EMPOWERMENT

Feelings of control, power and elevation experienced by a player. A game can be said to be empowering if it allows players to take action and for that action to result in some kind of “win”. Empowerment can refer to the ability to learn and master games, thus becoming empowered through overcoming challenges; it can also refer to games where the player avatar is already given a lot of agency and freedom.

“Saint’s Row IV skips the usual “rise to the top” arc often present in large-scale open world games, instead opting to empower players almost instantly with inhuman abilities and good cause to use them.”