Branching Choices
We are our choices.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Branching Choices make the player responsible for what unfolds. Decisions carry weight, influencing future events, relationships, and possibilities. The game becomes a space where freedom and consequence are closely connected.
Dispatch is a narrative game where the player routinely has to choose dialogue options that will change the narrative and ending in major ways.
Branching choices allow learners to make decisions that change the future of the narrative or gameplay, giving them a strong sense of agency. This is the ideal mechanic for simulating human interactions, negotiations, or conflict resolution, where every word or action has a specific, visible consequence. It makes the participant the “protagonist” of their own learning story.
Educators can use branching scenarios to show that there isn’t always one “perfect” answer; different choices can lead to diverse, equally valid outcomes. This fosters an open mindset and a deep understanding of the complex cause-effect relationships inherent in social and professional systems.
The best way to approach branching choices is to have each choice have their upsides and downsides, and if it can be achieved for none of the options presented to the player to be obviously correct.