kingdom hearts has got some good and genuine player choices in the beginning of its games.
the player must choose which you to make stronger, and which one weaker: strength (your attacks do more damage), defense (enemy attacks do less), or magic (can do more magic attacks including healing). all play an equally important role in the game, which makes the decision really tough.
Hoooooooollllddddddd on there Floyd ( ... or James). Bioshock is a good example of a crappy game-ethics-choice, but you seemed to portray it in the wrong way. For starters, I understand that most people choose to NOT kill the 'little sisters'. They chose the path that would result in getting less game-money. Why? because they are presented with story and cinematic rewards for doing so, which are dimensions parallel to game score. Just wanted to point that out.
@JollyManProductions Because the point of his videos is that video games is a new medium that gives oppertunities of [insert name of one of his videos here].
Say, for example, i tend to talkytalk in satiracal... over complicated and convulated problems, which are really just illusions to some kind of common good that im obsessed with... and the queens englisch, what heppens... if a king ruled the country?
completely random game that simulates real life: random areas with random people (personality and model/texture wise) and random choices that affect where you go in life and what people you get involved with.
Dude, I love how you break things down. It's like a lot of the things you say everyone already knows, but the way you break it down allows not only clarity on what already is but also things like open-minded conjecture, speculation, and so forth on what is yet to become. I'm So glad somebody hopes to see video games become more artistic one day and I hope you keep making these great videos worth a good laugh and a great thought.
I really laughed when I was playing thru The Path of Neo for the first time and I chose the wrong pill. Neo woke up at home then I saw the credits. Finished the game in 10 minutes.
yeah sadly today they release some games with good or bad choices but there is no real reason to be bad besides juts being bad when the other choice is easyer to see as the better one....i am disappointed when i see games like that.
3:07 Who doesn't do that? Even know I get oddly excited when offered a choice like that (even when it's obvious there is no choice). Although playing the world emds with you the other day and I was pleasantly surprised to find my being an ass actually DID make a difference.
Hi, I love this video and plan to use it in my class on decision-making for 7th and 8th graders. I am a little hesitant only because you spelled decision "desicion" in the opening title sequence. Sorry to be a nitpicker. The overall video is terrific. Just a heads up.
@shastaweitz Yeah, sorry about the misspell. It was a pretty big "facepalm" moment when I spotted the mistake a few hours after uploading the video. ><
@kirithem have you ever messed up the intro and said "my name is still this and were still talking about these :D" I had a word mix-up in my mind and now I cant stop laughing
@shastaweitz you shoud definatelty do that im sure tey wont notice the misspelling I didn't notice when I saw the video and I know it will be a fun for them.
Which Reminds me, Bioshock 2 had tons of choices that were all about what you felt was right, no reward or anything. Many of these were made and the game has various endings depending on your choices.
THANK YOU for making this vid, I've had so many problems with making a series intersting and this just gave me inspiration! :D keep these coming, they're so facionating!
Again, thought-provoking. I like games where you can make a choice (or the characters make choices that you can think about), it helps you feel connected to the story and characters, as opposed to "I'll kill/save a person for dah moneyzzz".
And the screenshot of Kaim from Lost Odyssey was appreciated - another underrated game.
I'm not sure your bioshock example was apt, The choice was to take the morally 'Wrong' path despite the benefits, You don't HAVE to harvest the little sisters, I never did, A lot of my friends didn't, But some people did.
One of the most annoying choices is where they ask you to make a choice that doesn't do anything, such as in Overlord 2 where all the moral choices have very little impact on the game (other than changing the spells slightly). If they want you to choose then you choice should do something.
I have to admit, as much as I love the game, Bioshock's sense of choice was rather fake, because in the long run you were MUCH better off saving the little sisters because in the long run you got more stuff for it.
Referring to the fact there is no apparent "right or wrong" way when making a choice, there will often be times when solving a problem doesn't have a "right or wrong" way either. Sure, the problem itself will only lead to one better outcome, differentiating it from choices, but the process of solving that problem might not necessarily have a "right or wrong" answer. These kinds of choices-within-a-problem" could arguably be called "false choices", but they are choices nonetheless.
Would you consider Pokemon too be a "choice" game, rather than a "problem" game? Now the story, i don't mean that. I mean the fact that you get too pick and choose whatever combination of moves, stats, pokemon, etc. that YOU want. Nobody forces you to beat a water type with a grass type, you can choose use fire type and still win.
@tubeview96 I'd say they we're choices WITHIN a problem. At the end of the day, the aim will always be to defeat the enemy Pokemon. The game just allows the player multiple ways to solve the "problem".
@MrNinjenius i guess, and the main goal is to beat the elite four and be crowned "pokemon master". Maybe it can be defined as a problem with multiple choices? Sure, that works (restating what he said, what's that?)
@tubeview96 Exactly. One of the things that isn't really mentioned in the video (as brilliantly informative as it is, mind) is how most of the problems the player come across in video games are actually made up of many choices (like the Pokemon example).
For example, with Fallout 3, there was no right way to play the game. You could be good, you could be evil. You could solve your problems with you gun or through words.
