>The way I've always thought about it is this way: If the choice felt like it mattered when you made it then it's working as intended. If you ruin the immersion by coming here and comparing your playthrough to others then you have yourself to blame.
>Picking who to sit with at the lodge; that fucking mattered. Did it impact the end game? No. Did it impact the story in any significant way? No. Did I know that at the end of the day that choice wouldn't impact the outcome of the game? Sure. But I sat there for 5 minutes agonizing over my choice. That experience was real; that experience mattered.
how do you feel about people defending lack of choices by praising the illusion? how do you feel about games pretending to have a choice when there is none? how does it all affect the industry?
To be honest I never really felt that the game had much going for with the choices in terms of how it affected the story, it always felt more like I was choosing how Bigby would end up being perceived as by the other characters.
In that aspect I think it was well made although I didnt saw any other playthrough.
The problem is these Telltale games rely so completely on the player buying into the illusion of choice. The illusion is fucking shattered the second you replay any of these games. If I know that 95% of the game is going to be the exact same no matter what I choose, why would I agonise over a choice? Some more divergent dialogue, small alternate scenes, failure states that are part of the narrative (not loludead reload save) would go a hell of a long way to getting people to care about their choices again.
>>345033002
Because free will is an illusion.
>>345033002
I've always felt cheated when a game's mechanic revolves around making choices, only for them not to affect the outcome.
Mass effect is an excellent example of this. But the reasoning is obvious, it adds a ludicrous amount of work on to the already heavy workload involved with making a AAA game, to make branching narratives.
Telltale games have the illusion of choices that impact the narrative, but they're on their way out, with games like until dawn setting the new standard.
Until dawn proves that non-trivial branching narratives can be achieved with current technology, by companies that know what they're doing.
>>345034307
That's a false dilemma, a game like Until Dawn only adds more branches and adds more differences between each story branch, but that doesn't change the nature of these kind of games. All the events are still pre-determined by the game designers and writers.
You are just experiencing one part of the branch at the time and you are still following a dotted line while playing the game. As you make longer or more complex games you are just adding more and more lines, increasing the workload while accomplishing little in terms of story-telling or emotional impact.
What we should be striving for is for more systemic storytelling, games in which the story is not pre-determined but rather is created by the interactions between the player and the game world.
>>345034914
can you elaborate or give some examples?
I've always thought it's about the journey, not the destination. Sure everyone arrives at Lee dying in a shop at the end of TWD, but whether you got their playing Lee as a nice guy trying to help people, or a cold hard bastard is what matters.
I agree completely.
Walking Dead: 400 days was my favorite Telltale game I played. It didn't give you the illusion that your shit was going to matter, but many of the choices felt tense and vicarious to me.
By comparison, I was angry as hell at TWD Season 2 because both the advertising and the game itself kept pushing down your throat about how your "choices matter" so I felt betrayed every time I saw the paths get bottlenecked moments after choosing.
>>345034914
>You are just experiencing one part of the branch at the time
feels nicer to explore tree branches than different lanes of the same highway
the end of one branch could be a little leafbud. or a ladybug. or a bird's nest. who knows. but when you play something twice and learn that all roads lead to the same spot, replaying just to see what slight dialogue changes there are feels boring and wasteful
exploring a whole new branch feels exciting
>>345033002
TWAU > TFTB > TWD S1 > all the other trash TT story games
I knew from the start that the GoT one was going to piss me off because everyone dies and nothing matters in the books/show so I knew that literally nothing would matter in the game, and the story was pretty weak after the first chapter or two.
TT games are ok for a nice little interactive story, glad I bought them super discounted or I'd have remorse.
All games are illusion, I can't fault someone for liking one illusion when I myself like other illusions.
>>345033002
I don't know where your greentext came from, but it reads like a post-purchase rationalization.
>buy game
>people shit on it
>feel stupid
>defend it to feel less stupid
>look more stupid
It's basically the same thing that happens in console war threads when people try to convince themselves that 30 frames per second looks more realistic.
>>345038258
>you have yourself to blame
if it blames the consumer for disliking something, it's rationalization or shilling
when it became acceptable to belittle potential customers into submission, i don't know, but i don't fucking like it and will not stand for it
>>345037769
>all the other trash TT story games
Does this include the Sam & Max games they made many years ago?
I loved Sam & Max Hit the Road (the LucasArts game) when I was a kid, and I haven't played the Telltale ones yet.
>>345038425
Oh no. I was talking more about the recent ones. Sam and Max will always be god tier.
>>345038571
Okay, thanks.
I have one of the seasons (probably the third) on my Steam account, from an early Humble bundle, but I never bought the others.
>This choice is blank!
>This choice is blank!
>This choice is blank!
>...
>>345039260
I was always confused by not answering. Were there any real good or bad consequences from not answering some lines? I tried it a few times and it just felt like they'd take your silence angrily or goad you into another answer.
>>345039768
It's telltale, nobody cares aside from the handful of parts where the game kills you if you say nothing
