Geoff’s post on the ending to the latest Prince of Persia brought to mind some recent (disjointed) thoughts on agency in games.  What can the player do?  Why is the player there?

Games have responded to that question with a wide range of responses: from the pathologically linear Out of This World/Another World (or more extreme, Dragon’s Lair), to “choose your own solution” games like Deus Ex, to the reactive and interactive worlds seen in Ultimas and GTAs, to player-centeric and play-focused games such as The Sims.  Is the player acting out your pre-set script, or do they have the power to substantially affect the experience?

Some of the most effective, recent indie game statements have been about the futility of agency– Passage, The Graveyard, La La Land 5.  You appear to have power, but that power is meaningless. In some ways, the games say: “We have this new medium, but we’re not sure what we can do with it.”

How do we measure agency?  How do we better distinguish the player’s low level abilities, such as performing a flip in SSX, from the higher-level power to affect the game world, or the state of an NPC?

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