Meaningful choices?

[pelmeniki]

Hello!

Recently me and my other gamedev friend got to talking about what makes a VN good and choices meaningful. I remember playing many games where the choices were either too sparse and the storyline felt too cut and dry (ie: I got this ending because I picked choice A at that one decision tree. I'll just go back and pick choice B to get a different ending).

Many games also suffer from the opposite -- having too many choices, and in the end they end up feeling completely meaningless. Often times, to get 100% completion, I'd have to go back and try and figure out which choices/combination of choices ACTUALLY made the difference, and which were just for padding. In the end I ended up reloading the game several times and trying 50 different things because I got a different ending.

So, I was wondering: how do you stay in the middle? How do you make choices meaningful, but not too sparse? Guide the player in the correct direction while not having 3-4 choices ACTUALLY define the game? I'd love to hear some opinions.

[gekiganwing]

How do you make choices meaningful, but not too sparse? Guide the player in the correct direction while not having 3-4 choices ACTUALLY define the game?

Think about some specific examples of interactive media which made the players' choices meaningful. Consider if there has been at least one VN / game / interactive fiction which has done this reasonably well.

Recently, a person known as GrandLethal16 talked about how Tactics Ogre presents the player with complex choices. It's a fantasy strategy RPG inspired by historical conflicts. From what I've read, the player's dialogue choices as well as actions during combat both matter. (I admit that I only rented the translated PS1 version once, and that I didn't purchase the re-translated PSP version when it was new. I bought a digital copy during a PSN sale, so it's currently in my Vita backlog...)

[YossarianIII]

In my experience, the best way to make choices feel meaningful is to write good "callback" references to previous choices so players can see the consequences of past actions.

It's easy to write choices that have short-term consequences, but it's a lot more impressive when a game makes a reference to a choice you made over 10 minutes ago.

Life is Strange is great at balancing big and little choices. Almost all the major choices you make in Episode 1 are referenced multiple times throughout the remaining episodes. And even the small choices, like whether or not you decide to water a plant, have effects that you can still see 3 episodes later.

The most important thing is to have a clear sense of cause and effect. Going back to the Life is Strange example, if you forget to water that plant, the main character specifically says something about how she should've watered it. Otherwise, a player might just find a dead plant in Episode 3 and think it had always been dead. You can apply this same logic to stuff that's much more exciting than just plants.

[sociohat]

Try to think about the choices themselves, not the structure. Choices aren't meaningful because they made a change in the narrative; that's just seeing another branch of where the story could lead. It's entertaining, but hardly meaningful.

In other words, the structure is mechanical. It's in the flavor (I can't think of words right now) of the choices that players find meaning in.

The best example of the thing I'm talking about is the classic interactive fiction piece called The Baron. The choices are only there to shape the player character. They don't affect the state of the plot or the game world.

[pelmeniki]

What do you mean "think about the choices themselves"? Like how they impact the story/the impact they would have if they were inrl?

BTW thanks to everybody who has answered so far! This is really insightful

[Sonomi]

You might find this Extra Credits video interesting. I think you're referring to the difference between having choices and having options in a game. Whenever there's a choice, you can use what you already know about the situation to make an informed decision, one that has noticeable consequences. Options, on the other hand, do not offer the same depth of consideration beforehand and lack a significant outcome.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

What do you mean "think about the choices themselves"? Like how they impact the story/the impact they would have if they were inrl?

By 'think about the choices' they are asking you to consider why you have that particular choice for the player. What are you trying to impart to the player through the choice? Is it simply something to keep the player entertained (not a bad reason, but there are better ones), is it to explore an alternative narrative in the story, reinforce a theme or moral, or give narrative agency to the player?

