4 Conclusion

4.1 Discussion

Some may argue that Poem Minigame is simply a ruse with no inherent underlying meaning nor use. However, the results of this study show that the bias in the Poem Minigame is towards Sayori (2.180 +/- 0.819 vs. overall mean of 1.962 +/- 0.839), who is the first character in the game to experience a traumatic outcome, implying that the statistical aspect of the minigame may have geared the player towards her to emphasize the emotional impact of the end of Act 1. After all, if a character receives the most points, the game plays additional, intimate scenes with said character, which increases the player’s affability to her. Thus, the ending of Act 1 would be more heart-wrenching than if the words in the poem minigame were more fairly weighted (i.e. the points being weighted in a way such that each character would have an equal chance of receiving points).

4.2 Limitations

Despite the robust tests presented in this paper, there are a number of limitations. Namely, this paper assumes that the probability of each word in the minigame being selected by the player is weighted equally (i.e. a uniform probability distribution of the words). In DDLC, 10 words are presented in each round, so the probabilities may be shifted per round and as such may affect one of the assumptions in the ANOVA models. Future work may take this issue into account by emploiying a Monte Carlo simulation to test multiple ANOVA outcomes.

A second limitation is that there is little-to-no literature examining the statistical components of DDLC. As such, knowledge regarding them are sparse if not non-existent. Nonetheless, the results presented in this paper should serve as a baseline for further research.