Undertale will make you question the essence of video games

In life, you live with the consequences of your actions. Sometimes games are like this, too, but it’s hard to care as much about pretend consequences. After all, it’s just a game, right? You can do what you want. You can see everything there is to see in a game, morally questionable or no. Why is that?

It’s partially the fault of feedback designed into the game to manipulate the player into doing certain things. Games live and die based on the feedback they give — and don’t give — the player. If you want someone to feel like they’re doing well, you reward them somehow. As certain types of feedback became codified in certain types of games, genre conventions were born, establishing a baseline for how these games are designed. Japanese role-playing games, for instance, use a feedback loop that treat battles as a stepping stone towards progress. Defeating enemies gain you experience, which increases your level and makes you more powerful, paving the way to let you get further in the game and survive in more difficult areas. Though strategy is involved in the battles themselves, pure numbers are often prioritized, leading to the practice of level grinding to be able to progress.