Red or blue pill: fostering identification and transportation through dialogue choices in RPGs

Through free choice, individuals can exert control over the environment and experience agency. Research has suggested that tailoring aspects of choice to a player's type can provide benefits; however, commercial Role Playing Games (RPGs) generally provide static opposing options from a spectrum (e.g., paragon versus renegade). To inform the design of choices in RPGs, we conducted three studies comparing configurations of dialogue choices across the morality spectrum in an RPG prototype. Study 1 compared two polar (opposing) choices with two moral or two immoral choices. Study 2 contrasted polar choices with similar choices tailored to the player's morality, modelled from their initial 10 decisions. Study 3 compared polar choices with two tailored and one opposing choice. Our results consistently show that including the opposing choice is important to a player's identification with their character, even when we can reliably predict the decision that they will make.