Turning off choice notifications?
Is it possible to turn off the choice notifications in The Wolf Among Us ("X will remember that" and "You chose to X")? I turned them off in The Walking Dead and now find myself pulled out of the experience whenever they appear. I understand some people enjoy them, but to me they only serve to make the game feel less dynamic and surprising, so I don't understand why the option seems to have been removed.
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Yes! This option needs to be added before/with the release of Episode 2. I, too, turned them off in TWD and am now constantly distracted when they appear.
Telltale might patch it in at a later date, but it's not available at the moment.
Also, jello - you're trying to use BBcode, but the forum actually uses Markdown now. You need to surround the words you want to italicize with an asterisk each side instead of [i][/i], and replace the [b][/b] with two asterisks either side.
Disclaimer: Moderators on this forum are volunteers from the community and are not employees of the company. Our posts merely express our personal opinion and should not be mistaken for official company statements.
It's especially weird when it just literally rewrites your decision and repeats it, like you weren't aware of what you did.
Double yes. Please give us the option to remove them, these notifications ruin all immersion.
I wonder why they removed the option in the first place... after all, they've got invert controls now!
Maybe their engine only allows a certain amount of options. You know, take away a few to add them inverted controls.
Odd you guys are having trouble with it. for me it's really small text in the top left hand corner for me compared to TWD's barely noticeable for me. but yeah. there needs to be an option.
I too would like to request this feature return. I know one of the devs was against the idea (of notifications) in TWD but later warmed up to it but I still feel it needs to be up to the client's preference. I like turning off the interactive highlights and reaction notifications because I feel it is more immersive to read the character's body/facial reactions and to actually scour the scene with my own eyes for clues and items.
I actually ended up playing through the second half of the game with a piece of paper taped to the top left corner of my screen. I found that less distracting than the notifications. :P
Yeah, I hate them too.
Please don't hold my hand. I don't want those popups to ruin the immersion, when I make a choice I want to see the outcome of it later on, not learn it before from a popup.
I actually like them, they help assure me that there is a point to scrutinizing each choice of dialog I make. Still I agree, there should be an option to remove them if one is so inclined.
It's not so much that it's noticeable for me as it ruins the element of surprise, if that makes any sense. I played with them off in TWD, and it made conversations and decisions feel more real and organic--I would never know (outside of super-obvious stuff) what was a major decision, or who would remember what I said when and why, which meant I was surprised (and/or horrified, depending) when a character threw my words or a choice back in my face. And it also meant I relied on facial expressions and the like to gauge how characters reacted to my words/decisions. Just like in real life, making the game much more immersive.
In contrast, every time I see one of the pop-ups in Fables, I immediately know that 1) the choice I'd just made was important, and 2) it's probably going to come up later. And there goes the element of surprise.
So yeah, I really think that option needs to make a comeback too. If not in Fables (assuming they can't patch it in in a later episode), then definitely for TWD Season 2.
I see what you mean.. damn.. I agree xD
Yeah, I don't like the notifications at all, I prefer to be surprised when characters remember my words.
I'm also one of those who wonders why there's no option to turn off those irritating notifications. Please, Telltale crew, read that thread and maybe think that over for your gamers.
I feel compelled to add my two cents after playing the first episode of The Wolf Among Us and being pulled out of the experience several times due to the mechanical and sometimes downright awful text prompts that insist on explaining the plot. The way I see it, being told whenever a meaningful choice is made diminishes the value of every other choice. The most important part of The Walking Dead wasn't the choosing, but rather the illusion of choice. I trust the writing of the game to take into account any important choices I make, while gracefully avoiding any contradictions that less important dialogue could cause. That is something that The Walking Dead consistently did well and I love it for it.
I also can't help but feel patronized whenever something along the lines of "this character feels good about what you said" pops up. The game must trust its mechanics to deliver any such message. Imagine a movie that subtitles every other scene with things like "now, this character reacts with glee to what the main character is saying". It can be argued that the prompts add another layer of narrative and sets the stage for surprising plot events that contradict previous messages. Still, I'd take the more organic and realistic conveyance of the story over such narrative effects any day of the week.
I just wanted to chip in and insist on the addition of an option to disable decision prompts and blatant explanations of character reactions in future episodes. In a game so reliant on choices, turning these notifications off is the first thing I'd choose to do.
Well said, I agree.
As a developer, I highly doubt that.
I have to agree here, I and my partner, who borrowed the game after me, would both really love to turn these things off. A good one that nudges into spoiler territory all by itself is Faith's "She will remember that." Really, Telltale? Please let us shut off the condescending and spoileriffic things.
I like the choice notifications in the walking dead, but they didn't seem as effective to me in the wolf. I don't know if I would actually turn them off, but it would be nice to have the option.
I felt like they were weaker here too. Some of them were good. The "He almost gave you the slip" and "They will remember what you did" hints were really great "Oh you done fucked up now" moments but things like "Bufkin will remember that" in response to telling him that your day was fine just seemed dumb.
I really can't express how much I despise the choice notifications. It's a great way of making a game feel more artificial than it already is. It's a clear step back if you're trying to immerse a player in the game, I cannot imagine why Telltale decided to remove the option to disable these notifications in The Wolf Among Us.
