Your choice: Interactivity with the plots in video games

I have not abandoned my (non-existent) followers! I have returned for a bonus round after a long summer of working at Cedar Point (Awesome benefits by the way, like free admission to Cedar Fair parks like Cedar Point and Kings Island, 20% discount on most purchases, and getting into the park as early as I please!). This is not a post about the best summer yet for me, but for a Digital Humanities midterm. If you are here from the Digital Humanities class, I would like to warn you that I tend to joke around in my posts. One of my running gags is (for very good reason) harassing Call of Duty. Feel free to poke around the other posts while you are here!

Quickly, think up the worst video game plots you have ever played through. AND GO!

Here are the first three that came into mind:

1. Call of Duty

2. Call of Duty

3. Call of Duty

(For those who would just like the straight answer, this is the actual list.)

1. Any Call of Duty after Black Ops 2

2. Mirror's Edge Catalyst

3. Halo 3

Now let's think of the best video game plots you have played through. AND GO!

1. Uncharted 3

2, Grand Theft Auto V

3. Quantum Break

To be fair, I did say plot. But what can distinguish a good story from a bad one? 

1 word: "Interactivity"

You have a predefined start, and in most cases, a predefined end. Sometimes, you will run across different events, and other times, you will encounter the same events. You can scoff and be like "Well I died 100 times in Battlefield Hardline and you died 200 times in Battlefield Hardline and we get the same ending!" Battlefield Hardline is a linear game, and  you will take the same path to the same ending every time. Sure, I might have died, but does that make a difference? Each time you die in a game, you are just pushed back a little bit on the storyline. Since we do not have the time to explore all of the technicalities you can throw at me, we may as well move on to some examples.

In Quantum Break, you have the same start and ending. However, it is considered interactive since you get to choose how to move the story. For most of this, you will be playing through action scenes. 4 times, the game will give you junction points, and you will switch to the antagonist's point of view, where you make vital choices affecting the plot. For instance, the first choice you make will determine who comes to rescue the protagonist, as well as how a private military group is viewed by the public. In the end however, you will end up with the same ending.

Another notable example is Titanfall, where there is a fixed multiplayer playlist rather than a story you experience solo. Players are assigned to either the IMC or the Militia faction in each round, which is either attrition (Team Deathmatch) or Hardpoint. Dialogue heard in match depends on the previous winner, and when it comes down to the final match, you always end up the same way.

Other times, you have far more control over the story that you are being told. In fact, you are virtually telling the story yourself!

One particularly good example of this is The Stanley Parable. In this game, you play as Stanley, a typical office worker who has a narrator breathing down his neck constantly, but you can choose to disobey/strongly tick off the narrator. The game will lead you to a certain ending based off of how obedient you are to the narrator. In the main ending (you obey the narrator for all of the game apart from straying a few time), you have the option of shutting down an inactive facility, or choosing to activate it. Should you choose to shut down the facility, you win the game and the narrator lets Stanley be on a happy note. If you choose to activate the facility, the narrator stops narrating the story and starts harassing Stanley by making the facility self destruct.

Hey look! A spoiler!

Another noteworthy example is Shadow the Hedgehog (the 2004 game), where the game focuses on Shadow's quest to discover what sort of character he is. Does he take a friend's death to his heart and go on a rampage, or does he choose to honor her wish that Shadow works for the overall good? Most levels present three objectives (Hero/Dark/Normal), and only one needs to be fulfilled to continue, but every objective will lead you to a different level. This chart (from Wikipedia) should help me explain the concept in a far more intuitive way. Each objective is represented by a line, and each white box is next level. On the far right is the final boss you fight.

And it even incorporates your decisions for you!!

One other example I would like to point out is The Stakeout, an interactive narrative I built. I am actually not going to focus on the plot, but on some of the mechanics used to force readers to pay attention. One of the earliest possible failures is the classic "It was just a bad dream" joke ending. I  purposefully wrote the ending with little details to leave readers unsatisfied and get back into the story.  I also incorporated a short puzzle into the story that would catch speed-readers in the act: You have to radio your supervisor while there are enemies in surrounding rooms, and the 2 branches are exactly the same, except one contains a period and in the other an exclamation point. If the player chose the exclamation point, I play with them by letting them have one more choice, and then a guard catches them due to shouting. I did include one other trap, where I give the player the choice of turning off the power. Since I mentioned earlier on that there was fair weather, only players who paid attention would pass this point, while the others would default to linking stakeouts and bad weather and thinking bad weather would conceal the sudden power outage.

I caught them red-handed!

Since I have probably bored you enough for one day, let's look at a lighter subsection of interaction in video games, the nonstandard ending.

-In Shadow Complex, your car is right outside of your confinement. Interact with the car, and the protagonist will just drive off. "Eh, plenty of fish in the sea!"

-"Call of Duty" penalizes campaign players who shoot their teammates with an instant death and a "FRIENDLY FIRE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED" (What was I forgetti- Just returned to me! Call of Duty still sucks. Good luck with Infinite Warfare, Activi$ion). In fact, there are plenty more ways to fail in Call of Duty games, with mission failure (outside of death) messages giving players helpful hints such as "You were killed by an exploding barrel. Red barrels will explode when shot." (The original photo down here was taken offline so I replaced it.) 

WINNING IN SHOOTERS 101: ABSOLUTELY NEVER EVER SHOOT THE RED BARRELS!

-In Rayman 2, players must traverse a cave to retrieve an elixir for a friend. Once Rayman defeats the guardian, the guardian offers them either eternal riches or the elixir. Choose riches, and an obese and happy Rayman is shown a tropical island, but players are sent back to the dungeon to rethink their choice. Until the elixir is chosen, players will not continue. (Some ports/versions skip this part) 

-In Far Cry 4 Pagan Min attempts to introduce himself over dinner, but receives an important call. Players have a chance to escape, but if they stay put for about 15 minutes, Pagan Min returns and asks how the Crab Rangoon tasted, and gives the player a shortcut to their secondary objective. "Maybe now we can shoot some goddamn guns".
-Curse at a host in any "You Don't Know Jack" installment enough times. The host will close you out to desktop.
-In Battlefield 4, players must sacrifice one of their allies to keep their ship safe. Take too long in your decision and your ship is destroyed.

In real life, we have a lot of influence over how things play out (I do my classwork> I get good grades> I get degree> I get a good job> I get good money> I get a wife>  I get a family> I get to see a family prosper). In video games, choices are very limited to the significant ones. Regardless of what you choose, have fun watching it unfold.


-Game On

Jacob Bacci