Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
champion, the decisions that feel like they change the story suggest that the game may contain
an underlying message about human relationships and life beyond the narrow constraints of a
simple goal.
Reflective Choices
In talking about story-games, we've focused so far on choices and options that the player deals
with to push the story down one branch or another, potentially even changing the ending of
the story. It's understandable that these kinds of plot-altering choices get a lot of attention in
discussions of story and games. When we're involved in an unfolding narrative or a system that
we can act in, we want to know how we can make a difference. What do we have to do to make
sure our favorite character doesn't die? Which choice spells the difference between a good end-
ing and a bad one?
Plot-altering choices aren't the only kind of choice that contributes to a player's emergent
experience of a game, however. Another kind of choice, which some story-game creators have
started calling a
reflective choice
, has huge potential to involve the imagination, interpretation,
and psychology of the player—even though these choices don't affect the plot of the story, or
the state of the game, in any way.
Near the beginning of
Choice of Romance
(2010), a story-game about a young noble navigating
the social intrigues, politics, and relationships of a royal court, the player is asked to make what
sounds like a significant choice. The young noble spots a purple butterfly, said to bring good
luck, and the player decides on a wish the noble will make. Will your character wish for money?
Adventure? True love? Or to do something amazing that will change the world? If we assumed
this choice was plot-altering, we can imagine what kind of impact it could have on the story.
Maybe a noble who chose true love would be more likely later on to have an epic romance or
even complete the game upon reaching that goal.
The truth, although it isn't revealed to the player, is that this choice doesn't affect anything else
in the game or its story in any way, and that's what a reflective choice is: a choice that exists
primarily to focus the player's attention on the act of making a choice. In
Choice of Romance
, the
player can end up pursuing any or all of those goals, regardless of the initial wish, but that wish
serves to make the player think about what's important, what she wants to pursue in this story
or at least this particular playthrough of the game.
Reflective choices may seem like a deception or a cop-out, especially because they require far
less work to build into a game than a plot-altering choice. That point of view, however, only
makes sense if we're starting from the idea that every choice in a game
has
to affect the state
of the game and that everything else is meaningless. An attitude like that does make sense for
many games, where the focus of choice is on strategies that could create a winning or a losing
outcome. In chess, deciding to point the horse-head of your knight forward or backward won't
