Choices in 80 Days and Planescape: Torment · 7:04am Jul 5th, 2016
(Photopia © Adam Cadre)
in this blogpost, horizon explores how the game 80 Days can help your writing, teaching you by example. he identifies some great reasons, but while playing it I noticed something else. I wasn't like I was just reading a good book and imitating the style. I felt like I actually was involved in the process of writing, even though I was clicking pre-programmed choices.
Nearly all games only care about how you react to whatever it spits out at you. Stimulus X appears, what do you do? A or B? Turn to the next page to see the results.
Yet, a huge number of choices in 80 Days aren't like that at all. Sometimes you roleplay your character through an action scene or a dialogue, hoping it'll give a good result, but possibly more often you're given a very different pattern of choices.....
weird, the game wants to know how you feel about this situation. do you like bananas? 
and now, how you interpret a shady character? 
and here, even asking you to define the world itself. I'm pretty sure that's beyond the abilities of little Passepartout!
instead of 100% reacting to stimuli, the game is reaching out and asking what do YOU want this story to be. you're the one setting up the hooks which you will be reacting to later.
it's constantly putting you in the writer's seat, helping you to think like one. every little choice in a throwaway description is an opportunity for you to add your own twists and turns, all according to a story's structure.
this is like so-and-so, BUT....
this was such-and-such, THEREFORE...
you're neither riding the rails, nor omnipotently in control of everything. it's a back and forth. actually, kinda reminds me of the roles and character creation in Mouse Guard...
it's a very rare experience in games, and it reminded me of an older cult classic.... Planescape: Torment.
notice options 3 and 6. You can say the same words, whether honest or as a lie. The character you talk to will believe you either way, so it's the same result, yes? many RPGs have branching dialogue, but very few games bother to make such a distinction in your intentions.
but Torment was a story about figuring out *who you are*. in this bizarre otherworldly setting, your beliefs are just as important as your actions. the game itself was the character generator, defining The Nameless One according to what you wanted him to be. and this feeds back into the story in very unexpected ways, literally altering reality itself. it's a unique experience.
anyway, now you know why I had Planescape stuck on my mind when I tried to craft a crossover fic about 80 Days. just in case you were wondering "WTF?" 
You need not excuse yourself for having Torment on the brain. It was such a classic.
The only thing that still bugs me is that I heard rumors that there was some way to become a cleric, but I could never figure it out.
Well, that and my game was bugged so I couldn't get the water-thing that would let me get the fire-guy, but whatever.
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i am certain becoming a cleric was not possible. the nameless one was once a maxed out fighter+mage+thief, so leveling any of those means relearning that power he once had. he was never cleric.
though you could GET a cleric to join you.
the bugs certainly were strange. it was hard to tell when the game was messing with you, or when some code was really broken
TNO's first and only kiss with Annah was one of the most simultaneously moving and erotic experiences I've ever had playing a video game, and all it was was a spare, beautiful little smidgen of text.
Also, the "Belief" ending makes me want to cheer every single time I read it.
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ahhh, yess. that game could express so much within every line of text.
my favorite part was the buildup to meeting Ravel and answering her riddle.
EeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Planescape Torrrment!
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Boy the Nameless One was an ugly cuss.
It isn't that Passepourtart is defining the world, it is that you choose what he considers relevant. Is it the armed guards with their potential for violence or the tourists with their potential for drunken shenanigans?
Parallel, but opposite, deal as the vow vs. lie choice.
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perhaps, though I found it odd that choosing one means the other isn't mentioned at all. it could be a matter of relevance, though that still gives the world a feeling of subjectivity.
I remember some better examples from the game where you really do choose something external (and mutually exclusive), but I forgot to take screenshots of them.
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Reminds me of Baldur's Gate... "You must gather your party before venturing forth."
But yeah, Torment was and is an awesome game. So full of atmosphere, with the gorgeous soundtrack, and all the weird characters and quests and discussions... One of my favorite things was studying the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon with Dak'kon.