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TheDustinLike Upgrade Complete and Achievement Unlocked, Free Will is metacommentary on games in the form of a game. In this case, the design trope it is addressing is one of the oldest mechanics of the videogame: the ability to replay or continue, the fundamental consequencelessness of "death."
In form, Free Will is a GameBoy-like Flash title, with the sort of black-and-white sepiatone graphics you would expect to see on a primitive handheld device, and the moment-to-moment gameplay is a spot-on re-creation of the platformers of yore. It is, however, only one level in length (despite the existence of stage-and-world numbers at screen bottom, which imply a lengthy Mario-like saga).
The surprise, and indeed the point of this short game, comes when you die and replay. Spoiler and discussion below the fold; you might want to play it yourself first, which won't take long.
Replay, in this context, evidently means something like replaying the video tape rather than playing the game again. The game's title may be "Free Will," but perhaps the game is in fact arguing in favor of determinism. As TheDustin puts it, "this game argues hard determinism, which states that free will is an illusion. Because this is a game, you obviously influence the outcome of your playthrough, but because you do not get a chance to retry or replay there is a single and predetermined outcome. This is made all the more apparent with the 'replay' video upon death. Sure, you *could* have made that jump or you *could* have not bumped into that baddie, but you didn't. This mirrors our lives, which unfortunately do not have a replay option."
Of course, if free will is truly an illusion, then perhaps we shouldn't have the opportunity to pay even once: the game should play itself, with a single preordained outcome. The fact that time's arrow is unidirectional, and there are no second chances in life does not, in fact, demonstrate anything about whether our feeling of volition is or is not illusory.
Still, you don't expect little Flash games to raise these kinds of issues -- and the fact that this one does is impressive, in its own goofy way.
Oh, btw -- you can reload the game if you actually do want to replay in the usual sense of the word, and indeed perhaps you should, since the ending is amusing.
The game is easy and short
The game is easy and short enough that is entirely possible to beat the game your first try. I did, and had to go back and purposely die to see what all the fuss was about.
i still don't see what the
i still don't see what the fuss is about. a game with a replay doesn't tell us much about either fate or games. this game is a more effective take on the concept, i think.
This doesn't demonstrate
This doesn't demonstrate that free will is an illusion. It demonstrates that, given a specific set of circumstances and experience, you'd respond in the same fashion every time. This is separate from - and compatible with - determinism.
Didn't really work for me
The fact that you can replay the game differently by resetting really spoils it.
Comparing this to Mr. Destiny's Adventure (linked to above) really shows you how the concept could have been done better.
As for whatever "shock" factor the game might have, "Execution" does a much better job of making you sit back and really think.
The GBA artwork is pretty, though.
Interpretation as determinism vs. free will
I strongly object the idea that determinism contradicts free will. One very simple way to put it is that the only alternative to determinism is non-computable randomness, and saying that determinism contradicts randomness is therefore like saying that free will is randomness, which doesn't sound very promising either.
Maybe the game designers meant that, but my first impression after dying in the game was a different one. For a few seconds, I was fooled into believing that I actually played the replay, until I noticed that the play was out of synch and continued when I did not press any key. At that moment, one thought spontaneously came into my mind: "Man, you only had one chance to do that, and you blew it."
And I think this is one consequence of free will: That you can fail, and that you can regret that you failed. Every single thing that you ever do in your life is your only chance at that moment. There is no replay. When you die, that's it. There is no supernatural force that will save you after death. No god interferes with your actions, and no god tells you what to do and what not to do. You are essentially a being with a free will. Although that sounds positive, it has negative implications too. A mindless machine without a will of its own cannot regret and, in some ways, cannot fail like we can. My thought was that the game reflects thoughts like these, rather than trying to show a contrast between determinism and free will.
Whoa there. When people talk
Whoa there. When people talk about determinism in this philosophical sense, they usually mean in the sense that the universe is fully deterministic. That is, with enough insight about the current state, you could perfectly determine the next state, ie. the future. A fully deterministic universe DOES negate free will. Let's say we get some sort of grand unified theory and learn all there is to know about you and your environment (The whole universe). With that, in a fully-deterministic universe, we could perfectly predict your every action for the rest of your life. Including the effects and consequences of being told such a thing and having reviewed the rest of your life yourself.
A fully indeterministic situation would be one in which we cannot predict the next state, ie. randomness.
