History Main / SchrodingersQuestion

[[folder:Video Games]]
[[AC:ActionAdventure]]

[[AC:Eastern RPG]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' lets you rename the characters, but one, who's given a fake name to start with, is referred to as "Nanaki" later on by those who actually know him, no matter what other name you give him (potentially leading to the wonderful line "Nanaki, who is 'Nanaki'?" on subsequent playthroughs). A better example would be in the reunion scene after the player has [[spoiler:escaped from Midgar]]. Cloud recounts the details of events 5 years prior and at various points he will be interrupted by another character asking him if he did something or went somewhere and the player is given the option to decide yes or no, despite that the events hypothetically already have happened. This, however makes sense considering the fact that [[spoiler:Cloud is not telling the truth about what happened.]]
* A funny example in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' occurs when Zidane, in attempt to be serious, calls Dagger by her real name. If you name her Garnet from the get go, it comes out as "Garnet. No... Princess Garnet."

* In ''VideoGame/StarOcean First Departure'', there's a PA where Roddick has to guess which of Ilia and Ashlay will win a drinking contest. [[spoiler:Whoever you pick loses, and their alcohol costs 10% of your current Fol.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/FleuretBlanc'', you need to figure out the various mysteries yourself by answering questions relating to the clues you've collected. However, there is one subplot (Nickel's) where answering the conclusion questions differently will still produce a correct answer but cause the nature of the mystery to change: it is possible for Nickel to be either [[spoiler:gambling]] or [[spoiler:investing]] depending on what you think [[spoiler:the number slips]] mean.
** Subverted in another conclusion. When Florentine confronts [[spoiler:Aunty]] about [[spoiler:the nature of FOIL]], she will say something different depending on the personality traits you picked in the initial questionnaire. [[spoiler:Aunty]] will confirm either, but [[spoiler:they're all lies, and the true purpose of FOIL remains constant regardless of Florentine's assertion]].

* Actually happens in-universe in ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' due to Sumaru City being under the effects of a curse that makes rumors come true in reality. After the first boss fight against Principal Hanya, a student appears and asks you if he's dead or not. If you respond in the affirmative, he is KilledOffForReal, while if you respond in the negative, he actually survives his apparent death and returns later on to assist you.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/Persona3 Portable'', if you are playing as the male protagonist on a subsequent playthrough or the female protagonist, and have established a romantic bond with at least one character, the ending consists of a cutscene of you on the school roof hearing someone's voice. The available options are any character you've made into a lover; whoever you pick turns out to be the person you hear [[spoiler:and who [[DiedInYourArmsTonight gets to see you die]] due to the aftereffects of a spell that sealed [[BigBad Nyx]] away a few months ago]].
** Earlier (and less dire) in the same story, when choosing which Culture Club you join between art, music, and photography. Mitsuru will talk to you about her club, but says she cant remember which of the three Fuuka joined. The club she joined is always the exact same as whichever one you join.
** Similarly, on the female protagonist route in ''Portable'', Saori Hasegawa, the Hermit Social Link, happens to be part of whichever committee the protagonist joins, and Rio Iwasaki is part of the protagonist's sports team, which only changes a handful of lines of dialogue.
* ''VideoGame/ShiningResonance'': Who gave the music box to Yuma when he was injured in his Dragonshift form? [[spoiler:As the player completes Kirika, Sonia, Rinna, Marion, and Excella's endings, each girl gets their own series of postgame events. Each series of postgame events reveals the chosen girl is the one who gave the music box to Yuma, and the song of the music box is unique to each girl.]]

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[[AC:WesternRPG]]

[[AC:RealTimeStrategy]]

** The final mission of Tosh's arc depends on whether you side with him or with Nova (who claims Tosh is continuing the same abduction of psionics and forced indoctrination the Ghost prgram used for his Spectres). If you go with Tosh, the mission is a jailbreak and you're told that the prisoners were political cases, if you go with Nova everything she said was true ([[spoiler:Tosh's version]] is canon).

[[AC:SimulationGame]]

[[AC:SurvivalHorror]]
* ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'': the answers the player gives during Dr. Kauffman's therapy sessions not only help to determine Harry's past, but some features of the actual town as well.

[[AC:ThirdPersonShooter]]

[[AC:VisualNovel]]
* In the common route of ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'', after completing Refrain and gaining access to the Ecstasy heroine routes, a new choice is added that asks whether or not Riki sees Kanata as hostile or friendly. Her behavior towards the rest of the cast will reflect whatever choice is made, and picking hostile locks the player out of her route.

