Give Me a Choice

Whether it’s the decision of going to college or not going to college at the beginning of the Game of Life board game, or all of the decisions you make when playing Dungeons and Dragons, games are about choice. For some games, you have to choose which character you’re going to play, with each character having different attributes and abilities. In some games, you choose a specific play style. Are you going to play aggressively or defensively? Are you going to make allies, or be the lone wolf? Most games force you to make decisions throughout the entire game, decisions that are hopefully fun in some way. All of these decisions are what makes a game a game.

Beyond the simple existence of choice, it’s important that these choices be meaningful. If faced with a decision that will lead to the same outcome, regardless of what a player does, then there really isn’t a choice at all. Players have to feel like their choices matter, like they have some kind of impact on the game, whether that means advancing the storyline or helping them to win in some way. Otherwise, what’s the point of making those choices? What’s the point of playing the game? If your choices don’t matter, if the game just kind of happens to you, why not just watch a movie, instead?

People play games for lots of reasons. For a lot of people, it’s the challenge of pitting your knowledge and skills against those of another player, or sometimes against the game itself, if it’s a cooperative game. Others like the social aspect of gaming, or the fun of experiencing new game mechanics and themes. Of course, none of these are mutually exclusive, I personally like all three. And, there are lots of other reasons besides these to play games. But, I wouldn’t play games if I didn’t have some kind of agency while playing them. I want to feel like I’m influencing the outcome. It’s our job as game designers to make sure that our games offer players situations in which the choices they make feel like they matter, and to make sure that those choices actually mean something.

I used The Game of Life as an example of how you make choices in games, and I suppose you could say that, by definition, The Game of Life is in fact a game. But, it isn’t much of one. After a very few number of basic choices at the beginning of the game, there are then a bunch of random factors that determine what your experience in the game is like and who the winner is. That’s not much of a game at all, but at least it’s an entry point to gaming for young children. In Candyland, the only choice you ever make is what color you’re going to be, and that has no impact on the game at all. A person doesn’t really play Candyland so much as they watch it happen. And, although it would be hard to think of a scenario in which a person would accidentally make a game in which the player has no actual choices, there are some pitfalls to consider.

Let’s say you make a game with a character, let’s say a fire wizard, who has 2 abilities. The first ability to throw a fireball that does 10 damage and uses 1 point of magical energy. The wizard’s second ability is to throw a fireball that does 5 damage and also uses 1 point of magical energy. Now, the player has the choice to use either ability at any time, but why would a player ever choose the smaller fireball? This of course is an extreme example, but there will be times when your design might come out looking something like this. Sometimes, it’s hard to see. If your game mechanic forces a player to do the same thing over and over again, then you might need to consider if you’ve somehow inadvertently taken choice out of the equation.

Choices are what set games apart from other forms of entertainment. You don’t get to choose what the heroine does in a movie. You don’t usually get to pick where a character goes in a book. Games are fun because they engage us. We are the ones who choose, and we win or lose by those decisions. If the game is done right, if a player’s choices actually matter, then even if a player loses, they’ll still have a good time. And that way, everyone wins.

Good luck, and good gaming!