Allan Schumacher wrote...
I agree with things like Harrowmont and whatnot. It's things like that that I really like. Bhelen is quite belligerent and if you went Dwarf Noble the reasoning behind trusting him is even less. But siding with Harrowmont ultimately is bad for Orzammar. I would not like it if there was a way to side with Harrowmont, and then you can go off and do some extra stuff to ensure Orzammar still becomes awesome under Harrowmont's rule.
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I agree. Provide something for the player to have to think about so that they have to evaluate what is the best choice.
This is exactly what I am hoping for when I ask for choice. That makes it a lot more meaningful, when a game nudges the player to do what they want to do within the game world rather than think from a more meta-perspective.
As a Dwarf Commoner, I chose Bhelen with no regrets because he had been kind to my sister. It worked out well. As a Dwarf Noble, however, I chose Harrowmont--again with no regrets. Both outcomes felt fitting even though choosing Bhelen is the "optimal" choice. If I could give my DN a happier ending, I wouldn't, because that simply wasn't her story. (Same with my DC, who romanced Alistair... and then got him exiled when he rejected her for not being royal enough.)
However, it might've been interesting if you could have--without knowing for sure if Harrowmont would be a good or bad king--choose instead to have him assassinated and allow an heir of his to take over. That might be an interesting optional quest to give funds to a rival within Harrowmont's family, which might lead to a somewhat less negative ending, in between Harrowmont and Bhelen. It would also be very fitting, as the dwarven nobles are a backstabbing sort of lot. That kind of possibility interests me.
I don't like endings that are 95% happy OR sad. I liked how US vs. God Baby was a choice with murky consequences, and you could decide for yourself which was happier. I was completely immersed in that choice because Morrigan was the voice of it--and Morrigan was someone that my Dwarf Commoner PC had come to regard as a close female friend. That was how I made the choice... in the end, she trusted her friend. Not with any illusions that Morrigan was without any capability to be treacherous, not out of the belief that her motives were necessarily either pure or impure... just because she trusted Morrigan had her reasons. She believed Morrigan wanted, at least in part, to save her life.
Yet, my Circle Mage decided she didn't trust Morrigan, and was disturbed by the possibilities. She gave her life for Ferelden. That felt just as "optimal" to me in another way--character fidelity is truly an invaluable thing for that very reason.
As for ME2, I actually think that the Suicide Mission would've been more interesting if it had been less formulaic and transparent in terms of mechanics. More dialogue-based than Loyalty Mission based. How much you kept morale up throughout the game rather than just your choices at the very very end.
I often wish more characters were even a quarter as complex in their preferences as Bishop in NWN2, where his hatred of all things Luskan and peculiar ethos affected everything you said to him. You really had to learn how he thought in order to reach him. Same with Gann from Mask of the Betrayer, to a different degree--he went through this entire journey with the PC. You had to be sort of witty and clever and wise in order to catch his interest. And if the trial had been fully implemented... well, let's just say it was really innovative and so much fun.
I like it so much when a game makes me think. If I get a happy ending because I was actually
clever, that's when it stops feeling sappy in my eyes and becomes rewarding and fitting. If I'm paying attention and really reasoning out what the best selection for this case would be, then I want the game to respond to my attempts to be intelligent. I love trying to make connections with characters in games, and I love it when my choices feel right and have logical, rational outcomes.
I feel like the writers understood why someone would
and wouldn't choose Bhelen, and deliberately took those things into account. You could feel that when you played and it really worked.
As for character-based outcomes, choosing to say the one thing that I think would truly shake someone's rigid opinions is an exercise that I like to carry out in real life; it's fun when it works and I've gotten somewhat good at it. It's just as much fun for me in a game. I loved the friendship with Morrigan that developed for that very reason--I felt like I was being asked to understand her, and that I was rewarded when I did. That's always nice.
TL;DR: Choices that require cleverness in order to have a tactically rewarding outcome... GOOD!
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