The Choice is in Your Hands, Literally
The ability to inhabit completely different worlds is one of the most popular reasons for role-playing video games. Choice of Games LLC (COG), a collection of text-based multiple choice games, took this aspect and coupled it with a personalized second-person experience to give readers a completely moldable gaming experience. COG has over 50 games that range from the reader inhabiting the life of a Dragon, to playing a multi-series as the bodyguard for the future king of France. The indie game developer has found thousands of followers thanks to the detailed stories and easy-to-use platform. Each one takes gaming down to the base level, with the entire game in text form with very few pictures, allowing for the reader to envision their own special world and actions in the game. While they are available to play on PC with Steam, the experience is most maximized and marketed as a digital app to be used on any smart phone. When used in this way, COG becomes a perfect representation of the renewed importance of text, using a gaming platform and format to bring back the nostalgia of reading — a dying art in the age of technology.
Choice of Games LLC was founded in 2009 and since then, the game developer has released complex, multi-chapter fiction ranging from 30,000 to 600,000 words. Each player is given the choice of names, sexuality and gender (including the ability to play as either cisgender or not) and at the end of each digital page, can choose between a series of options that lead to different scenes and endings. There is a level of competition in each choice the player makes. Players can unlock achievements, and make choices that affect the ending for them or the character they choose. The choices also represent both the good and bad in humanity, allowing for players to choose options outside of their own character. For example, in MetaHuman Inc., the player is thrust into the role of a CEO of a shady corporation that dabbles in the supernatural. The reader can choose to become a ruthless professional, or a kind-hearted, honest and independent businessperson. Either way, your character must be able to stop the impending alien invasion that threatens the world. In some endings, characters die and do not succeed in missions such as these. This level of failure keeps the player so enthralled that it becomes important to replay it until an achievement is unlocked. I cannot tell you how many I times I’ve laid in bed, rereading one of the games, trying to strategize for an outcome that I had not received yet. This addiction is aided by the easy accessibility of the game through the formatting and medium it comes in.
The game itself is incredibly simplistic, with the entirety of the story being told through text. The choices at the end of the page hyperlink to the corresponding response situations, with each choice having a ramification on the ending. Whenever the player chooses an option, a virtual page flip will occur as the transition to the next page. And for the format of the digital page itself: black serif font and a white background. This style evokes the format of an actual book, and readers can experience the game as if they are reading a novel in bed. The few pictures that do exist are at the beginning, much like a cover of a book. The reliance on text makes it universal for all players, from avid video gamers to plain, old smart phone users. In this way, COG stands apart from all video games, apps and other choose your own adventure games. Instead of using technology to create something completely different, COG uses text to reach a wider audience, while making sure that the story provided is detailed and well-written to make the playing experience worth it for those that read all the way through.
The form in which the game comes in is paramount to the success of the game of the reader. With very little in terms of pictures, and no videos to speak of, the text is most important in keeping the reader engaged and highlighting the interactive part of the game. Not only is the text incredibly well-written, the intimacy that an app affords the game is helpful as well. Without the help of photos or videos, the player could easily be disengaged by the amount of reading required to make it through the entire game. Instead, COG is highly marketed as a gaming app, which helps players understand the importance of reading the text in order to achieve a specific outcome, like any regular video game. The multitude in how and where apps can be played, whether it be in bed or at school or work, allows for the text to seem larger than life and the player can inhabit the role and imagine everything for themselves. The emergence of apps as easy-to-use ways to distract from everyday life makes COG thrive using only well-written words as a way to entertain their readers.
Choice of Games LLC has grown into a game developer with over 50 games with thousands of words. Despite the rise of gaming apps that rely on special effects, COG takes interactive fiction back to its most simplistic form — the text and the player. These complex and entertaining stories keep the player enraptured as they become completely different people, or take advantage of the personalized option and play as themselves. These role-playing strategy narratives rely on the ability to play the game on an app on a small screen, to be played anywhere. This results in a game that is reminiscent of an actual novel, but with the speed and efficiency that is associated with technology and the digital age. COG takes the popularity and connotation of smart phone apps and uses it for their success, and the success of their talented writers, who think of imaginative, out of the box ideas for their players.
