Choice Poetics by Example
Name
arts-07-00047.pdf
Size
302.28 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
979b4239ef7a94c4936ea65d1bbda329
Author(s)
Zegura, Carmen
Gray, Alex
Jhala, Arnav
Mateas, Michael
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah
Mawhorter, Peter A
Date Issued
September 2018
Journal
Arts
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Mawhorter, Peter, Carmen Zegura, Alex Gray, ARnav Jhala, Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. "Choice Poetics by Example." Arts 2018, 7(3), 47.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Choice poetics is a formalist framework that seeks to concretely describe the impacts choices have on player experiences within narrative games. Developed in part to support algorithmic generation of narrative choices, the theory includes a detailed analytical framework for understanding the impressions choice structures make by analyzing the relationships among options, outcomes, and player goals. The theory also emphasizes the need to account for players’ various modes of engagement, which vary both during play and between players. In this work, we illustrate the non-computational application of choice poetics to the analysis of two different games to further develop the theory and make it more accessible to others. We focus first on using choice poetics to examine the central repeated choice in “Undertale,” and show how it can be used to contrast two different player types that will approach a choice differently. Finally, we give an example of fine-grained analysis using a choice from the game “Papers, Please,” which breaks down options and their outcomes to illustrate exactly how the choice pushes players towards complicity via the introduction of uncertainty. Through all of these examples, we hope to show the usefulness of choice poetics as a framework for understanding narrative choices, and to demonstrate concretely how one could productively apply it to choices “in the wild.”
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7030047
