I'd like to start a conversation about Inconsequential Choices.
Choices are one of the main hallmarks of Bioware games. You get control of a character and can have many different ways to enjoy that character, based on the ethical, personal and ideological choices you make with them. Many of these choices involve branching choices, a yes/no or black/white outcome that gives two different outcomes to a problem or story.
This thread is not about those.
Don't get me wrong, I love those types of choices and I would love to see more done with them in the future... but there is another set of choices, choices which don't get enough "love" here on the BSN that I wanted to talk about. And that is Inconsequential Choices.
For instance... in DA:O, you can have a conversation with your companions where they ask about your childhood, or your parents, or how you feel about being part of the Grey Wardens, or a number of other topics. The response you make doesn't have to be true (you can say your father is alive when you know him to be dead, as an example), they aren't elaborated on in future conversations or events, they don't raise the approval or disapproval of any of your companions and they don't, really, have any consequence. They are, truly, inconsequential.
These types of choices can be looked at with derision by some, but I think they bring a LOT to the table. NOTE: This is not talking about choices that don't matter at all, but SHOULD. Whether or not you kill Gascard DuPuis, the alleged serial killer (he's not) who is chasing down the man who would kill your mother SHOULD have played a role in the story later on, but it didn't. I'm not talking about serious plot choices that don't make an impact, but rather simple choices in conversation which do nothing more than just let you define who your character is in harmless but significant ways.
Character Definition:
Bioware has made it a goal to try and give us personal main characters in their games, characters that the players can identify with as a personality, but then also define on their own to make them "their" character. This is often very hard to do, where Bioware wants to tell a story, but doesn't want to overstep boundaries that can deifne the main character too much.
Choices such as these, where there is no "meta" involvement - meaning it has no impact or influence on the rest of the gaming experience - are fantastic opportunities to let the player breathe life into their character, to further flesh out their motivations and background in the player's mind, but also not being tied to any additional content. We can express history that is never touched on in the game, or we can even make a liar out of our PC, defining their personality or even demonstrating their relationship with their companion.
Which brings me to my next benefit...
Companion Development:
Many fans of DA2 lauded the companions as what brought them back for more. I personally didn't like some of the companions and one of the reasons is this - they were self absorbed to the maximum. I don't feel like they asked me questions about my past, about how I felt about things or about my dreams of the future (outside of the ability to profess staying with your respective LI for all time, of course). I'm not saying those types of conversations never happened in DA2, but to my mind, none of them ever really stood out.
Regardless, in DA:O, I felt like Wynne actually cared about what I thought. I thought Leliana was actually curious about my upbringing and history. I felt like the crazy Mad Hermit was a creepster for wanting to know personal details about my past. Because they weren't just referencing a past event that was outlined in my origin, but were actually asking questions I, as the player, often had no backstory or ability to answer. So we were forced to dig into how we imagined our character and choose a response accordingly. There was no diplomatic/snarky/aggressive option on this - we had to conjure our actual feelings, not stick to a defined script of who our character was already made out to be.
This type of connection to the companions made me feel like they WERE my Warden's friends. Because instead of hanging out with my character killing people all the time and then talking only about themselves, they actually asked pretty probing questions about my character, as a person. Which made me feel like the friendship was much more of a two-way street.
Its Simple:
This is the last one, because I think it is fundamental. In a world where zots, budgets and time constraints are discussed a lot... this is a simple, elegant way to bring player agency right to the forefront without creating half a dozen tangent strings that would need to be followed up on. There is no flag to set, or further content to explore, or encounters to design - this is just an isolated, inconsequential question. A chance to say something about yourself that you wouldn't normally have a chance to, in a way that defines your character, but doesn't define anything else in the game (unless the player wants it to).
Its cheap, but its powerful because it is what it is - a chance to speak our minds. And when we are doing that, we have control of our character in the purest way possible. It helps with making our character from being rigidly defined as a "character Bioware wrote"... yet it also saves us from having a "boring" clean slate character, with no backstory or personality.
TL:DR: I'd like to see more instances of meaningful choice (of course), but I'd also like more instances of choices that don't affect anything (and SHOULDN'T affect anything) that let us flesh out the idea of the character we have. These simple, isolated and elegant choices add many small touches that can help us feel like we have a character who represents our vision of the character in our head, instead of having a completely defined protagonist or an undefined blank slate character.
Modifié par Fast Jimmy, 04 janvier 2013 - 01:40 .
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