orthogeeks

When I was doing research about one of my essays, I talked to someone kind of randomly – a game reviewer who was  rather astute – about choice in games. He pointed out that in most games, freedom is not genuine. If you do believe in free will but not in providence, you may feel chafed as you ‘kick against the goads’ in some more story or movie-like games. You would like to be able to really shape the future of that virtual world; after all, the point of being the hero is being the decider, the turner of tides and the shaper of futures.

I once pointed out to my roommate that games – most anyway – offer you the freedom to fail. That is to say, situations arise where the player can make choices that will cause the game to end in loss. Because we’re ‘in’ the world, we tacitly assume for the sake of playing the game, that it is, if not real, a kind of consistent reality. We use our imagination to fill in the gaps. When playing a role playing game, for instance, the player only has ‘freedom to fail’ (apart from turning off the game system) during combat, or at particular crisis points outside of it. Normally you are not given the freedom to fail; you are restricted, like bumpers on a bowling alley.

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