Episode 3 Choices, Discussion
What we dealt with in Episode 3 left me stone silent, and I'm just gonna say it: they threw some pretty crazy shit at us near the end, so I wanna open up discussion on reasons for/thoughts about the choices we were presented with and what we chose. So, prepare yourself, ye men of The Wall, winter is coming etc.
At the time this thread goes up, these are the percentages for the choices in my area:
format: choice, what I chose, percentage of me and others who chose the same.
Helped Sarah: yes, 78.6%; confided in Bonnie: yes, 50.6%; admitted to stealing: no, 55.8%; watched Kenny's revenge: no, 29.4%; cut off Sarita's arm: no, 17.7%
I want to share why I chose what was in the minority and I want to ask why people chose the opposite. I imagine I'll have no shortage of answers. And also for people who were in the minority on choices where I chose what was the majority to explain why they did what they did.
**Trust and Selfishness**
Meet a stranger, find out if they play Walking Dead or not, and flip a coin. That sums up roughly how likely they are/were to pick either option in those two choices. I chose to tell Bonnie because I could see her belief in this man crumble. She clearly had her doubts before, opening up to a child, and when she finally had the firsthand account from the man himself that contradicted everything she believed about him, she was done with him. She was low risk. She was guarranteed not to snitch, and getting her to at least look the other way was almost just as likely. I was like "heck yeah, you're in *our* flock, now."
I could have gone either way with Selfishness. I wondered if he was just gonna kill someone no matter what, but I wasn't worried it'd be Clem. I didn't act belligerent toward him or anyone in the camp before this point, but I wanted to hold onto my quiet defiance. Plus, there was that strain, where you're thinking "should I, shouldn't I?" and time probably would have run out if it were all on me.
**Vengeance**
The deaths, the beatings, this Carver guy was maybe a little worse that I thought he was. Quick tangent, did anyone else detect a hint of chauvinism in his explaining how Clem was tough and how he wanted his son to grow up tough too? As if he was implying some intended...arrangement. Maybe that was just me.
I was all for giving him them apples, and I thought maybe I would get an opportunity to get one last word in before leaving; not so. You either see it in full or not at all. I chose to walk away from that because a shot in the leg and then a shot in the other was a waste of at least one bullet, and if I didn't have any control over that, then I wouldn't. I mean if I had the weapon in my hands, I might have beat him around, but it's one of the ways of dying I believe nobody deserves...almost.
I'm tempted to play it through choosing to say that it isn't right, and then staying to watch as part of familiarizing Clem with the gruesome stuff you can no longer live a long life without seeing, but I'm concerned that doing so will lock Clementine into the perspective that there was nothing wrong with it, even though I chose to have her object to it.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with how the choice of whether or not to watch Carver die was presented, but I think it would have been nice to give us a "final answer" deal. That would idealy be, after choosing to stay and after enough time passes to the point where things start to get gruesome, we'd get a slo-mo choice: let the timer run out(the timer being a the span it takes for Kenny to lift the spanner up and then back down in slo-mo, with a camera angle of the grossness), or pan the camera over to the exit and click on it to leave. That would have been an excellent way to show us that "am I really sure I want to see this?" thought going through Clementine's head--and you can see it in her face, there's a little room for doubt--and also present us with that ultimatum choice of whether or not we change our minds.
**Risk**
...I really. I mean, I want to know what people are thinking here.
Here's what's going through my mind. Cutting off her arm makes her even more of a burden when escaping. I'd have thought that group integrity, or helping someone hold their own, would take priority, and would be more efficient in the moment. Cutting it off immediately also doesn't improve her survivability. After the cut, she'd have a higher risk of death by blood loss directly correlated to the blood she'd lose just escaping. That's a trade-off, time vs risk of bleeding out. I'd say less risk over more time is the better option any day.
Additionally, in an era where how we choose to take care of our bodies is increasingly being taken to the extreme, it surprises me that so many people chopped off Sarita's arm at a time when she wouldn't have been able to give any feedback on whether she wanted to opt for it or refuse. Replacing the option to chop off her arm with leaving her for dead would make the choice more potent for discussion, but as it stands there's only one solution, both logically, tactically, and idealy.
Okay, so I don't know if the percentages were gathered from input worldwide, restricted to Steam, or just my locale, or just Steam locale, so I may not be ranting at most members on the forum about that last one. But if it is worldwide/cross platform, then it's even more likely that I am.
Lastly: Sarah's ridiculous survivability was made into a meme om the Meme Fun thread, and I gotta reiterate that thought here: girl, how are you still alive? But I still hope she does live, it would be a shame if her character arc just ended there.
Also, Nick is still alive at the end of my playthrough of episode 3, so HA people-who-saw-him-die!
At the time this thread goes up, these are the percentages for the choices in my area:
format: choice, what I chose, percentage of me and others who chose the same.
Helped Sarah: yes, 78.6%; confided in Bonnie: yes, 50.6%; admitted to stealing: no, 55.8%; watched Kenny's revenge: no, 29.4%; cut off Sarita's arm: no, 17.7%
I want to share why I chose what was in the minority and I want to ask why people chose the opposite. I imagine I'll have no shortage of answers. And also for people who were in the minority on choices where I chose what was the majority to explain why they did what they did.