It came down to..really..the kind of person you are. All games should be made like it.
An easy way to implement choice is simply non-linearity in level design, in which each path leads to the same goal, but they present different problems, and you decide which problem you feel would be better to face.
A lot of what we'd call choice by offering seemingly incomparable options, even when given in a multitude of interdependent ways, eventually ends up being reduced to a problem. The gamer population takes the list of options, exhaustively explores each one, catalogues the results, debates the merits of their approach ad infinitum, and the community comes to relative agreement on which is better. Real incomparable choice, beyond aesthetics, very often just gets discarded as immaterial.
I love your videos. They are one of the best things I have watched on youtube. Your points are interesting and backed with example yet presented in a way that makes your videos enjoyable to watch.
I always thought about this since about the beginning of this year. Why in most adventure games you HAVE to go that way instead of another. Where as in free roam you can do whatever because it's your choice.
I love your videos! You have some real gold in these :) I'm looking forward to watching and learning many more. P.S. Thank you James for sharing your knowledge :D
Another great video. I do have one point to make though. As someone who has played through Bioshock multiple times and has both havested and resuced the Little Sisters there is no clear right or wrong choice. Your led to believe that you'll receive a better reward for harvesting them, thus the lure of the quick and easy evil path, but in fact if you rescue them receive approximately the same amount of ADAM as well as Plasmids you can't get any other way.
Actually, (and please hear me out), in bioshock, if you killed a little sister you got a buttload of ADAM, (which could get you upgrades) but if you saved her, (which really is the easiest choice because its so hard to kill the little kid) you got a teddy bear filled with a buttload of upgrades. So it was a choice, and had little to do with the progression of the MAIN story of getting out, so yeah, like i said, it was a choice.
@kazyBarbarian fuck you man. your a dick. it would be different if i had said "OH MEE GODXXXX YOU FUCKFASSE U GOTZ N0 1DE4 WHATCHU TALKUIN BOUT DUMBASZZ!!!
its kinda sad how most morality systems are "be good and get something shiny or be an ass and get something less shiny at best." also when the choices make no difference in the game's path or story
@l2ic3 Getting people to talk "seriously", about gaming ruins any interest in it. You just sound like a ****ing idiot if you try to say, "In HALO, you can see the Master Chief suffers from a particular form of psychological feeling, towards his lack of a known mother, increasing the, " etc, you get the point.
Chrono Trigger is a really primitive example of choice in games. Whether you choose to help the girl find her cat or eat the old guy's food, it didn't reward you but it certainly made you think (in the trial sequence)
I think in some respect Army of Two TFD has begun to address this issue. I do believe that it still has a long way to go. But the fact that some of the decisions result in a situation that either way something bad will happen, of course this means that in some respects the game forces the player to make a "bad" decision. But the fact that the developers said, you cannot control every outcome, to me at least shows that they are beginning to offer choices not just problems.
Definitely the funniest of the series but also the least interesting. However I love these videos and hope to see many more issues both large and small tackled by this guy.
I just don't agree on this clear dichotomy between choice and problem. In your example of an FPS, there are many ways to clear a room and kill the baddies. The player has a CHOICE on how to solve this problem. You go on saying, that the player does not have a choice to not fight. But you are just naming non-existent choices, and ignoring the (granted, smaller) choices actually that are actually there. It's like saying GTA4 has few choice, because you cannot exit New York.
I missed the point? To me, the point Floyd wanted to get across is that a "choice" is a situation where the player can select different ways to advance trough the game, but none of these ways presented give him a specific advantage in the way he progresses trough the game. Correct if wrong.
In your examples, the mentioned consequences of your decisions only become apparent AFTER you made the choice. So this is not a textbook "problem". It falls into the gray area I mentioned before.
@thewonkydonky to use your example, that is still a problem to be solved, the different ways to clear the room are different answers to that problem, the best one would be the one that clears the room quickest, least bullets, no casualties...etc. there are prob a few ways to get this done but there is still one perfect solution and other, slightly lesser ones that get the job done as well
Why is clearing the room the quickest absolutely the best way? Is there a timelimit on the game? Do I need to catch the train after I finish the level? How do you know I am playing a game where bullets are sparse?
You are correct though, there is still a problem to be solved. Namely:
*The problem of personal preference*. How do I play the game in which I enjoy it the most?
And in THAT sense, EVERY choice becomes a problem, even a choice like a cosmetical one (what colour of armor to wear in WoW). Which again, brings me back to the grey area of my first post.
There are many schools of thought in psychology that define every type of choice as a certain problem. In other words, every choice will have a cost/benefit tradeoff.
Where it *seemingly* becomes an arbitrary choice, is when we cannot oversee the consequences (eg long term) of our actions clearly. I'm just saying, it's a gray area.
Great video, but when you did the example of having one choice be more profitable you always used the "good" choice as the more profitable one. What I find interesting is when games make the "evil" choices the more profitable ones. If the game does a good job of giving you an immersive world and an actually interesting story the player would have to choose between a gameplay advantage, or being a more fulfilling character, which I think is still a perfectly good choice, and not just a problem
you guys are the future of gaming and game design man. Now what needs to happen is, these great ideas need to be communicated to the developers and publishers, because they're the ones who can implement these ideas into gaming.
