PixlBit

No game is realistic.  They are all fantasy.  When playing a game, you are pretending to be the hero (or whatever) of the story.  None of it is real.  The decisions I make in a game aren't going to affect my everyday life.  Since it has no affect, I can play around with different decisions and enjoy the outcome.  I can't put down the controller and turn off the console of my real life.  That's the main difference.  

Most games don't have you decide anything.  You play through the role given to the end.  The games that have you decide to do A, B, or C, add replay value to the to the story.  For people that want a story a bit different the next playthrough, this is great.  I don't see this as a downside.  

I don't understand how having multiple decisions and outcomes is lazy writting.  IMO, that's very difficult.  The author(s) has to account for all the decisions the player was allowed to make and create an ending based on those decisions.   

Would have to disagree to a point, not all games are fantasy. Such as a learning game lol OK I am pushing it!! But there is some realistic games..For example Forza 4 is pretty accurate on modifying cars and such. Have you played mass effect?? The whole game is decide this and decide that.

Many writers have tough times when they get to a point in a story where..there are like so should I do this or this..If I do this then it may not be work as well as this one..and etc..

So by putting a bunch of outcomes... lazy is not the word i was looking for..It was just the first word that popped up in my head it is more like indecisive. Go with one and run thru it. Hopefully you made the right choice and the story sells well.

No matter how "realistic" it seems, playing Forza 4 is nothing like real driving.  

Have I played Mass Effect?  

The problem with ME3 is that no matter what choices you made through the whole series, the 3 endings are all you get and they're not that different from each other.  I don't believe it had anything to do with indesicion, but more to do with the writers inability to account for the players' choices.  

In most games, the alternate endings are achieved by specific events that occured in gameplay.  Just randomly making up outcomes to the story would be lazy or indecisive, but I hadn't come across a game like that.  Well, ME3 does kind of does that, but nothing else. 

I get your point and understand it to a degree.  There are some times that I just want to play a straight-forward game where I don’t have to make any serious decisions.  If I see an enemy I jump on its head and move forward.

But I also really enjoy games that let us make decisions.  I don’t see this as lazy at all, quite the opposite in fact.  I don’t see how offering multiple options and having to design and program all that extra work and also possibly create a few different endings could be considered lazy.

 I do like the escapist aspect of gaming.  I disagree that having to make decisions ruins this.  I’d argue that it can draw me into the fantasy world that I’m playing even more.  If I decide to kill the rachni queen in mass effect, it doesn’t feel comparable to making a decision in my real life.  It just makes me feel like I actually have a little control over what happens in this world I'm playing in.

But people are different. That’s why there are so many different games.  Personally, I like both straight-forward games and those that allow me to “choose my own adventure” (even though the options are still usually fairly limited, understandably). 

I will agree that sometimes I hate making in game decisions.  Sometimes I will think about them after I have made them and wonder if I made the right decision.  This really only pertains to games like mass effect, and the witcher.

I do find myself alternating between games that require decision making and straight forward games.  I picked up the witcher 2 right after i beat mass effect 3, but did not really start it until now.   

I like Phoenix Wright and I like ice cream trucks.  That's all I have to say.

Interesting post. I don't mind games that ask you to make decisions all that much.  But I do find myself biting my nails over what negative consequinces might happen with the choice I make.  I usually end up resetting that part of the game just to see ehat happens which both (or however many) choices.

I don't really care too much for decision making if the decisions I make can lead to a bad ending; otherwise, I'm mostly ok with them.