Choosing to Help Monsters: A Mixed-Method Examination of Meaningful Choices in Narrative-Rich Games and Interactive Narratives Glena H. Iten, Sharon T. Steinemann, Klaus Opwis University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology & Methodology Missionsstrasse 62a, 4055 Basel, Switzerland [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT for an engagement with their content that otherwise might UPDATED—July 20, 2018. The potential of narrative-rich not have been possible. Looking specifically at interactivity games to impact emotions, attitudes, and behavior brings with operationalized as making choices in narrative-rich games and it exciting opportunities and implications within both enter- interactive narratives, Elson et al. [11] argue that the ability of tainment and serious game contexts. However, effects are games to enable players to create stories personalized to their not always consistent, potentially due to game choices not own values and wishes, allows for an experience less likely to always being perceived as meaningful by the players. To ex- be available to other forms of media, such as films or television. amine these perceptual variations, we used a mixed-method However, research has found mixed results when examining approach. A qualitative study first investigated meaningful the effects of interactivity. On the one hand, findings, such game choices from the players’ perspectives. Building on the as the above-mentioned effect of games on attitude change themes developed in this first study, a quantitative study ex- [31] or prosocial behavior [38], were causally linked to the perimentally examined the effect of meaningful game choices games’ interactivity, as both studies experimentally compared on player experiences of appreciation, enjoyment, and narra- interactive (the game) with non-interactive narratives (a text or tive engagement. Results highlight the importance of moral, a film with similar [31] or identical [38] content). In contrast social, and consequential characteristics in creating mean- however, a large-scale pre-registered experimental study found ingful game choices, which positively affected appreciation. no effect of narrative interactivity on narrative engagement, Meaningfulness of game choices may therefore be crucial identification with the character, or behavior [37]. Similarly, a for narrative-rich games and interactive narratives to impact study on moral choices in a post-apocalyptic narrative found players. no effect of interactivity on enjoyment, meaningfulness, or attachment to the character [35]. These results suggest that ACM Classification Keywords simply adding narrative choices as a feature of interactivity J.4 Social and Behavioral Sciences: Sociology, Psychology; may not lead to beneficial outcomes. While the existence K.8.0 Personal Computing: Games of mixed results does not devalue the potential of interactive Author Keywords narrative-rich games to produce desired outcomes, it may in- Meaningful Choice; Appreciation; Games Narrative; Player dicate that without further knowledge of why some of the Experience. previous research on choices in games finds effects and some does not, expecting games to have benefits beyond that of Please note that this paper contains spoilers for several games. non-interactive media may amount to an often-times unfruitful gamble. A primary goal of this paper therefore will be to shed INTRODUCTION light on when narrative interactivity, that is making choices in Much has been written about the potential of games to evoke narrative-rich games, may lead to effects and when it will not. emotions [4, 14, 16], change attitudes [31], or even influence behavior [6, 14]. Games can make people laugh, cry, or think A first step in this direction is to clarify what is understood [4]. They have been found to change attitudes towards minori- by making choices as a feature of interactivity in narrative- ties [31] and observed to encourage healthy living [12, 18] and rich games. While previous research investigated interactivity prosocial behavior [38]. Compared to other forms of media, operationalized as making choices in a variety of different games can uniquely use the power of interactivity to allow narrative-rich games [31, 35, 38, 37], interactivity as an overall concept has received much attention and is widely discussed Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or in HCI games research (e.g., [3,9, 10, 33]). For instance, classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation Crawford’s definition of interactivity in interactive storytelling on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM [10] focuses on the cyclic process between the player and the must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, game as a system where good listening, speaking and thinking to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. define a good interaction. Similar to Salen and Zimmerman CHI 2018, April 21–26, 2018, Montréal, QC, Canada. [33], Bogost [3] defines interaction in games as players explor- Copyright © 2017 ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5620-6/18/04 ...$15.00. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173915 ing possible manipulations of the game and its rules. If well Appreciation is a measure for the extent to which a media expe- designed, a choice, that players make within these rules, can rience is meaningful in the sense that it is thought-provoking, be an example of a good manipulation [3]. In sum, the need to emotionally moving, and insightful [2, 25]. Appreciation was make choices can add to the interactivity of the game [10] and also measured in the study covering the narrative of a home- is even defined as a most basic interactive feature that makes less person [37], in which appreciation was once again related a media into a game [9, 11, 15]. The question follows, when to behavior, but, akin to behavior, was not impacted by the choices result in a good interaction. Bogost [3] addresses this interactivity in that particular narrative [37]. A further goal of issue within the context of persuasive games in that a game this present study therefore is to understand what characteris- is most persuasive – and hence good – if players do not just tics make narrative game choices meaningful in that they lead randomly select options without mental effort, but they are to a higher appreciation. provoked to think as a result of making choices. Notable for narrative-rich games is that effects of narrative interactivity THEORETICAL BACKGROUND have been found to be largely independent of visual represen- Meaningful choices in games have been the subject of a fo- tations and can therefore be examined using text-based games cused analysis in entertainment research conducted by Nay [38] and game prototypes [5]. Therefore, in this paper we and Zagal [24]. In this analysis it is postulated that meaningful focus on choices being made in narrative-rich games. choices in games often take the form of moral choices that can create ethical player experiences, through which the player can Steinemann et al. [37] argued that for interactivity, defined significantly impact the course of the game. That these choices here as making narrative choices, to have an effect, these have clear consequences is often argued to be a crucial factor choices must be perceived as meaningful. With this they meant in their being perceived as meaningful [34, 39]. However, the that players must perceive the choice as important enough to importance of consequences is also under debate, as oppo- lead to a different experience than if they had been passively nents argue that more crucial than manifested consequences, reading or watching the same narrative. In this study, the nar- is the choice itself and what it signifies to the player [24, 22, rative focused on a person who became homeless. While this 36]. For example, if in The Walking Dead [G16] players must narrative may in itself have been perceived as meaningful, the decide whether to let a wounded animal suffer or to kill it choices used may well not have been, as they centered mostly quickly, as argued by Nay and Zagal [24], the outcome would around the order in which to stay with friends and relatives be the same, however the choice is meaningful, due to how and often-times had little to no consequences on the further this choice reflects on how players see their character, or even course of the narrative. In contrast, the narrative used by Rug- themselves. giero [31] followed a person who must survive on $1000 for a month, with each difficult choice, such as whether or not While antecedents and effects of meaningful choices in games to pay for medication for a sick parent, severely affecting the have, to our knowledge, so far not been empirically examined, course of the game and its outcome. Similarly, Steinemann there is a wealth of interdisciplinary research on the perception et al. [38] used the game Darfur is Dying [G21] about a Dar- of choice on the one hand, and experiences of meaningfulness furian refugee child named Poni, who must leave the refugee in games on the other that can inform our understanding. In camp and brave the dangers outside to bring back water for a study examining the impact of emotionally moving games her family. Here too, each choice of which direction to run, on player experience, Bopp et al. [4] found particularly strong or whether to hide, had immediate consequences and could feelings of sadness, such as loss due to the death of a character, mean the capture of Poni and the end of the game.