I know this video was made in March, but I feel that Dragon Age really managed to bring us the best kind of choices. Often, choosing between 2 things doesn't give you more or less money/ammo/whatever, but impacts the storyline and relationships with the others. So I guess game developers can really solve the problem with choice.
Anyways, loved the vid as always, keep up the awesome work!
That joke about choice also reminds me of that NES Rambo game based off of Rambo: First Blood Part 2, where if you say no to the first question, the colonel goes "But it's up to you, the game won't start unless you say yes!"
With Bioshock, I found that my choice mattered more to me than just the ADAM involved, and I chose to let the little girls live. That was actually a choice, between being Good and being Powerful.
But the choice to save them never really stops the player character from becoming very powerful nor does it alter the paths or events of the game itself.
Or does it? As far as I remember, it doesn't, but I could be wrong.
That and the fact that being good gives you the exclusive Big Daddy plasmid, so both choices have a pro and a con so it should be left to your choice.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Why do you speed up your voice? It makes it hard to identify with you and take you seriously.
I also really wish you'd make a version that isn't so self-referencing. "Do I really have to read this? it sounds so pretentious." These moments are cringe inducing.
The voice speed-up is for two reasons. First, my regular voice bores ME, so I can't imagine anyone else would enjoy it. Second, I like that it makes the cartoon "me" a bit more of his own character. I can understand why some people don't care for it, but I think it's better than the alternative.
As for that bit of "self referencing," James had written in his original article about how that line risked pretentiousness. I just turned the comment into an interaction. I felt it worked better here.
@kirithem I personally enjoy those moments alot. It allows the audience to attach a personality to the unseen speaker, and it makes what you have to say more meaningful. The voice is another 'personality' factor and it gives the overall presentation more individuality. thanks for making these!
while I enjoyed your vid and it hits all the right marks, I do have to say that even when there is a reward attached to helping an old man, some gamers will still pick to ignore him, just to be a dick to him.
"Choosing" between saving or harvesting little sisters is a choice to some degree, as the goal of the game is not to get as much adam as possible, but rather to complete the game itself. It becomes easier with more than less adam, of course. Bioshock complicates things by letting you think that you get more adam by harvesting, when indeed it later on barely matters. So does it become a choice once again having this knowledge?
hahaha...in the same time funny as hell, but u r right...personaly if the game has choise of GOOD and EVIL, who becomes evil. It is fun not to help someone in the game, then comes great evil laughter, with thunder and lightning...and then u think...what have i done and reload the game...more choises....:D, u r great 5*
Unfortunately, usually 'evil' in a game is just cartoonish thuggery. REAL evil is someone who pretends to be good but only does so to draw attention away from, or to benefit, their own plans.
Besides, no-one realistically calls themselves evil because no-one would ever do something they know is the wrong thing; it usually should come down to that they think what they're doing isn't wrong.
Bioshock does give u a choice get rich quick if ur willing to kill little girls or save them and be rewarded in the long run, its a choice of how greedy ur initialy but either choice is balanced in the end, so there is no obvious solution to the choice so it is not a problem, nice video tho
Well, if you save the little sisters, you get free plasmids too; often ones that you can't get through the machines usually; you get other things like gene tonics, too, so basically you'd be stupid to pass that up, even if it was a 'short term greed' thing.
Has no one noticed the creepy whisper at 6:23? D:
Salamando 1 week ago
kingdom hearts has got some good and genuine player choices in the beginning of its games.
the player must choose which you to make stronger, and which one weaker: strength (your attacks do more damage), defense (enemy attacks do less), or magic (can do more magic attacks including healing). all play an equally important role in the game, which makes the decision really tough.
crazitaco 1 week ago
I think New Vegas gives you some pretty good choices.
thetruetrojan 2 weeks ago
Chicken Biscuit, Brotha Chrome, cheese and grits, AYOO MISTA LAWRENCE SENIOR PRIVS!
Cowsilencer08 3 weeks ago
mr lawrence class
ssundry 3 weeks ago
Hoooooooollllddddddd on there Floyd ( ... or James). Bioshock is a good example of a crappy game-ethics-choice, but you seemed to portray it in the wrong way. For starters, I understand that most people choose to NOT kill the 'little sisters'. They chose the path that would result in getting less game-money. Why? because they are presented with story and cinematic rewards for doing so, which are dimensions parallel to game score. Just wanted to point that out.
Ultermarto 3 weeks ago
you say medium a lot
JollyManProductions 1 month ago
@JollyManProductions Because the point of his videos is that video games is a new medium that gives oppertunities of [insert name of one of his videos here].
Tyraxio 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Shut up matt / Hammer to the head >.
Me22IAm 2 months ago
Shut up matt / Hammer to the head.
Me22IAm 2 months ago
Say, for example, i tend to talkytalk in satiracal... over complicated and convulated problems, which are really just illusions to some kind of common good that im obsessed with... and the queens englisch, what heppens... if a king ruled the country?
