so this week wait hang on have you guys
checked out movie Bob's new show yet go
give it a watch it's good stuff and for
that matter if you haven't already check
out his other long-running show the game
over thinker if you like the kind of
thing we do here chances are pretty good
you're gonna like that one too
intelligent guy that Bob anyway
choice it's a word you hear thrown
around a great deal when talking about
games these days but we often use it
only to refer to moral and ethical
choices and while those are some of the
most important choices out there and
well worth talking about as a designer
it kind of bugs James that those are the
only choices we focus on good games
feature choice at every moment so today
we'll be examining just what choice
means first let's look at choice in
general it's actually kind of hard to
pin down choice because given free will
it's easy to call everything one does a
choice this tautology isn't very helpful
after all if everything you do is a
choice then the word has no meaning so
let's break it down a little first there
are the autonomic actions like breathing
but these are simply actions not really
choices so much second there are
reactions like pulling your hand away
from a flame again simply actions not
really choices third there are
calculations and here's where it gets a
little more complicated calculations are
decisions based solely on reason with a
clear correct answer these sort of
mental tasks can be as straightforward
as a math problem say I offered to sell
you a game for 60 bucks and your buddy
offers to sell you the exact same game
for 40 bucks in this case deciding which
offer to take is a calculation a
slightly more complicated version is
deciding not to place your hand on a hot
stove in this case you know what the
result will be if you do so earning you
know that burning causes you pain you
know that pain is bad and you probably
can't think of anything at putting your
hand on the stove when accomplished that
could possibly outweigh the consequence
of searing pain therefore not putting
your hand on the stove clearly the
correct decision calculation logical so
calculations involve decision but
they're not choices this is a key point
to remember when talking about choice
and games so what is choice choice is
overcoming internal conflict without
conflict there is no choice only
decisions and it is this very fact this
overcoming of internal conflict that
makes choice so engaging now so far this
is all been pretty highbrow so let's
start digging into the important stuff
how do we use this in games Super Mario
Brothers
Super Mario Brothers uses choice
brilliantly it sets up a long-term goal
rescue this defeat that and a short-term
goal stay alive it then goes about
finding ways to set up situations where
these two goals are in opposition
consider the mushrooms and Super Mario
Brothers and how they achieve this I'll
give you a minute need a hint why do
they move yep they move to set up
conflict when you hit a block in a
mushroom pops out that mushroom starts
traveling to the right towards the
unknown getting the mushroom will make
you big allowing you to take two hits
before you die and thus making it more
likely that you'll be able to accomplish
your long-term goal say let's defeat
that but to get the mushroom you'll
probably have to do things that are
riskier than what you would normally do
therefore jeopardizing your short-term
goal this type of choice is called an
incomplete information problem because
the players forced into a scenario where
they have to make a choice before they
have enough data to calculate the
outcome here you have to decide whether
to chase the mushroom or not before you
know exactly where all the enemies will
be when you intercept the mushroom and
the mushroom is moving to the right so
as you taste it you'll uncover dangers
previously unknown the problem with
minigames is that they let all of the
players objectives align all the time or
we're still they simply give one
objective and leave the game to be only
about executing the steps to complete
that objective
imagine super mario brothers without
mushrooms think how much more linear and
less exciting it would be many modern
action adventure titles fall into this
trap portlet instructed shooters are
prone to it too though and general
shooters tend to do a little better
because they often leave the player
conflicted by having the safest path
also be the slowest path so they set an
in-game goal against an out of game
desire forcing the player to choose
between the speed at which they progress
and the reliability of progression the
second type of choice that comes up a
lot in games are in comparables these
are your apples and oranges problems
many of the perks in fallout fall into
this category let's say do I want things
to explode into gooey or chunks or would
I rather be able to carry more stuff
these are both things the player wants
but they're limited to choosing one so
the player experiences conflict when
they're forced to make a choice of this
nature I'm sure many of you guys at one
point or another spent longer on the
perk screen than you probably need to do
I know I have the problem with mini
games is that they mask calculations as
in comparables I don't know this is
getting kind of complex just stick with
me
take for example World of Warcraft's
talent trees at first glance the talent
trees look like they're full of tough
choices but
ask any experienced while player and
they'll tell you that there are a few
best builds for any given class the
recent Cataclysm overhaul may have mixed
things up a bit but I'm sure the wild
community will pin down their favorite
builds again before too long anyway the
reason there are best builds for any
given class is that rather than being
fundamentally different all of the
players decisions regarding the talent
tree can be related to the same question
does this raise my damage per second or
does this raise my healing output etc by
putting a common currency behind all of
these choices they cease to be choices
and become problems with definitive
answers calculations the reason you see
so many world of warcraft players
wearing the same armor and supporting
the same builds is because of this
reliance on calculations instead of in
comfortables now of course there's
nothing wrong with calculations and they
provide a very specific kind of
challenge which when done well as is the
case with world of warcraft can be very
fun but when you promote your
calculations as choices you hamstring
your ability to make the most
interesting calculation challenges
possible and you set players up for
disappointment when they find themselves
doing a problem-solving exercise where
they wanted to be making a meaningful
choice so is choice the end-all be-all
of games well no all types of player
actions are important but good games
don't miss opportunities to present
players with choice if you find yourself
just mindlessly mashing buttons to make
a game progress we're not doing our job
well that's about it for this week
thanks a lot for watching us guys we've
had a great time this first few months
and the show is only getting started
see you next year