I can, and often do, speak for hours on end about the wonders of immersive sims, one of the few genres that empowers player choice through gameplay systems, rather than just binary narrative choices.
One of the first popular immersive sims—and one of the most influential games of all time—was Ion Storm's Deus Ex. The number of choices afforded to the player for every obstacle was astounding, especially for a game released in 2000. This design philosophy has since spread far and wide, notably into the role-playing game genre with The Elder Scrolls.
According to Bethesda's studio design director Emil Pagliarulo, the connection between Deus Ex and the studio's games is very intentional. In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Pagliarulo said that he explicitly copied elements of Deus Ex when developing Fallout 3.
"As much immersive sim as was humanly possible, that I could bring in was really what I wanted to do," Pagilarulo said, describing his approach to designing Fallout 3. "I loved the original Deus Ex. It's a huge influence on me."
"I remember breaking into a house that I thought was empty to find something, and the maid turned the corner," he explains. "I was...