Me22IAm 2 months ago
Say, for example, i tend to talk in satire, and the queens enhlish, what heppens... if a king ruled the country?
Me22IAm 2 months ago
alpha protocol
LhynnBlue 2 months ago
completely random game that simulates real life: random areas with random people (personality and model/texture wise) and random choices that affect where you go in life and what people you get involved with.
Cooprocks123e 2 months ago
@ 0:16 .psst, Dan I have good name, call it "Extra Credits".
NikoBelic4 3 months ago
OMG Your voice sounds like Conker from Conker's Bad Fur Day!
Ganondorf64 4 months ago
sidequests
Skydance1110 4 months ago
Watch this first, eh? Alright "This" I'll bite...
AramanthOfMari 4 months ago
Dude, I love how you break things down. It's like a lot of the things you say everyone already knows, but the way you break it down allows not only clarity on what already is but also things like open-minded conjecture, speculation, and so forth on what is yet to become. I'm So glad somebody hopes to see video games become more artistic one day and I hope you keep making these great videos worth a good laugh and a great thought.
AsianFan111 4 months ago
I really laughed when I was playing thru The Path of Neo for the first time and I chose the wrong pill. Neo woke up at home then I saw the credits. Finished the game in 10 minutes.
elmarionetista 5 months ago
That's was very awesome. Thank you for posting this.
brodgers123 6 months ago
i do love me some blue alien sex
DrRockstarSpade 6 months ago
James doesn't have arms but Daniel does...
Spikeymikey1324 6 months ago
I want to wear what that kid's wearing at 5:55
horeslayer 6 months ago
Blue alien sex or the local flavor?
SN0WYmidN1GHTz 7 months ago 2
yeah sadly today they release some games with good or bad choices but there is no real reason to be bad besides juts being bad when the other choice is easyer to see as the better one....i am disappointed when i see games like that.
CONKER17 7 months ago
lol GDC...
Juggernaughty824 7 months ago
0:47 you're so mean to james. xD
ReiaSage 8 months ago
haha blue alien sex or local flavor
nerdtacularme 8 months ago
thanks so much for this video, it was AWESOME! instructive and entertaining :))
xxxDashkaxxx 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Asian women on the street oneman4u.info
kusempinthu 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Free Video games - 100% Legal and Free through steam!
Points2game D O T Com
Points2Game 9 months ago
2:48
Depends on the length and quality of the cutscene.
... does the alien have tentacles?
nestletreb 10 months ago
Im very happy u r doing this. It makes me proud to be a gamer
Plasmaspaz101 10 months ago
Pokemon example for "Choices"
Prof. Something:" Do you want to help me with my PokeDex?"
Playr:"No"
Prof. Something:"are u sure? Dont you really want to help me?"
Playr:"No"
Prof. Something:"are u sure? Dont you really want to help me?"
Playr:NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Prof. Something:"are u sure? Dont you really want to help me?"
And so on...
ruuuucacena 10 months ago 18
This has been flagged as spam show
wow... an informative youtube video. That was cool!
ChorniyKot 11 months ago
PoKEMON STILL DOES THAT, I WANNA BE WITH TEAM ROCKET BUT I CAN'T SAY YES EVEN WHEN I CLICK IT 10 TIMES
hotwhire 11 months ago 2
man...i feel like i just heard a lecture on game design. I plan on going into that field...and i'm saving this video for my notes lol
numanuma250 1 year ago
6:09 I want that picture.
Shyguy27z 1 year ago
haha, i probebly cared more about these funny pictures and animations then what he were saying =D
sovjettank 1 year ago
Well done....
TheSoapbox77 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
She is so sexy and Naughty women mworld5.info
uhytiful 1 year ago
wow... an informative youtube video. That was cool!
reverie1717 1 year ago
3:07 Who doesn't do that? Even know I get oddly excited when offered a choice like that (even when it's obvious there is no choice). Although playing the world emds with you the other day and I was pleasantly surprised to find my being an ass actually DID make a difference.
breathlessloveless 1 year ago
"Blue alien sex or the local flavor."
*Falls onto floor and laughs*
LadyRuin2012 1 year ago
I admit, video games are really interfierring with my school studies,
Guns4Combat 1 year ago
I wish you were my computer teacher!
Fullmoon901 1 year ago
We heart you mr.weitz!
jamjamrox10 1 year ago
he says its ok lol!
leebone98 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Need to marry you **busizz4me.info**
AthenaLailaify 1 year ago
Brilliant understanding how to use images that highlight what is being said instead of drowning it or competing with it.
Koureas 1 year ago
Try Asian women # lushfmlk.info #
RenaSandrac 1 year ago
do they talk about game programming? cause that's something that i wanted to do.
rgGamerfreak69 1 year ago
Lolz at James' one cough.
HunterStudios2020 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
She is so sexy and Naughty women mworld5.info
BerthaFelisha 1 year ago
BRiL-Yant!
