Choices

Anatomy of the hypertext choice

Area of focus

This page focuses on hypertext choices, but a lot of the concepts explored here extend significantly to broader decision processes.

Constitutive elements

1. The FRAMING: what comes before and helps understand its context and stakes.
2. The TEXT for each of the available options
3. The OUTCOMES of each of those options

Player motivations

• DIEGETIC: the character wants to achieve a goal
• SEMI-DIEGETIC: the player acts out of sympathy / empathy, they roleplay, they're pushing the game to a particular limit (minmaxing a specific attribute / alignment) while preserving a strong level of immersion.
• EXTRA-DIEGETIC: the player picks whacky choices, entertains an audience, explores new options for completionism purposes, etc.

Not knowing exactly how the player engages with a choice means the author needs to reflect the potential nail-biting nature of the decision.

Framing

Normal framing

• Context of application (timing) and everything preparing the appearance and the effect of the choice
• Perceived stakes -> see Dunyazad
• Games with a time loop or a time mechanic (e.g. katana zero) -> framing of the choice changes everytime we update our knowledge about its possible consequences, either by playing it again or seeing in advance the consequences of an option

Framing effect as an inherent part of choices

By being proposed to the player, the act of choosing itself is legitimized. Cf Mass effect and the Krogan problem. Even letting the player distance itself from the course of action available takes a certain worldview for granted.

Options

Good practice according to Ryan Kaufman: never ask players if they want to access side content, but provide reflective choices to justify getting away from it.

You want CONTRAST, either to have a healthy balance in dialogue options, or to go with a specific effect:

• add (LIE) after the second occurrence
• Unchoice (see below)

For reflective choices, characterization or concrete consequences go a longer way than a candid "What do you think?".

Certainty

Capacity of the player to anticipate the consequences of their actions. A defining factor of agency, but it can be manipulated in very different ways.

• Fallen London, CRPGs, etc: a straight-up chance of success expressed through a percentage or another mean of quantification. Detracts from immersion, suggests grinding stats, exploiting failsafe mechanics... OR if the game pushes against this idea, can enhance a sense of roleplay and a dedication to making high-stakes choices in appropriate strong narrative moments, and living with the consequence whatever they may be (hello Disco Elysium!).
• Papers, Please: in the short term, uncertainty doesn't come from our own actions but from the motivations of the people we face, which is how the game manufactures complicity (along with the important step of providing many possible justifications for our decisions).

Can be influenced by the format of the options: are we faced with a menu, dialogue options, or broader real-time open actions?

Constraints

• Resources needed for options (materials or stats) that you can acquire in prevision or find yourself equipped with
• Mechanical ability in real-time gameplay games
• Limited time to choose

Other exploitable characteristics

• Reversibility of the option chosen
• Granularity in a decision process. Windblown: not making your kunais explode lets you apply a status after a while, kind of a hidden option that has low discoverability. Lorelei and the laser eyes: freedom to move and not just teleport to destination allows for hidden glitches. Outer Wilds: lamp has to be actively picked up and carried, leaves the option to drop it...

Other interfaces

From Emily Short's dedicated article -> considering the input method itself, not the verbs available in the game.

Metrics to consider:

• Effort: the amount of work needed to operate the game. Clicking < typing < using a dancepad. High effort = more identification and complicity with the protagonist.
• Expressiveness: how much info is packed into a single action. A parser system is expressive, clicking is not. Heightens intention. ⚡You can also have many non-expressive moves that combine, sequentially or not!
• Ambiguity: the equivalent of certainty as defined above, but pertaining to the input method, not the selected option.
• Discoverability: of valid commands. Parsers are often unintentionally hard because of their lack of discoverability.
• Pressure: the presence of stakes based on a timely and successful performance. Often present in interactive film since a sequence is playing.
• Embodiment: the analogy between player and character mechanical actions.

