The Yes/No option

I was hanging out with some friends earlier today and the topic of conversation came to the yes/no option in games. I should clarify I don't mean an actual choice in games. I mean the yes/no option that won't let you continue with the game until you say yes. Once this was brought up the logical question to about, Why would that exist? After thinking about it for a while I think I've come up with two answers.

The first answer is the saddest in my eyes. The illusion of choice. Pokemon was the example I used when talking about it, so I'll do it again here. When you first get your Pokemon the professor gives you a choice. You can either go on the adventure to complete your Pokedex or you cannot. But that's not true. You can't really say no. No matter how many times you say no you can't continue with the game until you say yes. The reason the game would do this is to create the illusion their is a choice in the very linear game. 

The second on is my personal favorite. The creation of false tension. WARNING! SPOILERS FOR PHOENIX WRIGHT JUSTICE FOR ALL! In the final chapter of the game you are given a choice to say that your client is innocent or guilty. If you say innocent then the your client will be going free despite the fact that he really is a horrible human who really did kill someone. If you say guilty the assassin hired by your client will kill the kidnapped Maya. I've talked with a lot of people who have all just stopped at this choice. I had one person even say he just stared at the screen for five minutes before picking. SPOILERS ENDED! But as it turns out before your decision is made someone comes in to save the day. This is amazing. While from an outside perspective this may seem like a cheap ploy to tug at my emotions, but it really is a great moment in the game.  I'd even argue that the fact that it doesn't have value is what makes the choice that much more important, but that is a topic for another day.

The final thing I want to mention is when a joke is used for the yes/no choice. The two examples that came up in conversation was from Paper Mario (we couldn't remember which) and Aviary Attorney. With Paper Mario you are asked to go save someone. If you keep saying no then the person you're taking to just gives up. "FINE! YOU WIN! I GUESS THE WORLD IS DOOMED NOW!" and then you get the game over screen because you didn't stop the end of the world. In Aviary Attorney for the first mission if you say no to helping out the game then turns into a game of Black Jack. It's great and fun. I love it.