@ topic
If we are talking about just computer ones, then only by having 2, 3, and 4 will you have any sort of meaningful, as in non scripted, choice and consequence. And really, while i do not have anything against the kind of pre-scripted choice and consequence most people around there seem to think is what role playing games are about, i have seen and played bloody Otome games with more of the pick-an-option-in-a-dialogue-tree kind choices and consequences than bloody fallout, and with entire chapters changing in their entirety because of such options. Are, then, Otome games the pinacle of choice and consequence? Nyahahahahaha, please!
I mean, like, really, if you want that kind of thingie go play visual novels and stuff. I like them, and there are some pretty good ones if you know your way around a japanese dictionary, but they are not role playing games. And while that kind of interactive storytelling is good and nice and stuff in a role playing game heavy on plot and interaction, it is not what makes it a role playing game. And if you think otherwise you should come out of the closet and go play
THIS. It has six diferent romance options, and sports three completely diferent middle sections, six completely diferent late sections, and twelve endings depending on your choices, and small changes all the way through! Yay! Best role playing game, like, ever! Screw you.
In pen & paper, choices and consequences matter because it is not the gamemaster making you pick from a list but giving you a situation where you have free reign on what to try. That will not happen in computer based ones, so there: If you want Choices and Consequences go play some hardcore dungeon crawler with lots of skills, resources to manage, freedom on how to tackle the levels and what to try on the puzzles, and be done with it. Will you go straight down to conserve rations or explore each level wholly to try and discover more? Will you try to kill that out of depth creep to loot its lair of high level loot even if doing so will put a big strain on your mana or daily spells and maybe force you to rest, and thus eat, more? That's the only kind of true choices and consequences computer role playing games will ever have, so you either like them or you go get yourself some friends and a place from were to torrent the rulebooks and call it a day.
And as i say i do not think it is wrong to have options from where to pick in how the plot develops and stuff, i like that since i actually do like those japanese interactive story thingies as long as they are not porn and stuff, but role playing games have nothing to do with that. That's a bonus, like having cool graphics or good art or a monster design that doesn't suck or music other than generic fantasy sounds #1000000000004, but even a game without any of those things would be a role playing game, even if it would most surely suck for me or something since i like my games with good art and stuff.
So all of you who took anything other than 2, 3, and 4 are fags and should move to the bioware forums or something, bloody nya.
Postedit: For Belphegor's sake, look at those results! The two most important things in role playing games are choices and consequences and support for diverse playstyles?! Invisible War is the best role playing game, like, ever!!! So much for the Codex's bloody reputation, nya. This is the new hardcore and stuff.