JarlFrank
I like Thief THIS much
I've seen this term thrown about by VD and 1eyedking and maybe some others too in the Witcher 2 thread(s) we got here, and some of the uses of this term seem quite strange to me. So, what does make a choice "fake"? When is a choice a real choice, when is it a fake choice?
I'd call the typical Bioware choice a fake one: where you can pick different responses, but in the end you'll have to agree to do the quest BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO and then your character just says yes (but he might only do it reluctantly if you chose to say no first; doing the quest is so important that he can't say no and agrees anyway though, lolz). Or the ones where you do a quest, and then in the end can just choose to either take money or take nothing, which is not much of a choice because there's next to no consequence (except for getting gold or not).
Now, I've seen it used in concern to things such as ending up fighting people from faction X or faction Y. It's supposed to be a "fake" choice because all that changes is the uniform of the enemy you fight. So? It's still a choice and has a consequence, and I wouldn't call this fake. Of course, you end up doing the same thing - fighting people - but it's different people, and it also has an impact on the story since you killed all the people of faction X/Y and led faction Y/X to victory.
Same with calling choices that only affect story aspects "fake". Why is it a fake choice when the conequence is to either have a pogrom on non-humans in the city or to have a festive day because an enemy has been captured? That's a pretty drastic difference between the two things, and the consequence for the world is quite large.
Now, I see how some people might find this kind of consequence to be not enough, since it's not significant in gameplay. Something happens to characters and places in the world, but it won't be of a gameplay consequence because it doesn't open up new quests, change the future storyline much and you'll never visit that place in the gameworld afterwards anyway (like with the escape from prison part in Witcher 2 - if you free Aryan, he blows up the castle, if you free his mother, the castle isn't destroyed; this is only a "flavour" consequence since you'll never return to that place, but it's nevertheless a consequence).
So, why call them fake C&C? It's not fake if it has a consequence to what kind of ending slide you see. I'd rather call it "flavour" C&C than "fake" C&C.
DICKSCUSS!!
I'd call the typical Bioware choice a fake one: where you can pick different responses, but in the end you'll have to agree to do the quest BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO and then your character just says yes (but he might only do it reluctantly if you chose to say no first; doing the quest is so important that he can't say no and agrees anyway though, lolz). Or the ones where you do a quest, and then in the end can just choose to either take money or take nothing, which is not much of a choice because there's next to no consequence (except for getting gold or not).
Now, I've seen it used in concern to things such as ending up fighting people from faction X or faction Y. It's supposed to be a "fake" choice because all that changes is the uniform of the enemy you fight. So? It's still a choice and has a consequence, and I wouldn't call this fake. Of course, you end up doing the same thing - fighting people - but it's different people, and it also has an impact on the story since you killed all the people of faction X/Y and led faction Y/X to victory.
Same with calling choices that only affect story aspects "fake". Why is it a fake choice when the conequence is to either have a pogrom on non-humans in the city or to have a festive day because an enemy has been captured? That's a pretty drastic difference between the two things, and the consequence for the world is quite large.
Now, I see how some people might find this kind of consequence to be not enough, since it's not significant in gameplay. Something happens to characters and places in the world, but it won't be of a gameplay consequence because it doesn't open up new quests, change the future storyline much and you'll never visit that place in the gameworld afterwards anyway (like with the escape from prison part in Witcher 2 - if you free Aryan, he blows up the castle, if you free his mother, the castle isn't destroyed; this is only a "flavour" consequence since you'll never return to that place, but it's nevertheless a consequence).
So, why call them fake C&C? It's not fake if it has a consequence to what kind of ending slide you see. I'd rather call it "flavour" C&C than "fake" C&C.
DICKSCUSS!!