OmegaDeman 1 year ago
Hi, I love this video and plan to use it in my class on decision-making for 7th and 8th graders. I am a little hesitant only because you spelled decision "desicion" in the opening title sequence. Sorry to be a nitpicker. The overall video is terrific. Just a heads up.
shastaweitz 1 year ago 4
@shastaweitz Yeah, sorry about the misspell. It was a pretty big "facepalm" moment when I spotted the mistake a few hours after uploading the video. ><
kirithem 1 year ago 12
@kirithem have you ever messed up the intro and said "my name is still this and were still talking about these :D" I had a word mix-up in my mind and now I cant stop laughing
TcpfMs 5 months ago
@shastaweitz you are the coolest teacher
DaFleegsta 1 year ago
@shastaweitz you shoud definatelty do that im sure tey wont notice the misspelling I didn't notice when I saw the video and I know it will be a fun for them.
crazyfills 4 months ago
Which Reminds me, Bioshock 2 had tons of choices that were all about what you felt was right, no reward or anything. Many of these were made and the game has various endings depending on your choices.
SinclairDeluxe 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
jrj4u.com
jayantasodekar 1 year ago
THANK YOU for making this vid, I've had so many problems with making a series intersting and this just gave me inspiration! :D keep these coming, they're so facionating!
reremae 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Meet your soul mate in Naughty Ladies mworld5.info
malani64 1 year ago
u are my baby baby baby♪♪ haha
jasminevillegaslose 1 year ago
I actually valued the story progression of the "good" side more than the bad side in bioshock.
xNewAgeWarriorx 1 year ago
Haha, ever since this video first came out, I thought this was your real voice, didnt realise it was sped up! Keep em coming, love them :D
TobyEllisSongwriter 1 year ago
This was really fascinating :) excellent work
uberethair 1 year ago
Fallout 3 has a LOT of choices.
baggedyman 1 year ago
"Blue alien sex, or the local flavour"
Nice, lol.
Again, thought-provoking. I like games where you can make a choice (or the characters make choices that you can think about), it helps you feel connected to the story and characters, as opposed to "I'll kill/save a person for dah moneyzzz".
And the screenshot of Kaim from Lost Odyssey was appreciated - another underrated game.
LostOddity 1 year ago
awesome ^^
nervozaur 1 year ago
These videos are exactly how games should be made: entertaining and teaches you something new
frag971 1 year ago
I'm not sure your bioshock example was apt, The choice was to take the morally 'Wrong' path despite the benefits, You don't HAVE to harvest the little sisters, I never did, A lot of my friends didn't, But some people did.
M0man 1 year ago
One of the most annoying choices is where they ask you to make a choice that doesn't do anything, such as in Overlord 2 where all the moral choices have very little impact on the game (other than changing the spells slightly). If they want you to choose then you choice should do something.
Uavatar5 1 year ago
This reminds me of the FALLOUT games, where choices are choices, not problems. Take the game Fallout 3 with the quest The Power of Atom. Look it up.
professornuclearbomb 1 year ago
I have to admit, as much as I love the game, Bioshock's sense of choice was rather fake, because in the long run you were MUCH better off saving the little sisters because in the long run you got more stuff for it.
LeonSKennedy828 1 year ago
Another view on game design and decision making: youtube.com/watch?v=ExgTtr_mst8
potterama 1 year ago
Referring to the fact there is no apparent "right or wrong" way when making a choice, there will often be times when solving a problem doesn't have a "right or wrong" way either. Sure, the problem itself will only lead to one better outcome, differentiating it from choices, but the process of solving that problem might not necessarily have a "right or wrong" answer. These kinds of choices-within-a-problem" could arguably be called "false choices", but they are choices nonetheless.
MrNinjenius 1 year ago
Would you consider Pokemon too be a "choice" game, rather than a "problem" game? Now the story, i don't mean that. I mean the fact that you get too pick and choose whatever combination of moves, stats, pokemon, etc. that YOU want. Nobody forces you to beat a water type with a grass type, you can choose use fire type and still win.
tubeview96 1 year ago
@tubeview96 I'd say they we're choices WITHIN a problem. At the end of the day, the aim will always be to defeat the enemy Pokemon. The game just allows the player multiple ways to solve the "problem".
MrNinjenius 1 year ago
@MrNinjenius i guess, and the main goal is to beat the elite four and be crowned "pokemon master". Maybe it can be defined as a problem with multiple choices? Sure, that works (restating what he said, what's that?)
tubeview96 1 year ago
@tubeview96 Exactly. One of the things that isn't really mentioned in the video (as brilliantly informative as it is, mind) is how most of the problems the player come across in video games are actually made up of many choices (like the Pokemon example).
MrNinjenius 1 year ago
2.51 Thats a problem, not a choice.
Well for me anyway.
gv1955 1 year ago
For example, with Fallout 3, there was no right way to play the game. You could be good, you could be evil. You could solve your problems with you gun or through words.
It came down to..really..the kind of person you are. All games should be made like it.
Xfacta12482 1 year ago
Bathesday turns out games with actual choices.
Take Fallout 3 for example. I was basing my decision on my morals more than anything else, because rewards and such were equal in diff. ways.
Along with a great story..Fallout 3 is easily my fav game of all time. Right next 2 Oblivion, for the exact same reasons.
