Photo / Emma Puranen
40 floating in the air , ghostlike , in front of them .”
story and its themes of violence and pacifism .
With this in mind , perhaps games should consider placing an emphasis on consequence rather than choice . So many games try to implement thrilling , cinematic quicktime events that often culminate in some sort of momentous life or death choice . Meanwhile , other games render choice into an ingame mechanic that classifies the player ’ s choices as good or bad , leaving little room for interpretation . In
both instances , choice becomes less of an impactful decision and more of a gamified gimmick . Sure , making a choice can be engaging , but how does the game world and its characters react to a choice ? Who and what gets affected as a result of that choice ? Are the repercussions negative or positive ? The result of a choice should feel like a tangible factor in the game ’ s narrative , not a simple statistic or a binary expression of good and evil .
Photo / Emma Puranen
“ Their noses were almost pressed to their phones , their fingers scribbling against the screens in the anxious hopes of catching whatever animated Japanese collectable monster happened to be
40 floating in the air , ghostlike , in front of them .”