the binary branch frustration
There is something that frustrates me a lot: we are using extremely powerful computers to allow the player to choose between one path or another. Between two binary options, or as we programmers like to say, boolean.
Most tools like Twine make it very easy to write narratives with branches associated with choices made by the player, so it doesn’t surprise me that most writers choose this.
I am interested in advancing interactive narrative, which is why I created this list, and my language cuentitos (it’s not ready to be used by just anyone!).
What do I mean by binary or boolean branches? Look:
You see the high orc priest in front of you.
He greets you and you see a smile drawn on his face.
req reputation_with_orcs >2
He looks at you with a hatred you have rarely seen in your life
req reputation_with_orcs <-2
He just looks at you, as if wondering what you want.
req reputation_with_orcs >= -2
req reputation_with_orcs <= 3
This example suggests that, based on my reputation with the orcs, one of the 3 possible paths will happen.
Which option is executed depends on what the player has done before reaching this moment, so it’s a way of reacting to the state, and we want that 👍.
This example gives the player 100% control over the outcome. Maybe the player doesn’t know it the first time they play, but their previous choices determined which option was chosen.
I think this is fine, but it limits the experiences we create.
I am particularly interested in having tools where we can play with the player’s agency, validating their choices, but not giving them 100% control over what happens in the world.
This comes from a frustration I have that goes beyond narrative:
Most of us associate the quality of our decisions with the outcome.
This is a serious mistake because we can make good decisions (Crossing the street when the light is red for cars) and still get a bad result (If a car doesn’t stop at the red light and hits us). Or vice versa.
I believe that if we consider that all experiences educate us, video games where the player has 100% control are reinforcing a broken pattern of reasoning.
That’s why I created cuentitos, to be able to write probabilistic narrative.
You see the high orc priest in front of you.
(1) He greets you and you see a smile drawn on his face.
freq reputation_with_orcs >2 +10000
(1) He looks at you with a hatred you have rarely seen in your life
freq reputation_with_orcs <-2 +10000
(998) He just looks at you, as if wondering what you want.
In this case, as we saw in the article on zero-sum reputation systems, the 3 options can be chosen, only each one has a probability based on the state of the game.
This is much more interesting to me, because in this case the player only has a 90% control, 1 out of 10 times they will get a result that is not what would have come out in the binary version of the narrative.
What do you think about this? Do you think this is a good idea? Or do you think there are reasons why this shouldn’t be done?