Xfacta12482 1 year ago
An easy way to implement choice is simply non-linearity in level design, in which each path leads to the same goal, but they present different problems, and you decide which problem you feel would be better to face.
randoguy101 1 year ago
Gosh, your videos are the most informative I've seen. Thank you. SO MUCH.
ZeldaLink239173 1 year ago
A lot of what we'd call choice by offering seemingly incomparable options, even when given in a multitude of interdependent ways, eventually ends up being reduced to a problem. The gamer population takes the list of options, exhaustively explores each one, catalogues the results, debates the merits of their approach ad infinitum, and the community comes to relative agreement on which is better. Real incomparable choice, beyond aesthetics, very often just gets discarded as immaterial.
RyuseiKitadama 1 year ago
I love your videos. They are one of the best things I have watched on youtube. Your points are interesting and backed with example yet presented in a way that makes your videos enjoyable to watch.
Make MOAR :D
myusername0wns 1 year ago
haha you are absolutely hilarious and your a genuis great job!
Shadowgrip55 1 year ago
i'm not quite sure now, if Fallout 3 was givingme choices on how to solve a problem, or just presented me problems to solve.
anyways... FO3 is great :D
Budda2k62k6 1 year ago
I always thought about this since about the beginning of this year. Why in most adventure games you HAVE to go that way instead of another. Where as in free roam you can do whatever because it's your choice.
MuteJordan 1 year ago
Cool, interesting, well-paced, and unprecedentedly capable of keeping track of what you're talking about.
but could you please, please PLEASE not speed your voice up? I've got the time to listen to you at a lower, slower, less annoying pitch.
anyonechagt 1 year ago
This was pleasantly informative aaaaaaaaaand pretty funny. ^.^ In case you're curious, I was linked here from the Mass Effect 2 boards.
silentstephi 1 year ago
I love your videos! You have some real gold in these :) I'm looking forward to watching and learning many more. P.S. Thank you James for sharing your knowledge :D
TheRealDrDude 1 year ago
Definitely a nice, quickly comprehended view of problems versus choices in video games. Looking forward to more of these.
LordRevan107 1 year ago
Another great video. I do have one point to make though. As someone who has played through Bioshock multiple times and has both havested and resuced the Little Sisters there is no clear right or wrong choice. Your led to believe that you'll receive a better reward for harvesting them, thus the lure of the quick and easy evil path, but in fact if you rescue them receive approximately the same amount of ADAM as well as Plasmids you can't get any other way.
Zeb364 1 year ago
Actually, (and please hear me out), in bioshock, if you killed a little sister you got a buttload of ADAM, (which could get you upgrades) but if you saved her, (which really is the easiest choice because its so hard to kill the little kid) you got a teddy bear filled with a buttload of upgrades. So it was a choice, and had little to do with the progression of the MAIN story of getting out, so yeah, like i said, it was a choice.
dcent2 1 year ago
@dcent2 HOW DARE U DISAGREE WITH A VIDEO ON YOUTUBE !?! I REFUSE TO HEAR YOU OUT!!!
kazyBarbarian 1 year ago
@kazyBarbarian fuck you man. your a dick. it would be different if i had said "OH MEE GODXXXX YOU FUCKFASSE U GOTZ N0 1DE4 WHATCHU TALKUIN BOUT DUMBASZZ!!!
But I Didn't, so shut the fuck up.
dcent2 1 year ago
@dcent2 i was being sarcastic
kazyBarbarian 1 year ago
its kinda sad how most morality systems are "be good and get something shiny or be an ass and get something less shiny at best." also when the choices make no difference in the game's path or story
KorruSama 1 year ago
I just overall do not like "choices", everytime when a game gives me a "choice" it annoys me that it's not a "problem"
but I'm a gamist
velocityeleven 1 year ago
hahaha funny good and true lol
GUNNERBASSMAN 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
If you got rid of the cartoony voice and took yourself a little more seriously, you could have a quality video here.
l2ic3 1 year ago
@l2ic3 Getting people to talk "seriously", about gaming ruins any interest in it. You just sound like a ****ing idiot if you try to say, "In HALO, you can see the Master Chief suffers from a particular form of psychological feeling, towards his lack of a known mother, increasing the, " etc, you get the point.
WoWzersworld 1 year ago
good vid man its good to see something different than reviews or walkthroughs keep it up also what tools do you use to draw your images?
Randomfilms23 1 year ago
Chrono Trigger is a really primitive example of choice in games. Whether you choose to help the girl find her cat or eat the old guy's food, it didn't reward you but it certainly made you think (in the trial sequence)
PiePartyProductions 1 year ago
the voice sounds a bit like mordin
puck1310 1 year ago 27
AWESOME!!!!!!!
nonamesavalible 1 year ago
I think in some respect Army of Two TFD has begun to address this issue. I do believe that it still has a long way to go. But the fact that some of the decisions result in a situation that either way something bad will happen, of course this means that in some respects the game forces the player to make a "bad" decision. But the fact that the developers said, you cannot control every outcome, to me at least shows that they are beginning to offer choices not just problems.
