Blog: "Why Trial and Error will Doom Games"

[naturon]

This is a very hard problem indeed. It is a bit up to the players to face the consequences of their action, which is something not everyone can. I think it is something one perhaps must learn and I think that it can make games feel more special. There are some Interactive Fiction games where I have reloaded because something strange happened and then done according to walkthrough, but suddenly, it did not feel like MY adventure, and if I had just stuck to my choice it would have been better for me.

I couldn't agree with more. I have fallen prey to this a few times before where I have gotten myself in a bit of a predicament in a game, and have to replay the same section over and over again to succeed, only to give up and view a walkthrough of it, to find my way was a lot less efficient than the one in the walkthrough. This especially holds true for the Hitman series. Despite being linear in gameplay and story, the game's missions are mostly open-ended, as there are many ways to complete one mission usually, and something is definitely missing when I follow a walkthrough instead of figuring out what to do myself. This is not exactly what you were talking about, but for a lack of a better example this is the only one I can give, I think you know what I'm talking about though.

However, it is also up to the designer to make outcomes that are in some degree equally "compelling". If an NPC dies, then it does not feels like you lost them, but like she sacrificed herself for you, thus creating a movement of strong emotions. This is very hard though and it will probably never work for all players. Also, it is important that it does not feel random, due to bad controls, etc. In those cases death and restart is to prefer because if you have the feeling of "Hey! I did not intend to do that!!!", then that huge immersion breaker.

And this I also agree with. Although it is very difficult sometimes, somehow writing in situations that are able to at least somewhat affect the player in an emotional way but have no real "wrong choice" is what more games need to do. By wrong choice I mean a choice that ultimately leads to death or more ironically a glitch in the story. I also hate when the only reason a game is difficult is because the controls are bad.

Apart from not liking the term "cinematic", I totally agree! And I hope it is possible to have both Just not always both in the same game....

Something is quite off about the word cinematic for me as well, because games should absolutely not imitate movies, but I'm not sure what else to say.