Dispatch Developers Want Players to Embrace Their Inner Jerk
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
AdHoc Studio developers reveal that Dispatch players are choosing overly polite dialogue options, missing out on alternate content and the chance to experiment with darker roleplay choices.
Narrative-driven superhero game Dispatch from AdHoc Studio has pulled in over two million players, generating millions of choices and branching scenarios along the way. In a recent interview with Polygon, narrative director Pierre Shorette and creative director Nick Herman revealed the choice stats that surprised them most. Despite the game offering a wide spectrum of moral outcomes, the overwhelming majority of players consistently choose the polite and safe path. Even when players harbor strong, sometimes antagonistic opinions about certain characters, their actual in-game actions remain surprisingly tame.
Herman pointed out a specific scene in episode four where players can choose to be kind, helpful, or rude to Mandy, also known as Blonde Blazer, before her date. Despite many players holding internet-fueled suspicions about her character, the vast majority still opted for the nicest response. Shorette noted that this tendency to play it safe results in a lot of unseen content and misses the point of narrative games as a space for safe exploration. Because the protagonist Robert is a distinct character with his own personality rather than a blank slate, the developers want players to lean into roleplaying someone who might make different choices than they would in real life.
Ultimately, the team views choice-based games as low stakes practice runs for trying out personalities and reactions you might never dare to show in the real world. Whether you are watching your favorite creator on Twitch try to maintain a pristine hero persona or playing through the episodes yourself on your preferred platform, the data shows we are all far too afraid to embrace the dark side. If AdHoc has one message for the community moving forward, it is to stop being so boring and see what happens when you let your character cause a little chaos.
Tags: Dispatch, AdHoc Studio, Narrative Games, PC Gaming, Console Gaming
Original article: Polygon