It is important to remember that CHOICES, i.e. audience participation, is the number one advantage games have over all other storytelling mediums. You can use that to powerful narrative effect in ways movies and books can only dream of. For instance, going back to a game example YossarianIII used, in Life if Strange the central mechanic is that you can rewind time to redo choices. At one point in the game, you can try and save someone from committing suicide - they say no one cares about them and no one listens. You are told before this encounter that you've rewound too many times already that day - you don't have the energy to rewind back and say the right things if you screw up talking this person down. The kicker is that this person has been talking to YOU the player, the whole game, and you CAN talk them down - if you listened and cared about what they had to say. If the person jumps, it is the PLAYER'S fault, because they didn't pay attention to this person, just like every other character in the game ignored their feelings. So the player feels bad, not just the character avatar they are playing.

Papers Please uses the agency of the player to instruct on how good people work for fascist regimes. It doesn't just tell a story of the character doing this, it has the player make the CHOICE to do this, and continue doing so, while giving the player every opportunity to resist the regime. In doing so, it is able to impart a lesson to the player that is earned. We all like to think we'd be the hero, but when it means keeping our family safe and fed, most of us would keep our head down and do as told.

So think about what your choices can DO and use them with purpose.

[Mammon]

Well, it's not just whether the reader enjoys the questions, but also whether the developer can actually make them. The Telltale games and the aforementioned Life is Strange may give a lot of choices but they always tend to follow a diamond-structure: You get some choices which result in differences throughout the story, but no matter what you chose there will always be things happening as lineair events and the choices will all eventually lead to the same finale again. In life is strange for example, regardless of your choices it all comes down to one final yes/no choice in the finale. They're not going to make 3 completely different climactic endings to give a sense that your choices mattered, not when those endings also need to step up the quality, resolve the story and need to be finished according to a rather strict time table of episode releases. Small things like the plants, and even subplots like the suicide happening or not, can still be managed within their game. Making entirely new scenes with new writing, settings and character movements is something entirely different.

I see a lot of projects around here where the developer intends to give the player a lot of choice and a freely branching storyline, but whether that's actually possible is an entirely different matter. You'll actually need to write all those hundreds of different outcomes to make such a game. I used in P&Y the first system described in the OP: one choice leads to 2-3 completely different routes, rather than making a lot of choices accumulate to an ending. I too don't really like having to skip through a game over and over again trying combinations for that one elusive ending I'm missing.
But one of my favorite choice systems is Cupid because of it's uniqueness and player involvement, despite doing pretty much exactly this. Rather than giving the player the ability to choose the MC's actions, the player decides the actions of the malvolent voice in the MC's head to such a degree that they pretty much ARE this sub-character. You're fighting against the given choices and seeing the consequences of your actions rather than deciding the story flow through mere choices.

[Jain]

For my part, I feel as though a choice can still be meaningful, even if it doesn't have a significant change of events.

Bioware games are a lot like that. Except for some big choices, like save the last member of a race or destroy them, most of the options the player character is presented with is just about tone. How you address the people you encounter - it lets you build character. Unfortunately this leads to several really stupid and misguided options that should have never been presented, like punching a reporter with your cybernetic/augmented arm or siding with a space vampire you've spent days tracking down instead of the Space Badass you were attempting to recruit who asked your help in killing said space vampire... but still.

One thing I think VN's can do more is allow the player quiet moments, moments to express their feelings or interpretation of events - alone. Not through dialogue with another. We do it a ton in real life - we mull over previous conversations, or lament things we should have said, or miss things in conversation that we only realize later. It might not change the course of the story, but it can still have meaning for the character.

[Katy133]

The Game Professor/Games as Literature did an interesting video on the subject:



Basically, adding choices that change the game are difficult because every time you add a choice, the game's world "splits," changing the story. Those branching paths can converge back together, but the sooner you do that, the less the choice seems to matter (as it affects less of the game).

The above video points out that the choice doesn't necessarily have to affect the plot to be meaningful. You can have the choices not change the plot points at all, but rather have them change the characters' viewpoints and relationships.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

The above video points out that the choice doesn't necessarily have to affect the plot to be meaningful. You can have the choices not change the plot points at all, but rather have them change the characters' viewpoints and relationships.

