What makes a choice matter?

You encounter an article on the internet! What do you do?

A. Read it (Friendly)
B. Skim it (Dismissive)
C. Critique it (Helpful)
D. Ignore it (Rude)

Will you be a cool guy, or evil prick?
Source

Look, I get it. Making choices in video games is fun! I like it! But we need to talk about the mass mishandling I see of making one's choices "matter". You want games to be taken seriously as a storytelling medium? Please, please start noticing this stuff. I do not want to name any names today but rather take a general look at this type of storytelling. Let's hop right in.

So generally there are 2 styles to this sort of interactive narrative. The more straightforward option is to actually make one's choices matter, have the story actually shift around them. This is not a very popular option in games, however, for a pretty good reason. Games are pretty expensive. It costs a lotta money to make new cutscenes and get new voicelines and make it all work in the game systems. You can't just write some more words like in a choose your own adventure book.

So generally the default is the 2^nd general option, what I like to call "fake choice". It's basically making your choices "matter", but they really don't influence the plot all that much. You could choose the rude option, the happy option, or the sad option, but you'll still get the same information and same objective in the end. Despite how bad "fake choice" can sound, it's not a bad option at all. It can lead to a much more focused story if you really only have 1 plot in the end, and makes sure no part of the game will suffer from bad writing because it just happens to not work as well.

Now, when you're talking about the overall narrative, this is all well and good. However, where it's easy to stumble up on this 2^nd type of story is in the moment to moment choices you make, in that it is far, farrrr too easy to just make them, well, pointless. I think this'd be better put in a hypothetical:
You: Hey, I just retrieved the (insert item here).Character A: Awesome! This'll be great in helping us defeat (insert enemy here)!

Dialogue options:

A – Show enthusiasm for plan
B – Show apprehension for plan
OK, let's just take a timeout here. This is a pretty typical sort of setup, where you can either agree or somewhat disagree with someone on the same side of you. Play any game that lets you make choices and you'll hit a similar scenario sooner or later. It's basic but still a very good setup.

Generally things like option A clear the way for a faster plot and more action. It's a safe choice that can also easily be leveraged to let the player see the non confrontational side of everyone. Option B scenarios on the other hand let you get somewhat deeper and lets you see the more confrontational side of people.

So even though both options will lead to the same sort of outcome, it's all in how you get there. Make each route interesting, make each route different enough, and most importantly make them mean something. If your understanding of a character is different in each route, that's a great outcome, essentially.

Now, let's see how this can go horribly, horribly wrong.

Scenario A:

You: Hey, I'm game. When do we get started?

Character A: We'll get started on this tomorrow. For now, get some rest, you've certainly earned it. Catch you later!You: Alright. Later!
Scenario B:

You: Are we totally sure this is going to work? Seems a tad risky.

Character A: Look, I get you're worried, but there's not much of a risk to this anyway. Just get some rest, we're all gonna need some for tomorrow.You: OK. I'll see you tomorrow.

So obviously this is really rough and short but you should get the general idea. The difference in these 2 scenarios is that there really are no differences. There's no room for diversifying or rounding out the characters. They both funnel the conversation into the same lines really quickly and still keep the same sentiment in both.

Your choices do not matter here. You learn nothing different, you don't get any difference in outcome, the tone isn't different, it's just the same scene, but one has them agreeing and one is a disagreement. Neither option garners any new reactions or even makes you think differently about it.

If you're going to keep the overall plot the same, you need to put a lot more consideration into how each individual moment makes the player feel about that overall plot. Going back to the 2 options I mentioned earlier, imagine a plot about saving the world or something to that effect. Now think of the 2 general character threads. One story has the characters working together all the while and eventually fixing the issue. The other has them arguing a lot but ultimately setting aside their differences to fix the issue.

There's a lot you can do with this! If you're smart the two ostensibly same plotlines can be interpreted to be almost totally different stories. You can view all the characters differently. You could gain info that radically changes how you view the same events.

The point of this whole article is that if you want to write a story and base your choices around upholding the "illusion" of choice, you are doing it wrong. Again, not naming names, but I see most games doing this horribly, horribly wrong. "Your choices matter" is pushed up as a marketing point when in reality, no, your choices do not matter.

"Fake choice" should still be choice. It is just that it should be about the characters and your view, not the plot. When a game fails to understand that, when it well and truly does ignore your choices, that is when people get frustrated with your game, and that is when you have failed as a story writer. This isn't easy, and I'm not surprised that countless developers fail at it. If for some reason any developers are reading this, keep at it. There's only one way to learn this, and it sure isn't gonna be from some random person online talking in the most general terms.