Something to be said for linear progression.

I've heard this several places over the past little while (including, I believe, in a recent Bombcast), so let me disclaim: this thought is not original. I'm just presenting it so that the GB community can mull it over and whatnot. In the past few years, games and game developers have become obsessed with choice. The number of times I've read, "you choose your own path!" on the back of a game box in the past 3 years is positively nauseating. Don't get me wrong, its not that choice in a video game is a bad thing... Its just that I don't believe that choice should be the main selling point of a franchise, especially when, as in recent days, those "choices" result in only insignificant differences in the plot.

Take the final boss from Mass Effect (an amazing game, to be sure). When I watched my friend encounter Mr. Alien McPoopypants (as he will be known, since I can't remember his name) that final time, a heated exchange preceded the showdown. I decided after that that I should definitely play through ME. So I did. However, when I reached Mr. Alien McPoopypants, the situation ended up differently (but not really):

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW. DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO PLAY THROUGH THE MASS EFFECT CAMPAIGN WITHOUT KNOWING ONE OF THE TWO POSSIBLE ENDINGS.

During our exchange, my high charisma allowed me to convince said alien that what he had done was wrong. He felt guilty. So, so guilty. So guilty in fact, that he shot himself in the head.

My jaw dropped. I ran to my friend's room to confirm:

"Dude, when you were about to fight Mr. Alien McPoopypants, did he shoot himself in the head?!"
"What the f&%^ are you talking about? No. Go away."

I sat down, hands practically trembling, waiting to see what happened next. The answer? Nothing goddamn remarkable. There was a deus ex machina involved which forced me into that final encounter anyhoo. My choice of diplomacy over violence meant... Nothing.

What I'm trying to say is that I am tired of game developers sacrificing story quality for "choice".  Fallout 3, I think, is an excellent example. Many people thoroughly enjoyed their experience. To me, it seemed a little hollow. Well, a lot hollow. Because once you strip away all of the "innovative" choice making (some of which, admittedly, had solid effects on the game's progression... Megaton), the plot you are left with is a boy trying to find his father.

That's.
It.

It wasn't even particularly well executed! When I heard that Liam Neeson was playing your character's father, I got all excited thinking there would be at least some vocal talent in the game. Instead Neeson sounds like he's reading from a textbook half the time. A medical textbook.

At this point I can honestly say that I would much prefer a game with zero choices that offers me, the consumer, a fantastic story over a game that puts everything in my hands except for the mediocre plot.

DISCLAIMER: I love Mass Effect. So. Much.

Yup, nothing wrong with a game telling it's story. I find it kinda odd when people scoff and say something like, "I LOVE the game but it's so linear" as if being linear is a mark against it or something. "Non-linear" basically means you get to choose to do one of two, maybe three, things and that'll be your non-linear ending. Goodie. Three unsatisfactory endings.

Replayability is good.
And in mass effect, part of the experience was making choices, solving arguments with a gun or diplomacy, helping someone or exploiting them, etc. Without those, Mass Effect would have been half as good, if that.

Plus and *SPOOLERS FOR MASS EFFECT* although you already posted that.





Killing the council felt so good precisely because I could have let them live.

True, there were a couple meaningful choices in Mass Effect that I neglected, mostly because its been so long.

HUGE, EPIC SPOILERS OF GARGANTUAN PROPORTIONS TO FOLLOW. ABANDON ALL FAITH ALL YE MASS EFFECT NOOBS WHO ENTER HERE.

Remember saving Ashley or that other dude? Good times. Then there was boinking the alien chick. Good times. Oh, and talking Wrex out of getting his dome popped off. Good times. As you mentioned, the Council dying? Good times, even though that was a semi-difficult decision to make, simply because I'm a goody two-shoes. A while ago I read that those decisions would reach over into ME2. Here's hoping.