The Power of Choice
After reading many of my classmates’ reviews on Depression Quest, I thought I would lean away from the emotional implications of the game and take a look at the mechanics. Specifically, the skeletal design of the game and how that can engage the audience in a new way, or at least in a way I haven’t seen before. Most Twine games that I have been exposed to so far frustrate me. The way random words are chosen to link to new passages is frustrating to me because I feel like there are too many parts of a narrative converging. Having the story and the choices to move that story forward mixed together is, for me, an overwhelming experience. I think the interactive structure of Depression Quest utilized the successful tool of multiple choice to increase a sense of control for the player.
Especially in a narrative where the emotional impact is rated highest, it makes sense why the choices wouldn’t be directly in the narrative, distracting the reader from the poignancy. There are clear passages of narrative and separated from them, are the interactive tools, or the multiple choices. I think this separation is effective not only to give the piece more emotional impact, but to also give the player a greater sense of agency. At least for me, when the choices are interwoven with the narrative, I feel a great loss of control. Sure, I can pick which words to click on, but more often than not, there is no guarantee where that choice will take me.
Depression Quest might not be the most creative experience in terms of how these interactive choices are included in the narrative, but I think it does the best to relate a coherent story to the participant. Having the foresight of the reader to determine the destiny of the story really lets the reader focus on what has already happened above in the story, and then to look down below and see in no uncertain terms where he or she would like to take it next.
The use of multiple choice is also given a creative twist which, in my opinion, also doesn’t detract from the story. The way that the most ‘obvious’ paths to navigate your character out of a state of depression are visible, but are unable to be selected. I think this was an important authorial decision that lent a sense of creativity to the piece without getting in the way of the emotional weight. If anything, having those answers un-clickable, probably enhanced the emotional response, at least it did for me.
Overall, I think Depression Quest was a very engaging game and I think its mechanical structure and use of interactivity engaged the audience in a way that they could really identify with the emotional message of the narrative that the authors were trying to convey.
