Many role playing games today have changed into a game that is heavy on story and action and CHOICES. The choice for the gamer specifically. What to say or do. Do you want to offer help, get more information on the situation, or question a man's eyes by doubting him. Maybe you will shoot your disrespectful squad mate instead of calming him. If someone threatens to leave maybe you let them and you don't care. Sooner or later all of these choices come back to affect the game.
This new trend has improved the gaming world, it makes the game more immersing. When you role play in games you are stepping into another person's shoes and a different world. The hero you created will save the world and bringing choices in not only allows you to dictate what your hero looks like, but what kind of person they are. Are they a jerk who doesn't care and always takes the route that is mean and offensive? Maybe they like the middle ground road, not wanting to be mean but not wanting to be nice. Are they straight up nice guy and always doing the right thing?
Choices have been in games before, on a much lower scale though, early Star Wars role playing games would change your light or dark side alignment based on what you did and how you treated people. You could make snide remarks and watch people die to become a Sith. Or you could be nice, calm, and save people to go Jedi. Those games had people playing again to see just how dark they could go and if they could choke people to death with ease or persuade people to give you their life savings as a donation to the Jedi Council.
Choices and their effects are allowing people to replay the games countless times, maybe you decided that after playing through nice and straight you want to play through as evil and bent, then maybe you play through making all choices on your own instinct instead of aiming for a path you say what you yourself would say if put in that situation.
But the question now is how to make it better or how to immerse someone more. Character creation and appearance editing, moral choices from dialogue to how to handle squad members, romance, and....well that's the question, and something. Something else in games, much is made about your own companions in games making remarks. To use Mass Effect as an example, bringing certain squad members with you on missions can help. One of my squad members once made a comment that instigated a gun battle. When I replayed the game I brought a different squad member and actually got out of the situation without a gun battle due to the absence of that remark. What about cameos of characters in other games like in TV Shows? Could the make it better or be the "something" we are waiting on? How would Morrigan from Dragon Age react to the self-proclaimed hellcat Chief Ashley Williams from Mass Effect? Which I would pay to see.
Conflict between party members is already creeping in and it is still bringing the gamer back to choice, choose a side. Some games the choice is easy because one of your party members has clearly went dark. But games are now making it harder on who to choose, both party members are important and both has been on missions or quests with you. So who do you help? Who dies and who lives? It makes you question yourself later on. Did you have to shoot Wrex on Virmire in Mass Effect? Was keeping the council alive worth it? Or in Dragon Age, was telling Lielani to leave a good idea?
So what is next for games and choices, more of the same for now and in the end as a gamer I love it and so does the gaming community, it is bringing a little more of yourself into the game and allowing the RPG to work the way you want it to. Your life choices change your life, your in game choices change the game so it you can shape the experience as much as possible. How will it change? Maybe have your party members yelling at you, "Kill the dragon! Shoot the arrow!!"
Shooters don't like to bring too many choices in, the war is already there and so the shooting is natural but what if they did. The small aspect of choice they have is choosing the route into the building whether to go in quiet with knife kills or go in loud with guns blazing. But what if the game gave you choices on what to do to people. What if in a sniper mission you could choose to take out the target or not?
Back on RPGs where romance has been brought in. Your choices and the party members you pay attention to more will react differently. You can ignore someone all game and they will tend to ignore you and not talk to you at all. But if you give tons of attention to a certain party member in games they seem to give plenty back in return. It brings a nice sense of appreciation and gratification to the gamer that their effort paid off for lack of a better term.
In the end, just remember what the well known game maker John Carmack said, "At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior." Perfect if you ask me, maybe the developers will look at our behavior as a cue for the next thing.
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