[[AC:Other]]
* On two separate occasions in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', at the start of a mission one of your wingmen asks you for your opinion on "that song", with your yes or no answer determining which of two possibilities your next mission or two will be. The thing is, in-universe, the choice is actually determined by a coin-flip, but the results of it depend on your answer to that question - which is {{foreshadow|ing}}ed by the possible names of the song. Say you liked it and it's "Face of the Coin"; say you didn't and it's "Back of the Coin".
* {{Inverted}} in the demo for ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable HD Remix''; at one point the Narrator asks you to press one of several dozen buttons on a wall to demonstrate what choices reveal about the player. No matter which button you press, the Narrator will always say that 94% of all players who pushed that particular button are sexual predators, [[BlamedForBeingRailroaded and then calls you a pervert under his breath]]. At face value it's PlayedForLaughs, but knowing that which button you press makes no difference only further drives home the game's themes about the illusion of choice.

[[folder:Gamebooks]]
* Parodied and subverted in ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBe'': early in Ophelia's route she hears a knock at the door and the reader is asked who they want to be there, with options including Hamlet, Polonius, and [[Webcomic/DinosaurComics Dromiceiomimus]]. However, regardless of who you pick, Hamlet is there. If you chose him, the narrator is startled and wonders if the player is psychic, but if you picked either of the other two options, he chides you for thinking you can control reality just by thinking something.
* Shows up in a lot of ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books. A particularly bizarre example in ''Space and Beyond'': if you end up attempting to treat a plague-ridden planet, you get the choice to either go down in person, believing that your BizarreAlienBiology protects you, or to remain on the ship to avoid infection. If you pick the former, you really *are* immune to the disease. If you pick the latter, the infection spreads to the ship, infecting you and the rest of the crew. This leads to another story branch which can potentially take you back to the infected planet in search of a cure. At that point, the book explicitly asks if you think there's a cure: If you say "Yes," the natives have already found it and are happy to treat you; if you say "No," you're quarantined there until your inevitable death.

[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]

* Commonly inverted in {{tabletop RPG}}s where players ask {{Game Master}}s leading questions in hope of changing reality to suit their characters' needs. It's actually an explicit part of the rules in a number of games, including ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', ''TabletopGame/FengShui'', ''TabletopGame/{{Adventure}}'', and the ''UsefulNotes/{{FUDGE}}'' System. For instance:

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', the professor who delivers the opening monologue allows you to name your rival as he "forgets" the name of his own grandson. [[http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=1 Parodied here.]]

* ''VideoGame/DyztopiaPostHumanRPG'': The difficulty select screen plays with this, since it asks if the human hero won against the demons (normal), negotiated with the demons (easy), or was killed by the demons (hard). In the BrutalBonusLevel, Aquarius reveals the context behind each difficult setting's lore. While the easy route's lore is exactly what is presented in the difficulty selection screen, normal mode lore [[spoiler:has Zazz defeat Aquarius]]. On hard mode, [[spoiler:Aquarius kills Zazz, but Zazz revives himself in another body. Either way, Zazz has no means of defeating the 13th archdemon [[InvincibleVillain Asterisk/Ophiuchus]], meaning he has no choice but to negotiate anyways. This makes the story differences between each difficulty inconsequential in the long run]].

* Just before the end of the play ''Shear Madness'', the action is paused, the house lights come up, and audience members are allowed to question all the suspects and vote on the identity of the murderer. The audience is always "correct" - That is, the play has multiple endings and whoever the audience chooses always turns out to have been the killer.

** Earlier (and less dire) in the same story, when choosing which Culture Club you join between art, music, and photography. Mitsuru will talk to you about her club, but says she cant remember which of the three Fuuka joined. The club she joined is always the exact same as whichever one you join

* Shows up in a lot of ChooseYourOwnAdventure books:
** A particularly bizarre example in Space and Beyond. If you end up attempting to treat a plague-ridden planet, you get the choice to either go down in person, believing that your BizarreAlienBiology protects you, or to remain on the ship to avoid infection. If you pick the former, you really *are* immune to the disease. If you pick the latter, the infection spreads to the ship, infecting you and the rest of the crew. This leads to another story branch which can potentially take you back to the infected planet in search of a cure. At that point, the book explicitly asks if you think there's a cure: If you say "Yes," the natives have already found it and are happy to treat you; if you say "No," you're quarantined there until your inevitable death.

[[folder:Non Video Game Examples]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Pyre}}'', you only get to name one of your fellow party members: "the Moon-Touched Girl" who, owing to her AmbiguousDisorder, has forgotten her own name. All she remembers is that it ends in "-ae". Whichever name you suggest, she realizes that was definitely her name, and she even remembers the matching nickname (a different one depending on which name you suggest) that everyone in her hometown used to call her. [[spoiler:This is also subtle {{foreshadowing}} that your player character is actually psychic.]]