Meaningful choices seem to be the golden grail of narrative games. It is an elusive topic and many writers struggle with that. The main problem seems to be the word “meaningful”.
Because, how the choices in the story can be meaningful if the story is already written, predetermined? There is no real choice in narrative games. There are only those choices that the author and the writer planned for, player cannot do anything to spite them. For the game to work, we need to make sure the players believe in the narrative so much, they deem all their choices to be either ones they desire or the only choices that are possible in that scenario.
And what is a choice? The choice is a question you ask the player, question about the world and how they want to navigate the world, how do they understand the world. Asking too many questions may lead to confusion and boredom, the player need some guidance in how to taggle those questions, the weight of worldbuilding should not be put on them. Too frequent choices exponensially increase the workload and scope of the game. And while narrative games should be big enough for the story to develop in various ways, they should not abandon their core reason. We write stories to tell the player something, to communicate an idea, a critique or portray a behaviour. While accommodating the various choices the player can make we should not abandon the core reason for the narrative existance, because then the story will loose its appeal. Story is not for the player to have an experience, but the experience – designed while designing the story.
In that headspace, the meanigful choices are narrowed down. We have a core experience we want the player to live through and all the choices should somehow cricle back to this core experience, supporting it and reinforcing it throughout the narrative. Moreover, choices should be written into the narrative when it makes sense, when the choice will be “worth the player’s time”.
The sources I have read, define the meanigful choice as constructed from four basic elements:
1. the question (and what it is about)
2. infromation about the choice (what can happen afterwards, what is the context)
3. choices we can choose from
4. the response of the game to the choice
Without any of those four elements, the choice looses its meanigfulness. Without the question, there is no choice, no reasen to choose anything. Without the information about the choice, it becomes arbitrary, you have no idea why should you care about the choice and every choice will be a random one. Without the choices, there would be no alternative which is central to the concept of “choice”. And without the response to the choice, the choice would just be inconsequestial.
The choices must also sustain the balance between comperhension of the story and its core element as well as player’s freedom. You cannot railroad the player into certain choices without making it seem like it was the only choice. If you must, start a game with it – after some bad choice that is needed for the game’s story to start or develop.
Choices must hint on their responses but still make sure no choice is an obvious one. If there is a choice, there must be a reason to choose any of the options.
There are severl means of making a choice meaningful. First would be story consequences. Choices should reflect in the game and the easiest and most straightforward way of doing so is making the player responsible for what is happening, who is alive, what plotpoint is relevant and which is forgotten. On the other hand it must be constricted to a certain area of what the game is about. Choices should present a way to influence the world but should not be only about that.
The other way of making the choice meaningful is portraying the character. Choices can reinforce in the player the characteristics of the character they are playing. Those choices do not need to influence the events because they influence how the player thinks about their character. Choices can be simple reactions to the world the character makes, reflections the player thinks the character would make about the state of things. It is meaningful because it allows the player to create their own understanding of the game world and populate it with meaning – in this case relationships the character has, opinions and ideals. Character might still do game tasks and engage with the plot even if they despise some of the characters or ideas the game story presents.
A development on the previous point is to give the player the ability to define the relationships between their character and the other characters. We cannot force the player to have a certain emotional response to any event or character, we can try to predict what emotional response would that be, but a good choose-your-own-story should works regardless of the emotions the player has towards the elemnts of the game. Whether they hate their collegue or not, they will hep them, either to be likable or to show their superiority.
Another element to make the choice meaningful is to relate it to the established relationships. The player can make some choices that will have consequences in the long run either towards their relationships or the plot. That element will make them think twice or thrice before making any other choice. In this regard it is vital to make the consequences as explicit as possible for the player to not feel cheated.
Choices stick with us if they are the building blocks of our experience. Narrative stories are about the player building its own understanding of the plot from the points written by the creators. With everything that I have written here it is also very much important to remember that the core of a choice is to simulate real world. If we make the choice meanigful we will also make it more believable.
Bibliography:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/making-narrative-choices-meaningful
https://www.christopherellington.com/single-post/2017/02/20/What-Makes-a-Choice-Meaningful
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/deep-dive-multiplayer-narrative-in-doomsday-paradise
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/meaningful-decisions-in-branching-narratives