Unless you are living under a rock, you know what FF is, for those new to videogames its the single most successful line of Japanese console Role-playing games ever created, and last a couple of weeks ago it found its way to over a million users once again as the highly anticipated next generation game was released, Final Fantasy XIII, the game has been a bag of mixed reviews, and you can find several pictures on the net of dozens of copies for sale in used bin.
Without getting into specifics one of the main criticism about the game, is the hell we call “railroading” literally, the world is beautiful but we only get one predestined path thats leads to next plot point, thing is all Final fantasy games are like that… scratch that all J-rpg are like that (well, not all of course, but let me ramble for a little bit ok?), so if other games like the very loved VII are linear… what´s the problem with this one?, its a little something sociologists call agency, and this game lacks it in numbers.
Agency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the capacity of an agent to act in a world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy))
What agency refers to is the capacity in which an indiviual can impact its surroundings and cause changes, like say, right now I have agency inside the very room where I´m typing this, I can go and drink a coke, or make a phone call, while on the opposite, I couldn´t just go to the white house and have a chat with president Obama, my agency is limited there.
I propose that when people speak of railroading, they are not talking about linearity but rather the amount of agency found withing a game… think about it, even “the sandbox” experience of building a huge country full of dungeons for the players to explore is linear, as there are probably higher level dungeons that are insta-kill for any party of low level risk takers, of course a linear game experience implies someone is going somewhere, and that destination can be anything, from a plot point to the 20th level.
So Gamemaster, be very careful and very aware of your player´s agency, ask yourself “what options am I giving my players here?”, if you can´t come up with at leas three different things they could do in a situation, then you are limiting their agency and that can get pretty frustrating, also avoid:
- Cutscenes involving players
- Unavoidable encounters
- Unstoppable events
- Unkillable NPCs
- Any other Un you can think off, Un means taking away possibilities, limiting the agency.
But do keep in mind that you should also shun away from absolute freedom, I could kill a person in this room right now, but societies laws will punish me for doing so, in other words, actions and decisions, have consequences, take that in mind, if a players kills the oh so important NPC without remorse… then just think of the consequences.
So here is my advice to you dear game master, seek the player´s agency at all times, without letting go of your own.
Posted by hortum 
