A Model for the Quantitative Assessment of Freedom of Choice in Adventure Digital Games

Abstract

The concept of freedom in player interaction with digital games, the nature of the choices that make it up and the subjective assessment as to whether a game is considered free-form or structured are at the heart of the interest of this paper. Free-form games that give room to many different playergenerated gameplay paths may amuse a player, while structured games that constrain players to follow a single path to one objective may bore them, thus resulting in different styles of interaction with this specific type of digital media. The aim of this study is to contribute to formalizing a concept of freedom of choice, and be able to evaluate its presence/absence in different adventure digital games; more specifically, the research aims at the formalization and, eventually, at the quantitative assessment of a concept of freedom of choice in free-form and structured adventure digital games, and attempts to arrive at a typology that allows different adventure digital games to be placed at various points on an axis between totally free-form activity and formally structured goal-driven activity. This effort, at the same time, is contextualized within a broader research plan for using adventure games as digital media-based learning frameworks, with a view to ultimately taking stock of player experience and interaction drivers, such as freedom of choice, as enablers for better player/learner engagement and more effective learning through these media.

Keywords

• adventure games
• games for learning
• freedom of choice
• free-form gameplay
• structured gameplay
• digital media interaction