Are the “choice situations” in the game obvious or subtle? Do you know the outcomes of your choice prior to making a decision?
This week I have chosen to play The Wolf Among Us, and in true Telltale Games fashion, has the player answering choosing how to respond and answer to the characters and situations around them right off the bat.
Domsch (2003) talks about the nature of a choice situation and states that "One important aspect of choice is therefore how informed it is – that is, whether we choose based on knowledge or arbitrarily. Choice situations differ in the amount of information that is given about the consequences of the different options." There are plenty of choice situations within the game, and the first conversation with Mr Toad proves this. The model that the player follows is one of incomplete information - "the agent is provided with some knowledge about possible outcomes, but no certainty in relation to the probability of the outcomes, and/or the completeness of information about outcomes." Bigby and Toad explain enough in the introduction sequence for the player to understand what the Fables are and what a Glamour is before being put into a situation where Toad does not have a glamour on him and being presented with the consequences of such an action. The world suggests that Fable without glamour can be punished, but depending on how the player feels, they can make Bigby be kinder to Toad and let him off, or give him a warning, both of which affect the player's relationship with the character.
The game cues you in whenever you make a decision that will affect another character, or make a choice that will have some impact later on in the game, informing you with notes in the corner such as 'Colin will remember this' or 'You chose not to lie to Beast'. The choice situations tend to be mixed in with smaller, minor dialogue choices that Bigby makes, so I often didn't realize that I was making a potentially game-altering decision until after I had made it. That said, I tried to keep Bigby's choices true to how I would have responded in the same situation, favoring peaceful dialogue options and trying to be as honest and friendly with the characters as possible. This may play into the idea of gameplay guided choice over moral choice, as keeping peace between my PC and the NPCs of the game means that they will not have any ill will towards me, and hopefully won't find ways to condemn my character further down the line.
Some consequences in game are immediate, leading to some rather expected outcomes - if you're a dick to the Fables, their opinion of you is generally bad as well, but the truly game changing decisions that the player makes are presented at the end of each chapter, shown in pie graph form. These graphs tell you things like whether or not you chose to give Faith your money, who you think killed Faith at the end of chapter 1, and whether or not you saved Prince Lawrence. There is no right or wrong in any of these choices - the graphs at the end merely show you how you stacked up against other players, and how the story changes because of your decisions.
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