Choice in our popular media..
The idea of choice and he consequences of choice are put forward in many forms of interactive media but, for me, this is more apparent in video games. Over this winter period, so far, there have been two games that have really stood out for offering players the idea of “choice” and “free-roaming”.
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released towards the end of October by Bethesda Game Studios. The game promotes the aspect of free roaming heavily and allows you to go where you want, when you want. The game world is LARGE so this can seem daunting but after a few all nighters you get the hang of roaming the wastelands. Choice is key in this game. Dialogue with NPCs (none playable characters) is a game itself as you can decide what you want to say. Saying certain things to certain people can have different effects on your “Karma”. This is your allegiance to Good or Bad. The system works well and really allows you to take on the persona of who your are playing as, giving you a real feeling of immersion. You are forced to create your own person and abilities depending on how YOU want to play the game. This game wants you to become part of the game by giving you a lot of input and control into your character and their interaction in the world around them.
The choices in dialogue to whether you want to align yourself to the force of Good or Bad really makes the game what it is and, for me, has given me some strong memories, which is something a game has failed to for a long time. I feel games don’t stand out the way they used to but that just may be my interest in them dying, however this game slided that back.
Early on in the character’s life, you are bullied by a boy but later have the choice to save his mother being killed by mutated cockroaches. I actually had to think twice about helping this guy, which shows how important character development is but i decided to help him. These choices you make involve you in the game and it doesnt feel like a bland repetative passing of time. You are being involved in a story that in effect you can shape. That is the power of immersion.
Another game similar to this is Lionhead’s Fable 2, released around the end of October. Another action role-playing game that sees you immerse yourself in a well thought out story but with the option to create your own. Similar to the game above, Fable 2 offers the player choices that in effect alter the reality around you. The choices of Good and Evil are more apparent in this game as your choices have a direct influence on your appearance and how none playable characters interact with you.
One of the situations that really made me think was when my character had to go undercover to the base of the main antagonist. In his tower he had many slaves looked up in cages starving. While undercover you have the chance to feed the starving slaves but at the expense of experience. Experience in the game is used to acquire new moves and abilities so it was a hard choice and made me feel guilty as i opted not to help the slaves! Yet again an example of how this type of media can really immerse us in an interactive world using different methods of choice.
These two games came to mind after we did an exercise on narrative and how narratives can branch out to different outcomes by the choices we make. For my final piece i wanted to do something similar and i will be in a way but this is one of the directions i wanted to go and was the basis for a couple of my ideas.
