Telltale - Please stop pre-determined relationships
One problem plaques many Telltale games.
This problem is dubbed "pre-established relationships" by us fans
So, what are pre-established relationships?
Telltale games are all about putting yourself in the protagonists body. You are Lee, convicted killer on a road to redemption. You are Jesse, country boy with a goal to be popular, you are the Batman, A viscous vigilante protecting Gotham.
But you are not Javi. You are not Peter Quill.
These characters shoes are too small for you to put on. Can you chose if Star-Lord loves Gamora? Can you chose if Javi does baseball?
No, you cannot
In Telltale Games, we create our characters the way we like them, we don't want our relationships made for us.
For example: In Minecraft: Story Mode, you meet get to know Lukas and Petra for the first time. You get to chose what you and the character think of each other, you get to establish their traits. They are tailored by how you play
Same with The Walking Dead.
In The Walking Dead. Lee is a teacher convicted of murder. Those are the only things pre established about him. You get to meet every character for the first time in game, and you chose what you think of them.
But in Guardians of the Galaxy and A New Frontier, you've known David since birth. You've been fighting with the Guardians for years.
So Telltale : If you didn't have enough time to read this during your smoke break here's a TLDR
More Lee-Clem. More Jesse-Lukas. Less Javi-David, please
Comments
Absolutely. Its something Telltale should avoid in the final season.
Heres hoping Telltale takes the feedback seriously
You sure Jesse didn’t know Petra and Lukas before? I am almost certain that she/he did. Not that I disagree with your overall point though, as I thought Jesse was a pretty blank state.
I mean, you can’t change that Lee loves history, that’s just a part of his backstory as a teacher, so I’d stay the Javi baseball thing is kind of moot. On your more compelling argument here, I would say that there is no denying that regardless of what the player does, Peter does have feelings for Gamora, it’s if he chooses to pursue it.
And let us not forget the Telltale games that are good with pre/existing relationship. The Wolf Among Us, man, that had plenty of it, and it’s definitely one of their best games. Of course, the illusion of choice could at times make less obvious, but still. Tales From the Borderlands also has pre-existing relationships, but hey, that’s another great game. I’d even argue that as much for Telltale’s Batman, although there is a lot of freedom there the game gains.
I think the “problem” with pre-existing relationships has to do with a game’s overall writing. As those games I mentioned show, you can have a great game with them. They had focus and stuff. Perhaps if Telltale works on just being better overall, than it won’t seem as much of an issue. Of course, better characters make this a lot easier. Hopefully future games will improve.
I don't think pre-estabilished relationships are necessarily a bad thing, I think it depends on how it's handled. I'm not quite sure what makes a pre-estabilished relationship seem well executed or not though...
I'm pretty sure MCSM had pre-established relationships.
I'd make a post about this, but InGen already summed up my thoughts pretty well towards the end of the post. It's not that pre-determined relationships are bad (InGen even brought up Wolf before I could!), but rather, they need to find a way to make player agency compelling. Rather, I think it goes back to writing quality, as InGen also said.
Perhaps they also need to focus more on characters that are genuinely in an interesting place of choice making too.
Like, sure, you can say Lee was a blank slate, but Bigby's choice making was compelling too as the choice making tied back to his inner turmoil as a character. Whereas, if you look at a modern Telltale game, it feels more like just interactive cinema, where you are just choosing what happens in a story without necessarily being put inside a story where the "choice making" is genuinely a compelling interpretation of the source material.
Im not a fan of pre-determinant relationships, and they can work. I think the biggest issue about them is how Telltale kept using them and wrote the story like we would care about them just because the character we play as does. Like people said Wolf Among Us almost every character has a determinant history. However its just written so much better and the story isnt RELIANT and uses major plot points involving these pre established relationships. And games like Wolf did a way better job at making character and player feel the same right away. For example we all hate Crane, and so does Bigby. Sadly games like ANF were a mess. No one likes Gabe but Javi cares about him no matter what. The fact there was just so much pre established family drama in that game was annoying as hell, I didnt care for these characters and I dont care for their problems that I as a player were not a part of. And pre established relationships should not ever be a main story focus point. Theres a reason why Wolf works so much better, all this pre established relationships, nothing from the past is ever used for the plot, the most is that many people are afraid of Bigby because of his past, but the game does such a better job at explaining the world and how people view Bigby and just does a way better job of fitting the player into his shoes and making Bigby your Bigby. In games like ANF we are just forced into UNCLE JAVI BABY SITTING AND FAMILY DRAMA.
Overall I want Telltale to avoid pre established relationships. They can still work, but they should be avoided for the most part and should never lead into major plot points.
It sounds like the most important thing to do with pre-established relationships is to make sure the player is immediately on board. The player and player character need to be on the same page (though a story that does the opposite could be interesting if done right). The writing of the characters needs to reflect how the player character feels about them, so the player themselves feels the same way. As mentioned, games like Wolf and TftB do a good job of this.
The Walking Dead Season 1 was good in the sense that every one you met was a total stranger to Lee and they came to trust or hate you based on your choices.
In MCSM season one it dose say that Jesse and the gang have been rivals with Lukas and his group for a long time, but Jesse doesn't really know Lukas all that well. Jesse also already knows Petra on the first episode just not that well. But yes I can't wait for the next season and really want to see more Jesse and Lukas, and Jesse and Petra.