**Trust and Selfishness**
Meet a stranger, find out if they play Walking Dead or not, and flip a coin. That sums up roughly how likely they are/were to pick either option in those two choices. I chose to tell Bonnie because I could see her belief in this man crumble. She clearly had her doubts before, opening up to a child, and when she finally had the firsthand account from the man himself that contradicted everything she believed about him, she was done with him. She was low risk. She was guarranteed not to snitch, and getting her to at least look the other way was almost just as likely. I was like "heck yeah, you're in *our* flock, now."
I could have gone either way with Selfishness. I wondered if he was just gonna kill someone no matter what, but I wasn't worried it'd be Clem. I didn't act belligerent toward him or anyone in the camp before this point, but I wanted to hold onto my quiet defiance. Plus, there was that strain, where you're thinking "should I, shouldn't I?" and time probably would have run out if it were all on me.
**Vengeance**
The deaths, the beatings, this Carver guy was maybe a little worse that I thought he was. Quick tangent, did anyone else detect a hint of chauvinism in his explaining how Clem was tough and how he wanted his son to grow up tough too? As if he was implying some intended...arrangement. Maybe that was just me.
I was all for giving him them apples, and I thought maybe I would get an opportunity to get one last word in before leaving; not so. You either see it in full or not at all. I chose to walk away from that because a shot in the leg and then a shot in the other was a waste of at least one bullet, and if I didn't have any control over that, then I wouldn't. I mean if I had the weapon in my hands, I might have beat him around, but it's one of the ways of dying I believe nobody deserves...almost.
I'm tempted to play it through choosing to say that it isn't right, and then staying to watch as part of familiarizing Clem with the gruesome stuff you can no longer live a long life without seeing, but I'm concerned that doing so will lock Clementine into the perspective that there was nothing wrong with it, even though I chose to have her object to it.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with how the choice of whether or not to watch Carver die was presented, but I think it would have been nice to give us a "final answer" deal. That would idealy be, after choosing to stay and after enough time passes to the point where things start to get gruesome, we'd get a slo-mo choice: let the timer run out(the timer being a the span it takes for Kenny to lift the spanner up and then back down in slo-mo, with a camera angle of the grossness), or pan the camera over to the exit and click on it to leave. That would have been an excellent way to show us that "am I really sure I want to see this?" thought going through Clementine's head--and you can see it in her face, there's a little room for doubt--and also present us with that ultimatum choice of whether or not we change our minds.
**Risk**
...I really. I mean, I want to know what people are thinking here.
Here's what's going through my mind. Cutting off her arm makes her even more of a burden when escaping. I'd have thought that group integrity, or helping someone hold their own, would take priority, and would be more efficient in the moment. Cutting it off immediately also doesn't improve her survivability. After the cut, she'd have a higher risk of death by blood loss directly correlated to the blood she'd lose just escaping. That's a trade-off, time vs risk of bleeding out. I'd say less risk over more time is the better option any day.
Additionally, in an era where how we choose to take care of our bodies is increasingly being taken to the extreme, it surprises me that so many people chopped off Sarita's arm at a time when she wouldn't have been able to give any feedback on whether she wanted to opt for it or refuse. Replacing the option to chop off her arm with leaving her for dead would make the choice more potent for discussion, but as it stands there's only one solution, both logically, tactically, and idealy.
Okay, so I don't know if the percentages were gathered from input worldwide, restricted to Steam, or just my locale, or just Steam locale, so I may not be ranting at most members on the forum about that last one. But if it is worldwide/cross platform, then it's even more likely that I am.
Lastly: Sarah's ridiculous survivability was made into a meme om the Meme Fun thread, and I gotta reiterate that thought here: girl, how are you still alive? But I still hope she does live, it would be a shame if her character arc just ended there.
Also, Nick is still alive at the end of my playthrough of episode 3, so HA people-who-saw-him-die!
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Comments
I didn't tell Bonnie anything.
i was going to say I found the walkie talkie till Kenny took it.
Didn't watch Kenny's revenge.
I cut off Sarita's arm.
With Bonnie I decided to go all out an then she would be deemed trustworthy or demon bitch for life (she chose wisely)
I admitted to the walkie immediately
I watched Carver's end
Sarita's arm's history
I did not tell Bonnie about Luke.
Let Kenny take the blame for the walkie talkie.
I watched Kenny beat Carver to death.
I cut off Sarita's arm.
As far as risk goes, unlike Lee getting bit quickly and fending off the walker, Sarita's was being chewed by the zombie. There was no time to really think about it. Plus if I remember correctly, the walker was taller than Clem (how much so Idk, I have not seen a video or played a 2nd time to see Clem hack the walker's head). Maybe it was a rash decision, but Clem did not have time to analyze what Sarita would want. Considering how this season is going, Clem is starting to assume a leadership role within the group (or at least doing all the grunt work) and generally leaders don't always take time to feel out what others want. They do what they think is best and I think Sarita would want to delay her death as long as possible.
I guess I can except it if the main thing running through a player's mind is the clock ticking and the rate of infection. What was going through my mind was mainly "get it off her and go". I thought the immediate danger needed to be given priority. At the least, I would have expected it to be one of those things where people could have gone either way on it.