12023-12-09T11:06:59+00:00Agency in Seedship2By Dhruvplain2023-12-09T20:24:00+00:00In Seedship, agency plays an extremely important role. The entire game is based on making choices of different kinds, specifically what systems to sacrifice and what planet to settle. Each choice the player makes affects their score, and how far they progress in the game. Here, it’s important to note that players often are confronted with choices such as “Jettison 35 people off of the ship or let the engines fail.”
This is something that tests the ethical mindset of the player. As Janet Murray says in her chapter on Agency from Hamlet on the Holodeck, “we do not usually expect to experience agency within a narrative environment” (Murray 126). By being presented with this agency, the player is suddenly challenged to make a complex ethical and moral decision that may not have been expected when going into the game. In addition, their choices have effects on their score and later scenarios they are presented with, incentivizing the player to really think about their decision.
