Listening to Story Choices

The player is telling us who they are through their gameplay actions. Why not listen to them?

Since the 90s, a lot of single-player games with high budgets have treated choices in the narrative the same way. Either it doesn’t exist at all i.e. the story is entirely linear (often action, cutscene, action, cutscene) or “story choices” happen during narrative scenes, often in a branching dialogue (“I’ll choose to save companion B, as she’s slightly less annoying than companion A”).

A lot of games still do that — “story choices” made at pivotal scenes of the game. These choices branch the story, delivering different content, at least in small ways.

As a result that tends to be how both players and developers think about choice. No option in dialogue? No choice!

And yet the player is constantly making choices throughout play, telling the game systems who they are. Their character is impacting the world in multiple ways. Often we see game feedback to that, in progression or trophies. But the story itself rarely reacts or branches based on these actions. Why don’t we listen when they tell us who they are through actions, and have our stories react appropriately?

• Do they use stealth and sneak past, leaving opponents alive? Or stealth, and kill people quietly? Or go all guns blazing and slaughter everyone? Shouldn’t that tell you how someone might react if they meet them and have heard what they’re like? Perhaps this changes the story — since the player has behaved like a mass murderer, this NPC won’t support them, but another one will… or perhaps the NPC is so scared of the silent killer they will spill everything without holding out for a bribe.
• Do they spend all their time growing flowers rather than foodstuffs? Wouldn’t that mean that the shopkeeper treats them differently, or that someone compliments them on how their garden looks? Perhaps that affects the branch of a story when there’s a famine…
• Have they collected all the lore they can find? Maybe they have a rep of being knowledgeable, which might attract different, more cerebral mission paths rather than all-out combat.
• Have they spent all their XP on magical skills and used them for combat or exploration? That might bring them a reputation — of wonder or fear. Maybe that makes a difference when they try to talk their way into the castle.
• Do they wear fantastic colourful silk outfits, or rough leather with spikes on it? How does that branch the story if they go to the Grand Banquet?

There are plenty of games out there that vary gameplay rewards based on the player’s gameplay style. There are few high-budget titles, I think, which use player’s gameplay behaviour as a way to inform changes in the golden path of the narrative itself.

There are obvious exceptions. A few examples off the top of my head, and I’m sure there are more:

• Dishonored — the Chaos system changes the world based on your behaviour and affects whether specific characters will support you.
• Spec Ops: The Line has some distinct moments where the player’s use of the primary verb (“to shoot”) affects the way the story reacts.
• Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War — how the Nemesis system reacts to your actions affects the whole experience.
• The fake-out start in Far Cry 4, I guess!

But I don’t think it’s common. By not listening to the player’s behaviour, we support the idea that somehow the story world is disconnected from the gameplay in that world.

The player is telling us who they are through their actions, and I think our story would be made more immersive and ultimately more personal by reacting to that.