The Mechanic is the Message resonates with me a lot. It discussed how games convey messages with their mechanics and suggested good practices for making the mechanics serve the purposes better. The player will see their virtual agent as themselves in the games, so the consequences of the virtual agent’s actions will give the player messages about the game’s morals. If a game punishes/rewards the player for doing certain behaviors, it is delivering ethical standards to its players. This approach to making games is specifically applicable to interactive fiction. Interactive fictions provide a large playground for the game designers to determine what the players get from the game.
