Why Aren’t There More Choice-Based Video Games?
Ask yourself if you have played a video game. A lot of you most likely just said yes. Then ask if you have played one where your choices matter individually. Probably a lot fewer head nods with that one. This is because we seem to be in an era where the players’ choices in their video games are not as impactful as they should be.
In the midst of all of the new games such as Grand Theft Auto VI (2026), Kingdom Hearts IV, or whatnot, where are the ones where your decisions count interactively? The lack of choice-based games could be because it would cost too much money, which is understandable. However, there should be more of an emphasis on creating these games.
The biggest reason I can think of as to why these games are important is the replay value of them. This is primarily the purpose of The Henry Stickmin Collection (2020) which does not have one singular ending, well, except Breaking the Bank (2008). There are multiple endings: you can escape prison, steal a Tunisian Diamond, bring down (or join) a criminal organization, escape another prison (this time, run by the Russians) either on your own or with help of some kind (be it a fellow inmate, the Government, or a criminal organization), and proceeding when that same criminal group launches a space station into orbit.
Each game has between three and seventeen different endings. The last one in particular, Completing the Mission (2020), you can only get all 17 of the endings if you got all of the endings in Infiltrating the Airship (2013) and Fleeing the Complex (2015). This is about as good of an example of replay value as I could find since replaying expands what you can get.
Replay value adds incentive to keep players engaged. As critical as the actual game is to the game’s success, the replay value is just as crucial because of that incentive to go back. For what good is a game if you walked a straight line to do everything?
