Controversy sells?
You only need to watch the first five minutes of this video. Essentially, it suggests that BioWare (of MASS EFFECT fame) is intentionally using the "indoctrination theory" cooked up by fans to invite further controversy, and therefore, higher profit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeJkR683Sas
Now, Telltale is a company, just like BioWare, and companies always have to be conscious of the bottom line. That's reality. But my concern is whether Telltale will apply the same "controversy = profit" scheme to the fate of Clementine and/or Kenny.
Yes, Telltale clearly stated at Comic Con that Clem "would be a part of" season 2, and Kenny's whereabouts - alive, dead, or a walker - "would be explored". But they didn't go into any detail, presumably because they weren't allowed to.
Now, I love Clem and Kenny as characters. I'd personally be destroyed if they met a terrible end, more so than the rest of season 1's surviving cast. I know it's entirely Telltale's decision whether to kill them or spare them, but I'm not personally comfortable with the idea of their destinies being stretched out/kept hidden purely for the sake of baiting the player and accumulating higher profit. If you introduce a mystery, resolve it in the next chapter, while introducing new mysteries at the same time. That's the correct way to keep the player invested. Don't stretch out a plot thread any longer than it needs to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeJkR683Sas
Now, Telltale is a company, just like BioWare, and companies always have to be conscious of the bottom line. That's reality. But my concern is whether Telltale will apply the same "controversy = profit" scheme to the fate of Clementine and/or Kenny.
Yes, Telltale clearly stated at Comic Con that Clem "would be a part of" season 2, and Kenny's whereabouts - alive, dead, or a walker - "would be explored". But they didn't go into any detail, presumably because they weren't allowed to.
Now, I love Clem and Kenny as characters. I'd personally be destroyed if they met a terrible end, more so than the rest of season 1's surviving cast. I know it's entirely Telltale's decision whether to kill them or spare them, but I'm not personally comfortable with the idea of their destinies being stretched out/kept hidden purely for the sake of baiting the player and accumulating higher profit. If you introduce a mystery, resolve it in the next chapter, while introducing new mysteries at the same time. That's the correct way to keep the player invested. Don't stretch out a plot thread any longer than it needs to be.
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Comments
This mainly applies to the deaths of certain characters in the storylines. I have never noticed complete controversy/backlash towards the franchise in one specific moment, but many people have expressed it in their own way. I for one, have quit reading the comic series after one of the last beloved characters in the storyline died in the 100th issue. In cases like these, controversy towards a death of a certain character does not sell.
Let's be honest here. How much controversy would spur if, let's say, Clem or Daryl died? Numerous fans would create backlash and dare never to to look at one of the mediums again.
If you're talking about character's purposes just for the means of attaining more profits, then I'm guessing more people will buy future seasons if maybe characters like Clem or Kenny survived. Look back for a second. How many people looked at the confirmation of 400 Days and asked, "Where's Clem?!?" or "Will Clem be in season 2?" TWD fans care about certain characters' futures enough that they would be willing to shell out more profits to find out what happens to them.
Sure, I'm just personally depressed that everything boils down to the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar sooner or later.
Telltale announced a sequel before the game was even fully out, pushed back a different release just for season 2, ignored all future projects at E3(such as Fables) so they could show off some Walking Dead DLC. They haven't hit EA levels, but there is definitely some money talking to them right now which worries me.
Oh come on, that's probably the worst example of community feedback you could have picked. Telltale definitely takes into account fan feedback when making new episodes, I'm sure of it. I'm not gonna lie and say I know what they had planned for Carley, bit if it turned out 90% of the feedback was that we hated Carley, who knows what they would have done differently.
They even put in the line about batteries ("think you can handle those", or "Maybe it's missing batteries") which no doubt is because EVERYBODY on the forum brought that up in the Carley vs. Doug threads.