls and it's not just
because it's hard it's because you
realize that if you had made a different
choice you could have won that fight
that's agency so you see when we talk
about choice and we ask how much choice
should there be in games we're asking
the wrong question we have to ask it in
the specific we have to ask the question
does this game give me enough choice to
make me feel like my
and as we answer that question across a
number of games we'll find that the
amount of choice varies a great deal
sometimes all the open world and
dialogue options they could cram in
still won't be enough
sometimes something as simple as enemy
placement that forces you to adopt a new
tactic is all you need to get that
feeling of agency I wish we could be a
little more scientific about all this
but sometimes in game design there's
some things that we haven't hammered out
a test for they just come down to gut
feeling and a lot of play testing but
hopefully this helps to clarify the
question when you're making games or
when you're just asking yourself what is
it about this game I love or what is it
about this game I just don't like we'll
see you next week for some more choice
talk
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