Cryosinth 1 year ago
Definitely the funniest of the series but also the least interesting. However I love these videos and hope to see many more issues both large and small tackled by this guy.
AvsJoe 1 year ago
I just don't agree on this clear dichotomy between choice and problem. In your example of an FPS, there are many ways to clear a room and kill the baddies. The player has a CHOICE on how to solve this problem. You go on saying, that the player does not have a choice to not fight. But you are just naming non-existent choices, and ignoring the (granted, smaller) choices actually that are actually there. It's like saying GTA4 has few choice, because you cannot exit New York.
thewonkydonky 1 year ago
I'm fairly certain you just missed the whole point of the video.
UlquiorraZumaeta 1 year ago 10
AND, if anything GTA4 is exactly what he's talking about -
You can kill Playboy and get his crib, or you can not and get NOTHING.
You can kill Dwayne and GET NOTHING or you can keep him alive and get a bonus for it.
UlquiorraZumaeta 1 year ago
I missed the point? To me, the point Floyd wanted to get across is that a "choice" is a situation where the player can select different ways to advance trough the game, but none of these ways presented give him a specific advantage in the way he progresses trough the game. Correct if wrong.
In your examples, the mentioned consequences of your decisions only become apparent AFTER you made the choice. So this is not a textbook "problem". It falls into the gray area I mentioned before.
thewonkydonky 1 year ago
@thewonkydonky to use your example, that is still a problem to be solved, the different ways to clear the room are different answers to that problem, the best one would be the one that clears the room quickest, least bullets, no casualties...etc. there are prob a few ways to get this done but there is still one perfect solution and other, slightly lesser ones that get the job done as well
thetank1130 1 year ago
Why is clearing the room the quickest absolutely the best way? Is there a timelimit on the game? Do I need to catch the train after I finish the level? How do you know I am playing a game where bullets are sparse?
Maybe I enjoy elaborate shootouts?
thewonkydonky 1 year ago
You are correct though, there is still a problem to be solved. Namely:
*The problem of personal preference*. How do I play the game in which I enjoy it the most?
And in THAT sense, EVERY choice becomes a problem, even a choice like a cosmetical one (what colour of armor to wear in WoW). Which again, brings me back to the grey area of my first post.
thewonkydonky 1 year ago
There are many schools of thought in psychology that define every type of choice as a certain problem. In other words, every choice will have a cost/benefit tradeoff.
Where it *seemingly* becomes an arbitrary choice, is when we cannot oversee the consequences (eg long term) of our actions clearly. I'm just saying, it's a gray area.
thewonkydonky 1 year ago
That was very interesting.
Keep it up!
DarkHarpuia 1 year ago
Thanks. That was definitely very insightful and informative.
XaqRD 2 years ago
wow that was really insightful
1047piledriver 2 years ago
Great video, but when you did the example of having one choice be more profitable you always used the "good" choice as the more profitable one. What I find interesting is when games make the "evil" choices the more profitable ones. If the game does a good job of giving you an immersive world and an actually interesting story the player would have to choose between a gameplay advantage, or being a more fulfilling character, which I think is still a perfectly good choice, and not just a problem
BattleGamerNews 2 years ago
i mean the 1 on 6:06
fakebroski12 2 years ago
@fakebroski12
Katamari.
pikemand1410 2 years ago
wats the game called on 6:08???
fakebroski12 2 years ago
@fakebroski12 bioshock mate
keytwice 2 years ago
you guys are the future of gaming and game design man. Now what needs to happen is, these great ideas need to be communicated to the developers and publishers, because they're the ones who can implement these ideas into gaming.
koosdechauffur 2 years ago
fallout 1+2 had the most awesome choices I ever had to make... with many possible outcomes, none necessarily superior to another.
RPG's are at an advantage on that one.
horsthorstmann666 2 years ago
after watching a million retarded video on youtube im nicely surprised by a video that was actually veyr informative about game design
thanks
eldissy 2 years ago 78
I know this video was made in March, but I feel that Dragon Age really managed to bring us the best kind of choices. Often, choosing between 2 things doesn't give you more or less money/ammo/whatever, but impacts the storyline and relationships with the others. So I guess game developers can really solve the problem with choice.
Anyways, loved the vid as always, keep up the awesome work!
janny012 2 years ago
wow i was aready thinking about designing games and now you are just driving my imagination, thx 5/5
Televizzle07 2 years ago
hahah XD it's genius
AlmightyJaguar 2 years ago
Very nice. I like how this video takes 2 basic mechanics of a game and explain more about it. Very useful for pre-game designers such as me. 5/5 ^_^
StrictGamingVideos 2 years ago
Make more videos! ...NOW!!!
angelSachiel 2 years ago
MAKMORZ NOWZ!!!!!
BLAAAAARRGHH!!!!
BrotherVarz 2 years ago
Love the animation
shawkobezhu 2 years ago 3
MAKE MOAR VIDS NAO PLZ XD
lazyluigi101 2 years ago
That joke about choice also reminds me of that NES Rambo game based off of Rambo: First Blood Part 2, where if you say no to the first question, the colonel goes "But it's up to you, the game won't start unless you say yes!"
