You Are Not the Author of Your ‘Baldur’s Gate 3' Story
Player agency isn’t as straightforward as some imply.
Consider this a thought in progress. I’ve been working through these ideas on agency for a number of years now, always meaning to find a good way to publish them in a comprehensive fashion. This isn’t that, but it is an excuse to lay out the basics while loosely discussing choice driven games such as Baldur’s Gate 3. Predominantly, this thought sprouted from thinking critically about Bioware games and has since sprawled out to cover all sort of narratives with branching paths at their core. A proper piece would include a whole lot of citations of writers far better than I, whose thoughts on the matter are more complex and compelling. Until then, there is this.
“But so much of the game’s tone is down to your choices. In Act I, for instance, you might team up with the villains of the moment, butcher all the heroes and innocents, and completely change the whole act’s vibe. You might not always know what story you’re writing, but you’re always its author.” — Fraser Brown in their review of Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC Gamer.
The truth is, you are not the author of Baldur’s Gate 3, just as developer Larian Studios is not the author of each individual player’s playthrough. Both are co-authors with varying degrees of creative control. The developer’s role is more straightforward, as they define much of the possibility space. This is made up by the environment design, combat, puzzles, narrative, menu UI, readable text, physics systems, and any other aspects of design. The one area of exception to this is the player’s head-canon, which different games draw out of their players in various form. Story rich, choice driven titles highly encourage player imagination to craft narrative outside of the game that, in the player’s mind, is canon to the on-screen happenings.
Meanwhile, the player takes on three roles that meld together differently for each individual.
First is the role of the competitor. This is when we, as an outsider to the digital world, interact with the game as an object to be completed. It is what leads to min-maxing and all sorts of choices that aim for an optimization of play. A simple example in Baldur’s Gate 3 would be the armor you choose to put on your characters. They may not be aesthetically pleasing, or fit your conception of who the character is, but they offer an improvement in stats that allow them to be more effective mechanically whether that be in combat or in acts of coercion, stealth, and so on.
The second role is the actor. This is how we attempt to align our actions as the player with the in-game character(s) we control. Essentially, role-playing. Sometimes a game reinforces this role through available dialogue options. In Baldur’s Gate 3, this can come as a result of high enough stats in certain skills, or background information on your character such as race and class. Agency isn’t always so obvious or openly encouraged though. For example, I defined my character, Octavia, with a character sheet I wrote shortly after starting the game. Sometimes the choices I make as them I do so knowing that they follow their beliefs, but they may have consequences such as companions leaving or possibly dying.
Lastly, is the co-author. This is how we choose to direct the narrative from the perspective of an outsider. Choices made from this perspective are done so not for optimal play, or necessarily immersing oneself in the perspective of the playable character, but for the desire to tell a compelling story.
Of course, there can be overlap between all roles. For example the actor and co-author role can intersect given cohesive characterization can make for a compelling narrative.
All of this can be deeply complicated by the player taking on the role of multiple characters, or if a game allows for multiplayer. While Baldur’s Gate 3, does allow a single player to engage in conversations with any of the companions, and thus use their skills during such, ultimately the narrative framing defaults to your created character or whoever you selected from the premade options as the protagonist.
A game that is explicit in its position of the player as multiple characters is Supermassive’s horror title, The Quarry. The player takes control of nine characters in an attempt to survive the night at a summer camp. The pre-written character dynamics such as who dates who or who hates who influences the initial set-up, but the player can position themselves as not only the role of the competitor and co-author, but as multiple actors in competition or cooperation. With multiplayer added to the mix, this leads to making decisions that could get another player controlled survivor killed, even if the player doesn’t desire such from their role as a competitor or co-author. In the case of Baldur’s Gate 3, there is the option for cooperative play. Meaning you have more than one player acting out the roles of competitor, actor, and co-author. Negotiating their own desires in each role with the desires of the other players.
You are not the author of Baldur’s Gate 3, but player agency in choice driven games is as ample and nuanced as the ways we engage with that agency. There is much to be said about Larian’s revival of the long dormant franchise and the clever ways its melds its expansive toolset for player agency with its central narrative that brings into question the agency of the protagonist and their companions. Thinking about such with this theory of agency has been compelling, even if my overall feelings on the game are filled with abundant criticisms.
