The Illusion of Choice.

The Illusion of choice. Shocking though it may be, the choices you make in life are inconsequential. The beginning and end are the same for all people, but how we got there decides who we are. In life, there isn’t a story to follow there aren’t guidelines that tell us how to live our life’s, that’s why in mediums such as games we crave direction and guidance on how to reach a goal. In my life, I have played a substantial amount of games, shooting, strategy, puzzle, RPG, every type of genre. These type of games follow a set script, and unchangeable ruleset we have to follow. MMO’s offer a different mindset.

Most MMORPG’s (Massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) off you a very blanket story, then normally allows the player to roam free. After this point the player is left up to make his own story. Hamlet of the Holodeck talks about Cyberspace and how this area provides a space where we can express our freedom. This area gives basically unlimited room for growth and expansion, leading to the players there to create their own world. But at what point do the players long for more guidance and get tired of not being lead to a greater goal. Looking at the game second life, you aren’t even given a story in this title, the object of you attention is the creation of something completely new. Players can create environment story, anything they desire, and while Second Life has grown over the years, this platform is a dying breed. While this type of narrative favors certain individuals, our society doesn’t place emphasis on our own development.

Our society and cultural structure wants us to follow a set of rules. Once a normal player has completed their second life character and experienced the world what draws them to the game anymore? The connection to the narrative is a substantial thing in most cases. The love of what you or someone has made, drives fans to flock back time and time again, but in the case of Second Life or other games, this revolves around the quality of the story. So why does Second Life and to a lesser extent Minecraft slowly lose numbers while other games flourish? Because back to the original point, that the basic framework of narrative is made well enough to encourage retention of players.

A game I have extensive experience with is Final Fantasy XIV (14), Final Fantasy games have over the years been known exclusively as story driven games. FF14’s story gives us an extensive groundwork of narrative and lore of Eorzea the world in which the characters reside, the ultimate feeling that you as a character belong and are a part in this ever changing world are invaluable narrative tools to use when creating future content. The idea that your character has ever-changing dialogue and ultimate choice how this world is shaped and your choice will have future ramifications, compared to Second Life, where your choice ultimately doesn’t affect the over-world of the game, is the key differences in these titles.

Narcissus as Narcosis, McLuhan's literary work, describes how we see ourselves in our technology in a more technical sense, but the idea that we relate to the characters we play or create is the single largest driving force in the HoloDeck idea. Why do players lose themselves in MMORPG’s, because we feel tied to our characters, we flock back to play over and over again any time more story is released. We as players need a mission to follow, a story to be told, and when there isn’t, we eventually lose interest in the endless possibilities that we ourselves could do, ex. Second Life, and look for another game or another narrative.