Make a Deal With The Devil

Just thought I'd gather some opinions on the matter of deals (not literally with the devil).

Is it good for a game to offer "fast tracks" that come at a price later in the game? Or the ability to earn favours?

My friend recently played a game where you could drink a potion that is similar to Overload, and it powerhouses your stats and essentially grants you power that you would not otherwise have for a long while. And you can drink this potion repeatedly. However, toward the end of the game any who took the potion will find that they now have a disadvantage. I can't remember the specifics, but I think that you essentially are weakening your resistance to the main villain's magic with every dose of the potion. You are warned when you take it that there will be consequences, although (without playing the game twice) you do not know specifics until it's too late.

Some examples that could exist in Scape: the ability to buy levels, but in 10 days they will come and deduct the same amount from your highest skill.

A story-based "favour". There is a cult of Icthlarin who believe that if you save a life, that man owes you a life (you stole that man from death). During a quest you save one of the cult members, and they know owe you a life. You may call upon the favour to slay any enemy you like during the game. There is no impending cost of this, aside from the choice you must now make as to who and whether or not you should either redeem it (although I'm not sure how ethically involved people get in games).

What if the Ring of Charos had much more power, but could only be used once every couple of days and with every use you become more and more corrupt? It isn't a requirement for some quests, you can avidly use it to avoid whole sections of the quest...

Anyway, I wanted your opinions.

"All magic comes with a price" --Rumpelstiltskin

You're better of asking Sliske or Theta about this kind of thing, 3mpty. They know a thing or two about favours.

Sliske is a good example. But I was more looking for the merits and drawbacks of using such feats as a game mechanic.

The thought of choices I make coming back to haunt me doesn't appeal to me. Not in the long term anyway. Punish me in a few hours, a few days or maybe a week, perhaps. But not permanently, and not in years time.

As for storyline choices, it's all very well, but you get half the quests per development time if each storyline has 2 options. I personally would rather have twice the quests but no choice.


I'm open minded on the matter though.

Even a choice that you were told would come back to haunt you? I definitely wouldn't have something come back to haunt you out of the blue, especially after a long commitment. Similar to Fable 2, I'd consider having decisions made in the pregame affecting the rest of the game: but given that the actions are made in the first 30 minutes, and the consequences can be viewed within the hour, this is something you can do-over.

I would rather have lots of quests, and lots of choices.

What about favours? Or was that what you meant by choices? 'cause I merely meant the ability to skip portions of quests.

Skipping portions of the quest could yield lower XP rewards. That I have no fuss about, because you can just go train your skill to make up the difference later. I can imagine that being difficult from a storywriting perspective though.

What I'm most uncomfortable with is the idea that you could ever become permanently excluded from a particular item, ability, area etc. I'll strongly oppose that unless you can come up with an incredibly convincing argument to change my mind.

What may serve as a good example is the Void Knight series. Your choices in that determine what colour your elite robes are afterwards, but you can change them at a price. Cosmetic differences in awards may be a neat touch, so long as the functionality remains the same.