Choice in Video Games: Necessity or Illusion?

The interactivity of video games allows for explorations of moral choices and consequences at the hands of the player. But even in games that revolve around the player making difficult decisions, does the player really have a choice in the storyline, or is it the illusion of choice? Some argue that choice is what makes video games distinct from other forms of storytelling, but is it really necessary for an effective story?

Choices in games have developed quite a lot since the early days of gaming, and often now, players have to make decisions that don’t necessarily have a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ outcome. Just like in real life, choices have difficult ethical problems that don’t have a right or wrong answer.

After discussing the topic with several college age people, it seems like most people who play video games enjoy the option of having choices in games, but some think otherwise.

Blair, Robert Morris University biomedical engineering major, said, “I’m honestly a big fan of both [games with and without choices], so it’s a little hard to say. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is probably the best to describe the sort of story game I like. The ending is based solely on all of your decisions. Also sort of like The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan – it’s a game where you go through different stories, and every decision is extremely important and makes up the rest of the game.”

They went on to say, “It’s a little more satisfying for me versus story games that are one solid story straight through. Being able to sort of pick through and eventually decide the actual ending to a video game is interesting. Mostly because that means that there may be more endings, or so much more to the game that I may have missed.”

Another college student, William Imler, Carlow University senior graphic design major, said that he doesn’t play many video games but thinks about this topic a lot. “I like choosing your own ending, [but] I haven’t really given set-in-stone endings a chance. But [adventure games like that are] cool because it’s not about how the story ends, it’s about the journey getting there. And a little bit about how the story ends, especially if it’s a plot twist,” he said.

Lia Patentas, American University junior film major, said, “I definitely like having choices in games because otherwise I find it to be boring to not have control over it. Even though I know that in some games any choice will lead to something already predetermined, I think it’s fun to engage with it.”

On a similar note, a YouTuber and Twitch streamer named FIXER said, “I think I’ve played enough games to realize that no matter how much the game pretends to give you ‘choice,’ you never really have it. And there are actually games that get really meta about that fact. Undertale and The Stanley Parable come to mind.”

He goes on to give another example. “Even the G-Man [from the Half-Life series] is in a way a metaphor for the lack of free will in gaming, especially in linear shooters. He even says, ‘Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you.’ In a way that is Valve saying, ‘If we didn’t have this omnipotent character in every game to pull the strings to get you from Point A to Point B, why would you even bother?’” He thinks he prefers games that don’t give you options to make choices, because he has played games like Detroit: Become Human, where he was forced to take a certain action of killing two people in the game when he did everything to avoid harming anyone.

With these differing and complex opinions, it’s hard to tell if choices in games are truly choices at all. If you have to choose between saving your best friend or saving an entire town in a game like Life is Strange, but you can easily go back and replay the game to get a different outcome, does your choice really matter? Or is the fact that you can choose like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book make the story unique and compelling?

Do you prefer story-based games that are all about making choices and the outcomes of those decisions?

Or do you enjoy open-world games where you can make some choices, but they don’t affect your story too much?

Why do you like one over the other?

Header image from The Stanley Parable