thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-03, Neel wrote:
Victor: IME the important thing is not being able to control the effects of your choices. The important thing is that the consequences fall into two categories.
One, some of them have to be consequences that you, the player, could have forseen. This foresight is what makes the choice between alternatives interesting—you can weigh alternatives because you actually have some basis for comparing them.
Two, the consequences you didn't forsee have to be but-for causes. Lawyers have this idea they call a "but-for" cause, in the sense of "But for X's decision, Y would not have happened." So you have to be able to a) see the causal mechanism at work, and b) that mechanism could have been affected by your choice. This is what makes hypotheticals about the action much richer—you can geek out about what might have been, and those might-have-beens illuminate the actual action.
