No Branching Story Plots?

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  • Who said it's bad? It's labeled average which is what I would describe my experience uptil this point. If you want to say it's been amazing for you thats certainly fine but don't try to marginalize my opinion especially when it falls more in line with what professional critics are saying.

    I also don't understand why you are personally offended and are usuing language such as we. Are you an employee of telltale or something? Otherwise that is just weird.

    You can also look at other reviews, which have been 8/10 and higher. And I agree with @shellturtleguy , 75 isn't a bad score at all. And

  • You site one professional critic and try to say that's what everyone is saying about the game, which is not true. Most reviewers, Let's Players, and people just playing the game are saying that this game is a great new Game of Thrones story which is certainly worth the money.

    I say "we" as in the users of the forums who like to come on here and discuss topics without seeing hate everyday. So "we" would like anyone who just comes on here to hate to kindly leave and let us discuss the games in peace.

    Who said it's bad? It's labeled average which is what I would describe my experience uptil this point. If you want to say it's been amazing

  • edited February 2015

    Listen, I'm going to say this once. You said above:

    Telltale however I find their episodes are at most an hour and if I'm not agonizing over their faux choice maybe 45 mins

    You did a good enough job right there of invalidating your opinion, regardless of whether you were exaggerating or not (it's simply untrue what you stated). TWAU was roughly 70 - 90 minutes, generally, for each episode. Episode 1 was nearly 2 hours, and episode 5 at just over an hour for me (I played recently for the 2nd time). TWD S2 I cannot remember, but I think they were longer on average. If you were meaning GoT, well . . . GoT, each episode has been 100 - 120 minutes for me. Borderlands I think was around 2.5 hours. And I doubt you'll find many people supporting your claim here regarding those playtimes. Yes, playtime can vary, but not to the degree it would need to for your claim to be correct. (If you'd said TWAU episode 5 only, that'd be more understandable, but your words imply you're talking 'generally')

    You also said, further down below this post

    If Telltale is just going to progress the journey a certain way why bother creating the dialogue options at all?

    If you're going to use that argument, why should BioWare have bothered creating dialog options in Mass Effect? Oh, that's right . . . so you can get red or blue points. So very meaningful, as that must be the reason they were implemented, because the choices obviously don't branch the story a lot. Make the rachni extinct, as one example, and they'll still turn up in ME 3. The same ending is always reached as well, amongst other things. (Note: I like Mass Effect. Just trying to drive home how much choices mattered when it comes to story branching. I'd actually say GoT is better as options do get closed off based on choices, plus there are already several callbacks to previous dialog choices and such. I don't really remember ME 1 changing dialog much based on choices.)

    Also, that 'are you a employee of TTG' to @Shubbalubbadingdong is a classic response.

    Who said it's bad? It's labeled average which is what I would describe my experience uptil this point. If you want to say it's been amazing

  • You clearly have no idea what metacritc does or what that score means despite it already been it explained to you once. That one number represents the AGGREGATED score of multiple critics (in one case 30 the other 42). Not one professional critic.

    As far the rest goes you have no more right to visit this forum then I do. So I'll stay as long as I desire. Have a good day.

    You site one professional critic and try to say that's what everyone is saying about the game, which is not true. Most reviewers, Let's Play

  • As far the rest goes you have no more right to visit this forum then I do. So I'll stay as long as I desire. Have a good day.

    Grow up.

    You clearly have no idea what metacritc does or what that score means despite it already been it explained to you once. That one number repr

  • edited February 2015

    I know what Metacritic does, and if you look at the "75" they gave both episodes, that ranges in the "generally favorable review" section, which means that the reviews are obviously good, whereas you are trying to make it seem like everyone is shitting on it.

    But whatever, I feel like arguing with you is like arguing with a wall, you'll get nowhere. You clearly just feel the need to unnecessary spread false hate throughout these forums. Everyone else has already given you the shit I was gonna give you, so I'm done.

    You clearly have no idea what metacritc does or what that score means despite it already been it explained to you once. That one number repr

  • Sire, must I be the one to point out that the multiple endings of S2 were NOT based on your choices in the first 4 episodes, and the majority of the 5th episode? It was simply based on choices you made immediately leading to the final events.