Interface	Notes
Hypertext links	Low effort, expressiveness, pressure. High discoverability, variable ambiguity.
Timed hypertext	Generally only used for stressful situations, not for the full piece.
Dragged commands	A la Texture. very discoverable cause areas highlighted, more expressive if choosing action and object, but fewer interactions than parser game. mild effort. sweet spot cause accessible but still intention and complicity.
Untimed choice selection from short list	very standard. low effort, expressiveness, pressure, ambiguity, but very discoverable lol.
Timed choice selection from short list	more pressure, raises idea that inaction is a choice!
Multiple distinct choices available on single node	player can make several decisions before going onwards. Question of order, of combinations, so more expressiveness. still very discoverable compared to parser cause choices enumerated
QTEs	totally discoverable but also pressured and effortful. still low expressiveness and ambiguity. medium but abstract embodiment.
Typing keywords	choice selection with extra steps. can add pressure or ambiguity very easily. also fun to twist this notion by interspersing it.
Typing words into parser	classic parser is mid effort, high expressiveness, low discoverability, low pressure, low embodiment. usually low ambiguity.
Typing natural language dialog	high expressiveness duh, high ambiguity, low discoverability. Façade : pressure up cause real-time activity from the NPCs
Moving through textual layout	Loose Strands and Device 6 → swipe in 4 available directions, higher effort but low expression and even lower embodiment
Moving through 2d/3d world	“narrative by exploration” game like gone home, somewhat expressive, mid to high effort, pressure and discoverability greatly vary, but high embodiment
Voice selection of a keyword	mid effort, low ambiguity, low pressure, low expressiveness, high discoverability
Specialist props	physical ones like instruments → LARPs and escape rooms highest forms of that, discoverability varies , high embodiment if done right
Whole body engagement	dancing games, VR. fuzzy input → always a bit ambiguous, high embodiment and effort, discoverability depends on messaging.

Player experience

Many dimensions of a player's experience are affected by choices and their constitutive elements.

• Agency: ability to consciously move the story towards a direction or another
• Influence: see one's actions have consequences on the world and the story, even when those were not anticipated / premeditated
• Autonomy: ability to pursue one's own goals
• Identification: pay attention to the phrasing and the coherence of the character's viewpoint, emotions, mode of expression, etc.
• Transportation: choices can both express "what happens" in a playthrough as a linear story, or, more impactfully, the breadth of "what could happen" in the context of multiple playthroughs. Supposes outcomes that are congruent to their options and similar in terms of impact and weight. The Time Cave is the epitome of that principle.
• Absorption: detached from "immersion" and its sensory connotation, describes the player's state of focus, which serves their sense of flow. Choices can both demand focus and divert attention from the narrative.

The player's interpretation of the choice as a whole is influenced both by it's framing and format when presented, but also in a second time when seeing the outcomes of their choice.

Notable choice types

• Blind choices with no framing (go left vs go right)
• False choice (suggestion of a non-existent embranchment)
• Dead-end option (one or more options bring you to a game over, frequent in gauntlet structures)
• Dilemmas (measurable and variables-backed consequences, as opposed to flavor choices)
• Unchoices where only one option is possible
• Delayed consequences (deemed deprecated by Peter Mawhorter but defended by Emily Short when backed with stats)
• Reflective choices that allow the player to either express their values / opinions or to determine what kind of person their character is. Phrasing then matters a lot, being succinct enhances absorption (see below) and is more visceral, giving flavor to the options can titillate the player's curiosity and put the emphasis on the character. When playing an already defined protagonist, playing with the conventions is very effective in highlighting their desires and limitations + always make room for characterization outside the scope of decisions (the player choses the action, the character their mode of expression). Reflective choices give insight into the character and / or give participation in their construction. We'll consider customization choices that affect graphical elements only part of this category.
  • Subset of the reflective choice: proposing you the same dialogue option twice but the second time, it's a lie (used at least once in Slay The Princess).
• Story-defining choices where you complete the game's narration (in Cactus Blue Motel's opening, you finish the narrator's sentence describing who's driving the car / see Spider And Web for an even more potent example)

Dunyazad's procedural generation

Peter Mawhorter's system to generate choice clusters and text. Based on RPG-like skills that are openly called out in options. Certainty is maximized as much as possible.

• obvious choices: one option that achieves a goal and doesn’t fail any, all other options threaten a goal while achieving none
• relaxed choices: each option enables or achieve a goal, none threaten / fail any goal. Low stakes.
• dilemma choices: all options threaten a goal (their priority being equal), none achieve any goal, options that enable a goal need to fail a goal.

Toolbox

From Cass Phillipps' talk:

Find your choices

• From NPCs and the questions they ask the players.
• To hide negative beats forced by the story: we prepare the way with some disseminated minor choices pertaining to the beat that can be referenced to make it less unfair / disconnected from our playthrough; we don't want the player to feel like the game fails them without them ever having had any chance to avoid it.

Give meaning to your choices

• Altering the way NPCs speak, minor details in scenes, graphical customization, small worldbuilding details taking your choices into account.
• Immediately react to a choice: tell the player that what they just chose matters and will have an effect on the rest of the playthough.