Honestly, I feel like the game is being condescending when it's essentially parroting what I just did.
Yes, thank you for stating what I just did, as I am incapable of thought.
its not like you know whats coming, its just a hint like "your decision matters later on in the game", nothing more or less.
I really did like them in the walking dead, especially when they used it to fuck with us. Like when it said Carley will remember that and then gets shot a couple seconds later.
Good to see a moderator with some self criticism :P
One more supporting the option to disable the notifications.
Just started playing The Wolf Among Us. Before I even started playing, I went into the options to disable the notifications.
Since I didn't find any such option I thought that "Maybe they did away with those things".
During the conversation with the first character, one of the popups pops up, I just Alt-F4 it and came here to ask for the option.
I'll wait a couple more episodes to see if it does get implemented before picking this up again.
This is a deal-breaker for me. Extremely disappointed that the option is not available, same reasons as above. Immersion-breaking and silly. I'm fine with them for people that want them but why would you force everyone to play the same way? If I'd have known this was the case I wouldn't have bought the game. It is now waiting on my HD and I am holding out for a patch.
Now the game is just taking up space while I hope a patch will be developed. :\
One more here.
Is completely illogical that The walking dead had this option and this game doesnt. The games should improve, and removing options you are giving to the players less freedom, that mkes the game worse.
This game compels the players to use a "help" that they dont need at all, even if they dont want it. This breaks the inmersion to many players. I like to SEE the characters reaction on their faces and using the logic (just like in TWD), no reading a line that that tells me obvious reactions and breaks the movie/serie appearance.
I perfectly understand that some players want this option on and is totally ok, but removing the SIMPLE option that ALREADY WAS on a previous game for the players who dont want it, is just a step back.
As other players said, i would have started the game if i would have known that this option was removed
Here in this forum are more people talking about it:
http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/the-wolf-among-us-242094/no-disabling-character-reaction-notification-boo-1455611/
Woah, talk about a blast from the past.
I think that Telltale may have forced choice notifications to stay around no matter what as they are one of the newer gameplay elements that establish a new identity for Telltale, and in a sense, kind of act like Telltale's calling card for their newer choice based games.
Still, though, I agree that having the options to disable choices would be nice for some people.
Telltale just has taken a step back by removing the choosing freedom.
I think that's not the best identity mark for a company
They can still fix it and show that they are one of the few studios that listen to the players.
Yes, I agree we should have an option to turn them off. I feel like they make the game less surprising and lessen the value of other choices because you know what the meaningful ones are. Though they also manage to create some false expectations since there's several times you get a "S/he will remember that" but in truth it doesn't affect anything.
Also, some of them just sound plain stupid. "You gave your drink to Colin." No shit? "She appreciated that." Well, I couldn't tell by the way she smiled at me. Besides, I'd rather it be show, don't tell. So let me draw my own conclusions from their facial expressions and such.
I purchased The Wolf Among Us a while back and only now had the chance to try it out. Was off to a really good start with the atmosphere and style in the introduction, and then BAM! "Mr. Toad will remember that". Immersion ruined.
Went to the menu to turn the notifications off, got suspicious when it only said "Selectables", tried it out anyway, confirmed it didn't work, googled it, found a bunch of threads like this one.
Wow. I can't believe they would intentionally remove a feature that a lot of people clearly care about. They should be proud that they've created a world with writing and visuals strong enough that people would want to enjoy them as they are, without a bunch of extra information and handholding to keep them engaged. It's the exact opposite of people requesting a feature to skip dialogue and cutscenes. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Technically this should be a really, really easy fix too. On such notification events just check one variable, if it's not set then don't display the text. Done.
I can only see a couple of possibilities: Either Telltale are incredibly, and I mean ridiculously lazy, because it's such a simple thing to do. Or the project lead is some really mean-spirited person who's decided that it's the way the game was made, so that's the way it'll stay. Or they simply don't give two farts about their customers.
The first one is probably not true, because I don't think you could make games like these if you were. The second one I could accept if it was even remotely reasonable from an artistic point of view, but like I've said this is pretty much the opposite of that. Whichever one is applicable here it doesn't exactly instill any trust or loyalty in Telltale.
And of course there's been no response at all from them. Probably because there is no valid explanation for it.
Some people probably think this isn't such a big deal, but I was looking forward to it and now this whole thing has really soured me on the game and Telltale in general. I'm just really disappointed right now, and will definitely think twice before supporting any future endeavors. So here's one for you Telltale:
"I will remember that."
Am I right in assuming that, although we complained before the release of Episode 2, Telltale didn't manage to add this option at all? I didn't finish Episode 2 because the option wasn't there and the notifications pulled me out of the action every time. I had hoped they added the option, but it seems I won't continue playing the Episodes, or any new Telltale game for that matter.
If you bought the season pass, you might as well finish the rest of the episodes. Don't let minor text popups prevent you from playing this unique game. (at least once)
As for Telltale, it seems like they're getting lazier and lazier when it comes to adding simple game features like that. You would think they would've added it in by now. NOPE.