One of the original games I played here on this site (I think it was an early wendy game) had a concept of a basic path that one took through the game. However if you took the "right" action more content would open up. For instance, making sure the bar filled to the top rather than just click and try and find the next hotspot. Whilst both would progress the game only one would open up the content both at the time and later in the game.
There have been other examples of this across multiple games more recent examples of in SITA and BEW are some that standout in my mind for this tactic.
To me these have been the games I have enjoyed most. I think I have heard someone describe it at the Achievement hunter personality. Or at the very least content hunter Based on this the Date1->2->3->4 option or the 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 option doesn't really matter to me I would still be playing the game until I had found all the content.
That being said, there is just something from a perspective of story growth that they 1->4 option has over the multiple 1st dates. I liked the progression and character development in RoJ and DwE.
tlaero wrote:These are variations on a theme. We can make x pages in n months. Everything after that is tradeoffs. At the extremes, people can have a long linear game with a lot of character development, or they can have a short branching game with little character development, or they can wait longer for the game to come out. Clearly, the balance between those variables can be tweaked. Instead of short with 4 paths, you can have medium with 2. Or we could wait an extra few months and get another branch, etc. But there's no way around the math.
I appreciate the math and I think there is a line. I think you (and recently Mortze) have struck this balance well.
My vote would be for an option where you choices have down stream consequences (beyond if you do it wrong/badly you fail). And while we're at it games where a "wrong" choice early may end up being a right choice later on. Too many games make it so obvious what the right button to press is it becomes almost surperflous having it as a choice.