Agency
From IFWiki
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The definition seems to conflate player and player character agency, which may or may not align in a given work
The definition seems to conflate player and player character agency, which may or may not align in a given work
- For the IntroComp 2003 game by Ricardo Signes, see Agency (game).
Agency is the term for the active power that interactive fiction players enjoy when they direct the game in the manner of their choosing. It is agency that makes the players participants in the story, rather than just observers. It is also agency that makes the players responsible for their actions and for whatever consequences that follow.
A game that offers the players a high level of agency is one with lots of choices at every turn and many ways to change the status of its game world. By contrast, games that offer very few options at any turn, and where choices often have totally unpredictable consequences, are games where the player has low agency.
Links
- Moral agency at Wikipedia.
- Agency Reconsidered - blog post by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, 13 July 2009.
- Agency Reconsidered, Again - blog post by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, 4 August 2009.