Good News Everyone!

Recently I have received a job wherein I write about video games and get payed to do it. Granted it isn't much money, but all the same, I like writing for a publication.

My post, as seen here, is about video game choice.

I kind of geek out about Bioware games, because I tend to do that, and because Bioware games are really good at making games choice. Though, if there is one gripe that I have with Bioware choice games is how direct they are with telling the player what kind of decision they made. Though there is quite the sense of dread in KOTOR when trying to play good, and the icon for "dark side points earned" shows up on the screen. However, Bioware games have become less ambiguous about the choices that the player can make. Now they are just down right overt. Top choice = good guy, middle choice = boring and lame, bottom choice = jerk. That's no way to go about it. Choice in video games should be masked in a more creative way, or at least in a way where there are more than three options. Other Bioware games, such as KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins, have it so that there are multiple dialogue options, and it is rather unclear, in some cases, which one is which. Modern Bioware games have it so that the line of dialogue is masked with one of the three choices and the general point of whatever the character is going to say. For example, at the end of Mass Effect 3, one of the choices is simply "Commrades..." as Shepard prepares to deliver a rousing speech to his, or her, crewmates. Whereas KOTOR, out right gives the full line of dialogue. The main character isn't voiced, yet the tone of the line is present in the given circumstances and wording.


There are more ways to make decisions that with words. Games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored have their morality on a more binary level of simply: to kill or not to kill. Going through a run of Dishonored, knocking out your victims rather than slitting their throats would be taking the moral high ground. However, proving your innocence of a murder with murder is just nonsensical. What if Dishonored didn't allow you to murder, that would be an interesting dynamic. What if it left you with no choice at all? What if you were forced to sneak, steal, and gather information, and not be able to counter attack and kill? However, one thing that really upset me about Dishonored, was the fact that during the loading screens, it overtly told you what the consequences of killing and doing bad things were. That, and the fact that only killing seemed to upset the balance, not the side missions for the crazy blind witch lady that told you to go poison the brewery with the plague. Everything is just fine with that. There is more to a morality mechanic that simply not killing.

The original Deus Ex game constantly kept me on edge about where my decisions put me in the grand scheme of things. There are multiple ways to handle situations. Given how old the game was, it seems like a lot of modern games are following in its footsteps with how many motifs that they are taking from this one game. The original Deus Ex game was released in 2000. Deus Ex encouraged avoiding enemies rather than confronting them head on, or not killing them and simply knocking them out. These are major concepts that are explored in today's games like Mirrors Edge(2008), and Mass Effect (2007). These elements used to be a core component of game design, now they seem to be marketed as selling points.

Video games have become so linear that once while my brother was watching, he was astounded at the fact that I could go around the enemy while he was watching me play Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Choice is what separates video games. Choice is what allows players to further immerse themselves into the game. Not just what character class or what gun to use, but the choice of story, of character. That is what makes a truly great game.