Freedom of Choice

The freedom to choose between several different actions which all seem meaningful.

One can argue that for a game to be a game at all, the players have to be able to make what they feel are interesting choices. For example the quote attributed to Sid Meier's "a good game is a series of interesting choices" argues this, as does the definitions of game from Costikyan where player make decisions<ref="Costikyan"/> and Abt where players are independent decision-makers<ref="Abt"/>.

If there are no choices the activity can still be goal-oriented and require skills, e.g. some sports and puzzles

This means that the choices must have seemingly different effects and have effects that are meaningful. If these conditions are met, players can feel that they have the Freedom of Choice within the game system and they can affect the outcome of the game.

Examples

Example: Open-ended games like The Sims provide players with a multitude of game elements to interact with and many types of actions for each game element. In addition, they give players the freedom to define their own goals within the game.

Example: Menu-based adventure-based games limit players to only a few choices throughout the entire game.

The board game Puerto Rico and the card game Race for the Galaxy not only provide each player the choice of what action to perform during a turn of the game; the other players also get to perform each others' actions and thereby get more opportunities to make decisions.

Using the pattern

Alarms Randomness Exaggerated Perception of Influence Avatars Characters Stimulated Planning Enemies Rerolls

Freedom of Choice can be achieved within three different areas in relation to games. First, players may have choices to do before gameplay starts on how they wish to play a game. Second, they may have choices on which actions to perform as part of the gameplay to effect the outcome of the game. Third, they may have choices to engage in other types of activities while the gameplay progresses.

before and after

programming games Magic the Gathering GURPS Dungeons & Dragons

Possibility of Anonymity Handles

during

Irreversible Actions

Freedom of Choice is not only an effect of how many choices are available at any given moment, but also on how important the decision between those choices is for the future gameplay. If a choice is to make an action which can easily be undone immediately by the player or negated by another player, that choice is likely to not effect the gameplay significantly in the long term and is therefore not really a choice. This is of course dependent on context, in games with Emergent Gameplay an action that is typically not significant can become very much so in special conditions.

Interruptability

Late Arriving Players Drop-In/Drop-Out

while

Social Interaction Activity Blending

Roleplaying Negotiation

Even if a game may wish to have Freedom of Choice this can be centered on specific moments in the game rather than be spread throughout the gameplay.

An important aspect of designing for Freedom of Choice in gameplay is to be aware that the allowing players several different ways of affect game states in not the most critical issue, it is that they preceive that they have it. This makes the options of Exaggerated Perception of Influence and Determinable Chance to Succeed important considerations for the pattern to appear.

Freedom of Choice can be achieved in several ways: affecting the actions possible for the players, what can be done with the actions, letting players choose goals, or letting players affect the results in the game.

Freedom of Choice can be increased by expanding players' possible range of actions. This can be done by Improved Abilities and New Abilities and is often represented as Rewards or Character Development. Even allowing players to do No-Ops is a form of expanding the range of possible actions for players and thereby increasing their freedom. Ways of letting players have increased Freedom of Choice of what to do when performing actions include Trading, Conceal, Construction, Character creation, Planned Character Development, deciding how to do Game World Navigation, choosing where Spawning occurs, and giving them Creative Control through the actions. Extended Actions, which players can choose how long to continue doing, are another way of giving players more freedom in how to use actions.

Although motivated by Limited Resources, Resource Management gives players opportunities of how to use Resources, including No-Ops, by saving them in Containers and creating other types of Resources through Converters. The type of Investments that give players the greatest Freedom of Choice are Arithmetic Rewards for Investments, since they does not give any Penalties or disadvantages between making one large Investment or several smaller ones.

Players' goals can be chosen by the players through Selectable Sets of Goals, which still let the game designer control the goals, or Player Defined Goals, which can either be implemented in the game state or be completely under the players' will. Optional Goals can further give players choices of objectives in the game without forcing them. Asymmetric Goals are the effect of allowing players to choose goals in Multiplayer Games.

The most powerful Freedom of Choice players can have is that which affects the results in games. This can range from the relatively limited Budgeted Action Points and Player-Decided Distribution of Rewards & Penalties to allowing full Reversability through Save-Load Cycles and letting the players freely choose when they want to play the game in first place in Asynchronous Games.

Consequences

Freedom of Choice gives players Empowerment within the game and can thereby give Emotional Immersion. Being able to choose between different actions or goals can support Varied Gameplay if the action require different skill sets or make it possible to create different strategies. When the Freedom of Choice causes players to have Asymmetric Abilities, it can promote Replayability of the game.

Freedom of Choice can either be due to the ability of affecting the game states or through the possibility of performing Extra-Game Actions, for example, Storytelling or Social Interaction.

The presence of Freedom of Choice can also have negative connotations for players, in the form of Social Dilemmas and forcing them to make Tradeoffs and Risk/Reward choices. This occurs when all choices have some negative effects associated with them, irregardless of their positive effects. Without any negative effect on the game state of a player, Freedom of Choice in Multiplayer Games can cause Analysis Paralysis, and thereby still have effects which are experienced as negative by players.

Freedom of Choice lets players plan their actions and thereby promotes Stimulated Planning and Immersion, especially Cognitive Immersion. Too much Freedom of Choice is however a source of Analysis Paralysis, and there are many ways to limit players' Freedom of Choice: Limited Planning Ability lessens players freedom to make long-term plans in a game; Predefined Goals may force players to have certain goals and tactics in a game; Ultra-Powerful Events may enforce Narrative Structures and Downtime and cause Shrinking Game Worlds; Inaccessible Areas and Movement Limitations can hinder players from moving within the whole Game World; what players can do in the game may be defined as a Limited Set of Actions or require commitment to Extended Actions or Collaborative Actions; and actions may further be restricted by Decreased Abilities and Ability Losses during gameplay.

Players' Freedom of Choice can affect their Perceived Chance to Succeed with actions, but having a Perceived Chance to Succeed with several different types of actions gives Freedom of Choice.

Exaggerated Perception of Influence

Determinable Chance to Succeed

Relations

Alarms Analysis Paralysis Randomness Exaggerated Perception of Influence Avatars Characters Stimulated Planning Enemies Rerolls

History

An updated version of the pattern Freedom of Choice that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.