Morality, Opportunity, and Picking Sides: Choices in Video Games

The surge of "choice systems" in video games has had a rather significant resurgence in recent years.  Mostly, it seems like a way for a game developer to offer players a chance to customize their own game experience, make the story more unique to them.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  There have been a few games I've played where it felt a choice system was simply tacked on, others seem to have their entire game premise based around difficult choices.

Now, I'm not a video game scholar.  I haven't studied the history of video games, or interviewed developers, or anything like that, so all I can report on is my own impressions.  If I'm off, or wrong about something, I hope someone lets me know in the comments below.  I'm not looking to pick a fight, just express what I've experienced.

More after the cut.