I actually dislike this methodology in games. It’s so damn tired. I don’t want a ‘good route’ and a ‘bad route,’ and I don’t want a ‘none of your choices actually matter because we’ve carefully balanced them so neither option could offend anyone ever’ route.
I want different routes. I want multiple good endings. I want multiple bad endings. I want my choices to change things, not just slot stuff into ‘this is good’ or ‘this is bad’ or ‘this is slightly different but doesn’t actually matter in any meaningful way.’
Let characters fuck up. Let characters do amazing things. And then serve the consequences, good, bad, or weird, that they so richly ordered.
Even then, a story in which everything goes wrong eventually becomes predictable and boring, The stormlight archive would be a very different and much shorter book if everything that could have gone wrong did.
Obviously outside of very specific genres not everything can be sunshine and rainbows either. As in all things in life, balance is important, I think.
I actually dislike this methodology in games. It’s so damn tired. I don’t want a ‘good route’ and a ‘bad route,’ and I don’t want a ‘none of your choices actually matter because we’ve carefully balanced them so neither option could offend anyone ever’ route.
I want different routes. I want multiple good endings. I want multiple bad endings. I want my choices to change things, not just slot stuff into ‘this is good’ or ‘this is bad’ or ‘this is slightly different but doesn’t actually matter in any meaningful way.’
Let characters fuck up. Let characters do amazing things. And then serve the consequences, good, bad, or weird, that they so richly ordered.
Agreed, but I think this infographic is more aimed at writers trying to write books / short stories / scripts-- and for them, it’s pretty good advice.
Even then, a story in which everything goes wrong eventually becomes predictable and boring, The stormlight archive would be a very different and much shorter book if everything that could have gone wrong did.
Obviously outside of very specific genres not everything can be sunshine and rainbows either. As in all things in life, balance is important, I think.
Dishonored 2 did this pretty well. Not only different endings, but place style affected the world around you - NPC reactions to, overall tonal shifts
I feel like Knights of the Old Republic 2 WANTED to do this. But given tech and time restraints it wasn’t achievable yet.