#player choice

[clairedelune-13]

I actually resent the fact that you can’t opt out of side missions in Veilguard.

Like, you can’t just actively walk away.

Thinking about that choice in Witcher 3, after the attack at tue banquet, you get the opportunity to either help Cerye or Hjalmar.

Or you can just 100% walk away, which leads to Svanrige becoming the next Jarl.

It’s an unpopular choice, but I actually really fucking love it

Veilguard doesn’t let you do that.

When your companions ask you to choose for them when, in reality, you shouldn’t be able to make calls like that.

Emmrich, dude, you’re almost 60. A choice between your life‘s ambition and reviving your pet skeleton is none of my goddamn concern.

Lucanis, why the hell are you involving me in your family drama?

Bellara, why the fuck do I care about your stupid archive? Do whatever the fuck you want.

Taash, your cultural identity is a personal decision that only you can decide, I really have no skin in this game.

Harding, you’re red alter ego is a psychological disorder, and I recommend seeking help from a therapist.

Neve? Who the fuck even is Aelia?

Davrin… your mission is the only cool one, let’s go, dude!

Veilguard decisions would’ve been so much better if you could just tell someone straight to their face, “Figure this out on your own.”

Which would factor in as A Choice in and of itself and would come into play later.

I don’t like the fact that I am forced to be a “good person”.

I’m very Geralt-coded, I’m an impromptu hero, I do like to help, but I also like to stay out of it.

Just leave me out of it, man.

Veilguard forces you into the thick of it. I hate it.

[womprat99]

Culture on My Mind – Book Review: “Player Choice” by Jeff Deck

Culture on My MindBook Review: “Player Choice” by Jeff DeckApril 17, 2015 Jeff Deck, co-author of The Great Typo Hunt, recently reached out to me to promote his new novel Player Choice. He provided me a copy in exchange for an honest review. It’s 2040. With neural implants, people can play games in an immersive virtual reality known as the aether space. Game designer Glen Cullather has a plan…

Culture on My Mind – Book Review: “Player Choice” by Jeff Deck

[clairedelune-13]

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh, but if keeping track of player choice is somehow “a challenge”. Maybe it’s better that the company start from scratch, and given to people that can actually handle something like, I don’t know, implementing player-fucking-choices.

If you give your players choices, those choices should somehow affect the next game. Even if it’s in a small way. 

And if that’s too hard, maybe you shouldn’t be designing games.

Just my take.

[clairedelune-13]

Thinking about Veilguard’s inability to provide a sense of nuance into your choices.

Let’s put the Witcher 3’s “Without a Trace” quest into Veilguard, for a second.

Now, I love that quest because it’s so easy to get it wrong. Like, I’ve actually had Geralt not pick up on the scent coming from the larder, because the game actually first just tells you to report back to the herbalist.

You actually have to do some extra investigating before Geralt sniffs and the quest updates.

But let’s jump into the hypothetical.

This quest is now a Veilguard sidequest, but you automatically know that there’s a cellar to investigate and you discover that the old couple are cannibals.

Here, there is no morally complex choice to kill or let them live. The game treats it as sn Evil Deed and thrusts you into forced combat to kill them. Then you report back to the quest giver.

—-

In Wild Hunt, you can actually tell the herbalist that you never found anything, you can straight up just lie to his face.

It’s dishonest, but the game lets you do it.

It lets you choose.

And if you went ahead and let the cannibals live, the herbalist will get angry at you and send people out to kill them. And he’ll sadly thank you if you avenged Folkert.

Now, I always choose to kill them.

Their story of gutting game in someone else’s hut was sketchy as fuck, so I drew steel. 🗡️🗡️

But I could’ve let them walk away…

A choice I would not get in Veilguard.



[literarywizard]

Starting Up Playthrough 3 of Baldur's Gate 3

I've begun my third playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 and while I'm not expecting to find much after my first two playthroughs, I'm really hoping that taking my time with this one will show me what the game is trying to say about literally anything.

There will be some spoilers for the Dark Urge endings of a Baldur’s Gate 3 character in the latter half of paragraph 3 (this is paragraph 0 and the one below this is paragraph 1). One of the questions I repeatedly asked myself while ordering the parts for and building my PC was what game I was going to play first. As a bit of a joke, I tossed Stardew Valley and Valheim into the hat for…

[blacktabbygames]

I gave a talk at GDC back in 2022 on how we approach writing player agency into Scarlet Hollow, and now that talk is finally out of their vault! So watch it if that sort of thing is up your alley ^^

[fyfsports]

The Psychology Behind Hating LeBron James

[pixelpoppers]

Cheating Lets You Experience the Best Parts of a Game More Often

Right now I’m playing Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered on PC. I love it. It’s gorgeous, heartfelt, sincere, and touching. It’s also absolute rubbish. Movement is just too slow. Combat is uninteresting and offers low chance of reward. It’s a huge grind, and it’s a boring one at that. Only one thing is keeping me playing to experience the wonderful story, one tool giving me the patience to slog through the frankly terrible combat: Cheat Engine. Cheat Engine is a longstanding tool that lets users actively edit the code of a game while it’s running. If […]

I've been beating this drum for a while, but "cheating" in a single-player game, whether it comes from in-game systems or external modifications, is often a great way to increase player options and make a game experience better.