810 On Branching Paths

In this relatable post on Reddit, the author approaches a topic that is desperately interesting to me as both a gamer and a game designer. To summarize it, the OP explains the emerging tedium of games that provide “branching paths,” and they compulsion to explore games exhaustively, and how these two aspects create some amount of dissonance when taken to extremes. Skim through the OP’s question to get full context through a well-written post.

The question is, then: is this the player’s fault for being compulsive about exploration in gaming, or the designer’s fault for enabling it?

But really, who cares? That isn’t the right question. Ultimately it is up to us as creators and interactive designers to address the concern, especially if it’s a growing one. As creators we have control to change the direction of trends like this.

In all honesty, I don’t have a clear solution though. I think it’s something that we need to keep in mind as contemporary designers, and work through solutions for. I’m going to revisit this in the future as I continue to work through it in future game designs.

[ Today I Was Playing: nothing… ]

#game-design-topic, #game-opinion