Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Patterns of Choice


Have you seen this? It's a graphic by Michael Niggel that visualizes all the choices of a particular Choose Your Own Adventure Book.

I love this sort of thing. It reminds me a little of artist Stephanie Posavec's work.

I wonder if my brain is changing as I age, I seem drawn to these patterns, and looking for patterns in systems. Or maybe it's too much time in academia.


Imagine if your last session was mapped out as a series of choices-- and then a whole campaign.

The first via Boing Boing, the second I encountered long ago (on the web), and it made an impression.

1 comment:

  1. Actually, that second graphic is brilliant. If only I was able to intuitively think in those terms, I could visualize a campaign "world" as a relative choices graph like that. Of course, to be true, it would need to be several orders of magnitude more complex, since in the graphic provided, each choice is binary (you either choose it or you don't) and there's no possibility of going back or of reaching the same destination by more than one path.

    Still, it would be useful for understanding relationships in a scripted story arc (or, if you prefer, a "railroad")....

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