That's what games like Life is Strange and The Walking Dead do so well - the decisions the player makes may not branch the ultimate storyline much, but they recontextualize the events and story.

[Ekkoberry]

Seeing the consequences of that action both immediately and later down the line are important of course, but Choices are most satisfying to make when you are informed of the possible result, and it's difficult to choose.

When playing a VN, a choice doesn't seem arbitrary if I at least have an idea of what will happen as a result, and I care about making the "best" choice for the situation. (whatever that may mean in context of the story I'm playing through)
That's not to say the results can't be different than expected- sometimes it's neat to have consequences I didn't foresee, but I shouldn't have no idea at ALL what will happen as a result of my choice.

Arbitrary/Padding choices I'm not given a reason to care about/I know won't affect anything in the story I feel are better left out, even if that means a game only has a few choices in the entire story. Choices are /there/ to be meaningful, otherwise why have a choice in the first place?

This doesn't mean the choices have to be hugely story altering, (or story altering at all, as mentioned in the video Katy133 linked) but they should at least have some sort of effect, one I'm somewhat aware of as I'm making it.

[pelmeniki]

Arbitrary/Padding choices I'm not given a reason to care about/I know won't affect anything in the story I feel are better left out, even if that means a game only has a few choices in the entire story. Choices are /there/ to be meaningful, otherwise why have a choice in the first place?

I do have to ask, would you still feel that way in a game with a faceless MC where some of the choices are given to have no effect on the story, and instead exist to characterize MC?

I do agree with you otherwise, I just needed this clarified. Thank you for sharing!

[Sleepy]

Arbitrary/Padding choices I'm not given a reason to care about/I know won't affect anything in the story I feel are better left out, even if that means a game only has a few choices in the entire story. Choices are /there/ to be meaningful, otherwise why have a choice in the first place?

I do have to ask, would you still feel that way in a game with a faceless MC where some of the choices are given to have no effect on the story, and instead exist to characterize MC?

I do agree with you otherwise, I just needed this clarified. Thank you for sharing!

I think choices that serve to characterize the protagonist rather than the plot can go a long ways in feeling 'meaningful' to the player, even if the plot remains mostly the same. The Persona games use a format like that and choices serve to: a ) characterize your silent protag b ) build relationships with other characters (such as, agreeing with one character over another) c ) build certain stats (picking a harder option to raise your diligence or expression). Likewise, while Cinders is a VN with a lot of branches, a lot of the choices are geared towards characterizing your heroine towards a default personality.

Things like that make players feel closer to the protagonist because the meaningful choice is to interact with the character and make them feel more like 'their' MC, when done right, and when it plays into the narrative it an feel pretty rewarding. When done wrong, you get reactions like people complaining with BioWare games about how their Shepherd/Hawke/Warden would never do the choices presented and picked by the game, since it makes players feel like their choices in regards to that character weren't, ultimately, meaningful.

[Ekkoberry]

Arbitrary/Padding choices I'm not given a reason to care about/I know won't affect anything in the story I feel are better left out, even if that means a game only has a few choices in the entire story. Choices are /there/ to be meaningful, otherwise why have a choice in the first place?

I do have to ask, would you still feel that way in a game with a faceless MC where some of the choices are given to have no effect on the story, and instead exist to characterize MC?

I do agree with you otherwise, I just needed this clarified. Thank you for sharing!

I'd say choices that characterize the player in game by nature often have an impact on the story, even if it doesn't change much more than a line or two of reactionary dialogue. Personally I'd like a nod to it within the narrative itself, not just something like ("Do you like tea or coffee more?") (choice is made and story continues on unrelated) but if I feel in the moment it will have an effect, that my choice matters, then sure!

I guess like most things, it's down to how it's pulled off. Sleepy brought up some good points.