Player agency/freedom/choices are well and good but only if they also come with real consequences. I don't want the game to be where I can do anything I want, but the outcomes are, at the end of the day, all largely the same. For example, kill any NPC I want but the game/quests moving forward are not affected in any way.
Which consequences would you like?
How would I know? I'm not the one writing the game. It would depend on the details of the game.
Well you must have an idea, no?
Well I gave the example from the D:OS games, where the claim is you can kill any NPC without hurting your ability to complete the game or any quests. For some people this is awesome as "player freedom." For me, this is a really stupid thing because when you go around killing NPCs there SHOULD be consequences, real, serious consequences. Another example is breaking into people's homes and robbing them blind. A true RPG should of course allow that, but there should be real consequences for doing that. This is what I mean.