Rubberman202 2 years ago
Poor James.
Rubberman202 2 years ago 2
Excellent video, I hope you'll do some more ^^
Supremekuja 2 years ago
hahaha "Blue Alien sex or the local taste" LOL
kindzaker1 2 years ago 2
Make more videos !!! :P
bojo0noja 2 years ago 2
game desgning is a dream of mine :)
bojo0noja 2 years ago
.....must spam his inn box afk lol
whowhatwhenwatch 2 years ago 4
great presentation!
giubicri 2 years ago
With Bioshock, I found that my choice mattered more to me than just the ADAM involved, and I chose to let the little girls live. That was actually a choice, between being Good and being Powerful.
Eagle0600 2 years ago 8
I also went that way for those same reasons.
But the choice to save them never really stops the player character from becoming very powerful nor does it alter the paths or events of the game itself.
Or does it? As far as I remember, it doesn't, but I could be wrong.
cormano64 2 years ago
It effects the ending
Greyshm 2 years ago
That and the fact that being good gives you the exclusive Big Daddy plasmid, so both choices have a pro and a con so it should be left to your choice.
Lusitanum 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Why do you speed up your voice? It makes it hard to identify with you and take you seriously.
I also really wish you'd make a version that isn't so self-referencing. "Do I really have to read this? it sounds so pretentious." These moments are cringe inducing.
Xand991 2 years ago
The voice speed-up is for two reasons. First, my regular voice bores ME, so I can't imagine anyone else would enjoy it. Second, I like that it makes the cartoon "me" a bit more of his own character. I can understand why some people don't care for it, but I think it's better than the alternative.
As for that bit of "self referencing," James had written in his original article about how that line risked pretentiousness. I just turned the comment into an interaction. I felt it worked better here.
kirithem 2 years ago 40
Can you write more of these, these are amusing ^^
Raxer21 2 years ago
You get chased around a lot. Tip: do not make fun of bad ass videogame characters.
RaphaelRavenwing 2 years ago
The Animation definetly increases the entertainment element of the video
Lochieman 2 years ago 47
@kirithem i love the fast voice -- time is precious to me.
JeTSpice 1 year ago
@kirithem I like the self referencing.
ReynoldAckerson 1 year ago
@kirithem I personally enjoy those moments alot. It allows the audience to attach a personality to the unseen speaker, and it makes what you have to say more meaningful. The voice is another 'personality' factor and it gives the overall presentation more individuality. thanks for making these!
HowToCatchAFirefly 1 year ago
@Xand991 ...pwned
wawern 1 year ago
while I enjoyed your vid and it hits all the right marks, I do have to say that even when there is a reward attached to helping an old man, some gamers will still pick to ignore him, just to be a dick to him.
darkhalen 2 years ago 5
Please keep making these, they are awesome!
Valudshen 2 years ago
very good and informative! 5/5
k0ga777 2 years ago
rofl your videos are so very good
behseth123 2 years ago
both useful and humorous!
meyple 2 years ago
great video floyd, very interesting...I would love to see another episode of...uhh...working title
drumrjln 2 years ago
"Choosing" between saving or harvesting little sisters is a choice to some degree, as the goal of the game is not to get as much adam as possible, but rather to complete the game itself. It becomes easier with more than less adam, of course. Bioshock complicates things by letting you think that you get more adam by harvesting, when indeed it later on barely matters. So does it become a choice once again having this knowledge?
Heteronymph 2 years ago
It's the illusion of choice.
Averagegamer100 2 years ago
loved it keep them coming
wolfthing118 2 years ago
"Blue alien sex or the local flavor"
I paused the vid and laughed for about 2 mins before I could continue. AWESOME vids, kee up the good work, plz!
pheipl 2 years ago
Moooooore
TheBSG 2 years ago
i lov these vids, make more!
tinymollyobigmouth 2 years ago
hahaha...in the same time funny as hell, but u r right...personaly if the game has choise of GOOD and EVIL, who becomes evil. It is fun not to help someone in the game, then comes great evil laughter, with thunder and lightning...and then u think...what have i done and reload the game...more choises....:D, u r great 5*
Dvocevka 2 years ago
Unfortunately, usually 'evil' in a game is just cartoonish thuggery. REAL evil is someone who pretends to be good but only does so to draw attention away from, or to benefit, their own plans.
Besides, no-one realistically calls themselves evil because no-one would ever do something they know is the wrong thing; it usually should come down to that they think what they're doing isn't wrong.
MGlBlaze 2 years ago
Bioshock does give u a choice get rich quick if ur willing to kill little girls or save them and be rewarded in the long run, its a choice of how greedy ur initialy but either choice is balanced in the end, so there is no obvious solution to the choice so it is not a problem, nice video tho
PatJC1 2 years ago
Well, if you save the little sisters, you get free plasmids too; often ones that you can't get through the machines usually; you get other things like gene tonics, too, so basically you'd be stupid to pass that up, even if it was a 'short term greed' thing.
MGlBlaze 2 years ago
FABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! choices :)
JeM74835 2 years ago