    Lewsblake23 posted: »

    With other Telltale Games (The Walking Dead: Season 2) there was multiple endings based on your choices. I'm hoping Telltale are doing that

  • Yes, no differing plots.

  • After I realised that my choices don't really matter, the whole magic of playing the game was just gone.

  • Welcome to telltale games

  • This thread might be over a year old, so here goes nothing:

    You think your sewing metaphor suits the defense of your argument when actually it is a perfect fit to show your error in reasoning: tailoring according to you is

    changing the design of an outfit. The fabric doesn't change, but the design does somewhat

    That is quite a muddled account of "tailoring". There are three important terms determining tailoring: "the design", "the fabric" and "the sewing". Conventionally the tailor would as well design the Dress, chose the fabric for it and then sew it. If I were to describe the telltale approach to GoT I would say "The design is fixed, you have to sew the given fabric together and at the end you can decide which patch of fabric to use for the collar". The important question that people raise in this forums is: "Why can we only chose the fabric for the collar and not also for other parts of the dress that seem interesting?" You don't have to change the design, the way the dress will be shaped in the end, just allow us to add in the fabric we like at some points.

    Don't worry, I don't want to recede to the unproductive endless bickering that there is no real branching. Because actually there is excellent branching by the end of episode 5! And this version of branching is far more than what is needed to get a higher immersion of the player without things getting out of hand.

    Consider, just as an intellectual game, the following: let there be two branches for every character, Both branches are still fixed paths, but from time to time the player is able to switch the path he is taking. And at certain narrative checkpoints (where the design has to come together) the paths merge to one again - just like the two existing branches actually do by the end of episode 6!

    The worst case calculation for this case (if you use branches that are as elaborate as those opened at the end of ep.5) is spectacularly simple: either double the development time, or half the playthrough time.
    But a realistic calculation takes into account that a less complex branching can use the environment that has already been developed. The effort that remains is to write the additional storylines and implement them in the existing environment.

    Now spoilers are following:
    I want to illustratethis by an example that really ripped me out of my game flow. Here the unsuited blend of single path railroading and socalled "freedom of choice" is doing exactly what adventure books are rightly accused of in this forum: illogical and incoherent story development.
    The example concerns my - and I feel many players - darling: Mira. If you chose to run away from Ser Damien instead of killing him, this is represented as an important choice. And when facing this decision it surely feels like it! I actually have played the game twice. Mostly because I wanted to see possible differences in Miras story. And this strikes me as the most important decision in her story. Yet it does not bear any consequences whatsoever. Tom kills Damien and without any reason let alone explanation he just claims that Mira is caught up in it with him. Boom. Back to railroad. Now let's implement the above account of two paths railroading. One path: Mira gets bad reputation. Her Killing Damien is the beginning of certain decline. Second path: Mira is able to keep a clear name. By not killing Damien she can avoid a dire mistake that would otherwise cost her dearly. But doesn't that have way too many implications? Absolutely not. Here we come to the merging of the paths. An able competitor will have to find some other trickery to get you into the Black Cells. There are enough mistakes you can make along the way, like stealing Margaery's seal or being in contact with Tyrion as the last inescapable resort. The pieces are already in place. They are simply not used.

    The most striking thing is: sometimes these exact elements are used in the game to great effect! When you are allowed to chose your sentinal or when you chose whether or not Finn is to join you this opens up the described two paths without the great effort of staging a whole new scenario that is connected to the decision who to leave behind at the end of episode 5. And I really enjoyed playing the game two times following all those little extra paths albeit they actually do not differ that much at all. But they fit to a certain mindset I could connect to them. Yet, most of the time and even at crucial points this way of handling things is simply neglected.

    The game is as it is but it wastes a lot of potential in my eyes. Because here is the thing: the whole point of deciding is having a choice. And you only truly have a choice if here is at least two different possible outcomes or equivalently: if the outcome is always the same no matter what, you don't have a choice. And by these means the game oftentimes produces the feeling "I might as well let the timer run out and watch it as a movie".

    It's not branching. You assume your choices will result in a radically different outcome. They don't. If you read the little thing tha

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