Cody is wrong level: 9000+ (Gaming)

by Claude Errera , Tuesday, February 17, 2015, 09:50 (3571 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Wrong. As Rag pointed out, the in-room confrontation has four ways (at least) that it can play out, but you're only TOLD to do one. Same for the trip to the basement. Did you save the bird?

When the bird hits the window, the game says 'MAYBE I CAN SAVE THE BIRD'. So you have a binary choice: save the bird or no. A better way would have been for nothing to be said, and the player to think, hmmm I wonder if I can save the bird, instead of being told you can and it's a choice. These types of games need to go beyond HEY, YOU CAN MAKE A CHOICE HERE WINK WINK.

Did you leave evidence of your snooping? Probably not, right? That'd be a mistake... right?

Actually I did leave evidence.

Did you water the plant? Of course. Why wouldn't you? That won't come back to bite you later, right?

That would be stupid. I had no information regarding watering the plant. At least with other choices you can sort of weigh the possible outcomes. But like… it's a plant. I fail to see how watering it or not watering it will have any effect down the line given the info that I have, thus the choice is arbitrary and not meaningful.

Wait, wtf?

I've never played this game you're talking about, so I could be off here... but your first paragraph above says "they TOLD me what the choice was, instead of saying nothing, and letting me DECIDE whether there's a choice - this is bad" and your second paragraph says "they didn't tell me anything, so I had no information to decide whether this was a worthwhile choice or not - this is bad".

Make up your mind, Cody - do you want help, or do you NOT want help?