What would you do about this in-game choice?

The Game Room
1

Okay, so let me set up a game and choice in it.
The Setup:

You’re playing a game. In it, there are two main characters…let’s call them Person A and Person B.

They are both opposites. Person A is a good guy and Person B is a bad guy. You play as Person A, the hero. Your enemy throughout the entire game is Person B, the villain. This is very clear cut. There is no doubt or debate or hidden thing here. Person A is good and Person B is not and you MOSTLY play as** Person A**.

There ARE some parts, very small–however–where you play as Person B. This is normally just for a minute and each time it’s to make a choice that will effect the rest of the game and how the story plays out.
With me so far?

The Question:

Okay, so Person B has this lackey that helps him do evil deeds. Let’s call him…Mr X.
While playing as Person A, you discover that Mr X is really a traitor. He’s secretly plotting against Person B and is planning to betray and kill him at a later date. Person B has NO idea and trusts [COLOR=“DarkOrange”]Mr X[/COLOR] IMPLICITLY.

So soon, another time comes up when you’re playing as Person B for a moment…and you have another choice. You can choose to put your full trust into Mr X or Miss Y (another lackey of Person B)

The question is: What do you choose and why?

Do you choose Miss Y, knowing what YOU–THE PLAYER–personally knows? Or do you trust Mr X, knowing that there is NO way that Player B would know of the upcoming betrayal? Would you even stop to think that maybe the game is doing this on purpose and would that affect your choice in any way?
Because technically, Player B–for all intents and purposes–should not have any reason to distrust Mr X and, in fact, would easily choose him in a heart beat if he was not being controlled by the player–who does happen to know the secret info.

OR…maybe you do want to trust Mr X after all, just for that reason–knowing that it might help you when you play as Player A and want Player B’s potential downfall.

Based on all of this and wagering it in to whatever logic you use…what choice do you make? Do you trust Mr X or Miss Y with your character?

For those of you who are curious about the game, by the way, reveal the spoiler, but the above story/choice might serve a spoiler if you haven’t yet played the game.

Quantum Break is the game this takes place in…pretty good game

2

I prefer to role play the characters in games like this so I would trust Mr X.

To be honest though I’d probably play it one way to see what happens and then go back and play it the other way to see what happened. That or watch a YouTube video of the alternative just because I am curious.

3

The only value I see in playing as the evil Person B is to make the story more interesting. Therefore, I would choose X or Y based on which choice seemed to have more interesting implications for the story. Based on the brief summary, it’s not clear which choice that would be, so I can’t say.

4

You’ve given me no reason to mistrust Miss Y. So even if I play ignorant, choosing X is not a done deal.

I don’t prefer to heavily roleplay to the extent of pretending to ignore information. So I might choose whichever path seems more interesting.

I do like when the choices are more morally ambiguous - the “bad” choice leads to a more long-term positive.

5

I have no trouble with metagaming, and I’d probably make whatever choice that would lead to the most satisfying story for me. If the game has a good story, I’d probably just guess based on the story so far, but I’ve often spoilered myself via walkthroughs for games that I know aren’t good enough to warrant a second playthrough, so that my first go 'round has the more satisfying story.

6

Assuming that I aim to act in the best interest of whatever character I’m controlling in the game, then of course I don’t let Player B trust Mr. X.

7

I’m like Whack-A-Mole, I would choose to role play it. On a first playthrough, I would choose whoever I think Person B would choose regardless of my knowledge. That still might be Miss Y but it wouldn’t be because I know Mr. X is a traitor. For example, suppose that I think Person B would want somebody who is a good shot and it has been established that Miss Y is a better shot that Mr X then I would choose Miss Y.

8

Is player B another person who’s also playing this game, and you’ve already played it? Or are you Player B, making different decisions this time?

Since it’s a single player game, the game designers probably took into account that gamers wouldn’t be able to resist controlling Player B’s decisions with the game info they know. They probably have some sort of algorithm that contends for either decision tree, and neither outcome greatly benefits anybody.

9

Can I play it like Dishonored? If so, just kill everyone.

I’d probably go with Mr. X, assuming the task is something you NEED your right hand man to take care of. It’s an interesting game theory decision.

10

I’d be more likely to pick Miss Y - though not out of roleplay reasons. If I pick Mr X, I know how the story’s (very probably) going to play out, i.e. either Mr X will betray as expected, or the game will go “muahahah he was really a triple agent all along” or perhaps some sort of meta- storytelling technique to that effect (depends on what kind of game it is, really). Either way, I’m not surprised at all.
Miss Y is an unknown quantity. That makes things spicier for me.

Of course, much of this is also variable depending on any emotional attachement I might have for this or that character, what kind of story I think the game wants to tell, what kind of story I want to be told, the tone of the game etc…

11

Like a few others above, I’d likely look at a spoiler to figure out which one was “best”.

12

If I’m in a tabletop game with other players I work really hard to keep character and player knowledge separate. It’s the only fair way to play. So I’d try to act as best as I can to play ignorant.

But that’s not a perfect solution. There really is none in a situation like this. Play it too dumb and you prevent your character from figuring out something he should have been able to.

That’s why I dislike these scenarios. If the character and player are both ignorant then the character can get suspicious as the player does, test theories, and maybe figure it out. If you as a player already know then you’re robbed of the fun of puzzle-solving and you can’t naturally role-play it. Honestly if you’re designing and/or running a game you should strive to avoid these situations because they’re not good positions to put your players into.

If this is a single player situation like a video game then heck with it. Make the most interesting choice and see what happens.