Re: Multiple endings necessary and/or desirable?

[dbs@cs.wisc.edu (Dan Shiovitz)]

In article <36e75e5c.4453797@news.nu-world.com>,
Lelah Conrad <lac@nu-world.com> wrote:
>	I'd like to know whether authors and players feel multiple
>endings are necessary for the enjoyment of a game.  I'm making
>decisions about a work in progress.  I'm not really referring to the
>various "you have died" type messages along the way, but to more
>well-fleshed out alternate story lines.
>
>	Do you like a game less if there is only one possible outcome?
>Do you like it more if their are multiple possible outcomes?   Or is
>the answer again just "it depends"?  If so, what does it depend on?

I think it's a mistake to think of outcomes as being separate or
exclusive. I can't imagine that any player, knowing a game has
multiple outcomes, is just going to play one and then
stop. Furthermore, it's important to remember then that their memories
of other endings they've gotten are going to influence any succeeding
ones they've seen. Someone pointed this out in a review of Muse -- I
don't remember which article it was but I'm sure it's on dejanews
someplace. Photopia's another obvious example where multiple endings
make, or would make, a difference. 

There's also the issue of how much time you put into the different
endings. If there's a one-turn win at the beginning, regardless of how
good it is, people are going to underrate it compared to other endings
that take up more playtime (cf Change in the Weather, Bad Machine,
probably some others). So you may want to avoid putting in endings
that you can't develop fully, or at least think about how they're
going to be received. 

Of course, as usual, what it comes down to is "do the right thing for
your particular situation." 

>Lelah
-- 
Dan Shiovitz || dbs@cs.wisc.edu || http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~dbs 
"...Incensed by some crack he had made about modern enlightened
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