People studying quantum mechanics discovered that the universe is actually probabilistic down at a low level. We can make statistical guess on when an atom will decay, but it's impossible to know exactly when. This effectively proves that the universe is not fully deterministic. The alternative however, is a partially-deterministic universe. One in which we know what our actions are, but there are details that are hidden from us. (ok, wait, I may be getting "partially-deterministic" wrong, but I can't find a good alternative. Just roll with it.)
We can still develop a grand unified theory and learn all there is to know about the universe, but it'll only give us the probability of different outcomes. And any time we flip a coin in our lives it could only predict it landing on tails about 50% of the time, with an off chance that every atom of it simultaneously decays mid-flip.
I'd say the game makes a half-ass case that there is no free will.
re dessgeega: "this game is
re dessgeega:
"this game is a more effective take on the concept, i think."
and malefact:
"Comparing this to Mr. Destiny's Adventure (linked to above) really shows you how the concept could have been done better."
That's easy to say when that game is a reaction to "Free Will". See this reply to the Free Will thread at TIGSource. I mean, I'm not saying it's a worse game for it, but it wouldn't even had been about if it weren't for Free Will. It's a knock-off.
I'd also like to add that
I'd also like to add that "compatibilits" (those who claim determinism is compatible with the notion of a free will) have been proved idiots a million times. OK, that's a silly and stupid way to put it, but seriously, if you are a compatibilist, you are either crazy or you aren't just getting what free will actually entails.
And also, we can not know for sure whether quantum mechanics really allow for indeterministic behavior. It might as well just be a lack of understanding of what's actually happening.
Blech...
Philosophy on this abstract level is really good for nothing.
And calling a forced replay button a "reflection of determinism" is a little far-fetched. You could have explored the same idea in a more interesting way.
"I'd also like to add that
"I'd also like to add that "compatibilits" (those who claim determinism is compatible with the notion of a free will) have been proved idiots a million times. OK, that's a silly and stupid way to put it, but seriously, if you are a compatibilist, you are either crazy or you aren't just getting what free will actually entails."
Do you have some good links about this? I don't believe that determinism is incompatible with free will. As an athiest, I don't believe in the soul, so I think I'm left with the conclusion that I am a part of the universe that has become aware of itself. Free will essentialy states that I make my decisions... determinism, that the universe makes them for me. If I *am* the universe, what's the difference?
A better commentary
I found the IF games Photopia and Shrapnel to contain a much more interesting commentary on free will. In both of those games I made choices on the first pass through that seemed entirely my own. It wasn't until the second playing that I realised I had been manipulated into making them and had no other option.
Show me a platformer which plays through the same every time, but which doesn't make this obvious to the player until they second attempt, and then we can have an interesting conversation about free will.
Woah there woah there
"A fully deterministic universe DOES negate free will."
This is incorrect. As a previous poster pointed out, free will (except maybe in a very naive sense) is not the opposite of determinism, indeterminism is. Randomness, probability, or complete determinism do not equal free will, which has to do with personal autonomy- determined or no. To distort Kant, you're making a category error. Now, you can argue as to whether or not that sort of free will exists and what form it takes, but that's a whole different can of worms.
Anyway, more to the point, I liked this game, and I also liked that once I got familiar with the game, I accidentally hit the replay button and didn't realize it was being auto-played. I had the beginning parts down, so I didn't make any different choices. I thought it was an interesting moment where I became aware of the way that the game designer manipulated my choices through level design.
This Comment Was Inevitable
@determinist
That's interesting! Not being a regular TIGsource forum-goer, I didn't realise that Mr. Destiny's Adventure was a reaction to Free Will - but I think calling it a 'knock off' is a little bit unfair. Noyb played Free Will, which inspired them to make their own variation on the concept, perhaps because Noyb didn't think Free Will had the execution down perfect.
And just because "Mr. Destiny's Adventure" is a reaction doesn't mean that it can't be a better game at making us think about free will.
Still, I understand that it seems as if I'm not giving credit where credit is due. I'm glad the game sparked some different reactions; I think any game intended to 'make you think' can measure its success to some degree by how divisive it is. "Free Will" didn't work for me, but judging by the comments, a lot of players got a real kick out of it.
(P.S. I imagine that Free Will was itself inspired by other games that explored the concept, some of which have been mentioned here - but that doesn't mean we should do it down by calling it crudely derivative).