Actually, Telltale should learn from Dreamfall Chapters.
In response to a recent thread saying they should learn from Life is Strange - I disagree, for now. Life is Strange has its fair share of problems.
Unfortunately, though, Dreamfall Chapters has outclassed Telltale in essentially every way bar release schedule, and considering you get far more bang for your buck, a longer wait isn't really a problem.
The graphics are as good, just a different style really (with far more graphic resources); the choices have had way more, and more powerful, consequences in 2 episodes than every telltale game since Walking dead put together; less sexism (as many female monsters as male ones?? whats the world coming to!); just as good voice acting; more varied and diverse viewpoints; far far far longer episodes (4 hours each); more powerful ambience music (recent tekktake games have had a goodsoundtrack, but the ambiences have almost always been average, with the exception of Crane's office's theme (In my opinion); larger areas the explore with more dialogue heard between characters who arent the PC, which adds more world building and character birth; many more choices are actually open to yo.
And all that from a kickstarter game.
The most cutting point is that of the choices, however, and less so of most of the above: when Telltale's marketing 'catch' is all about 'choices matter', when Dreamfall chapters, a crowdfunded project, has far more choice diversity, something isn't right.
I hope they're looking at Dreamfall's choice mechanic and taking notes, personally.
Comments
Less sexism? Where did that come from?
Oh stop.
As in, they have about as many female characters as male ones - Telltale has about twice as many men as women in all of their recent games.
Not that an exact 50/50 is 'required' or anything, just this is more even and realistic than a 2:1 ratio.
What? The monsters was just a joke example.
Also, why did you focus on one tiny part of my post? Most of it was focused on the choice aspect.
Because parts of peoples posts stick out, and if I want to talk about one then I will. Hence why I did.
Oh, ok.
If you think that if one wants to talk about something one should be allowed to, why, then, did you ask me to stop talking about sexism?
I wanted to make the point.
I am enjoying Dreamfall Chapters just as much, if not more than Telltale episodes.
That's bringing up something completely irrelevant to your post though and IMO makes the entire thing less important because you brought that up.
This is a thread about why I think, personally, Telltale should learn some things from Dreamfall chapters.
I listed my reasons for thinking this, such as that Dreamfall chapters has better consequences (which is in my opinion a good thing) and that Dreamfall chapters isn't very sexist (which is in my opinion a good thing).
How was it irrelevant? How was me saying that I like not having sexism any different to saying I like having longer episodes?
Because, the sexism you think exists in TT games, doesn't. Less/ not equal amount of female/male characters does NOT = sexism. You're over inflating something that isn't even a problem, which is why it's irrelevant, it's not relevant to an actual problem Telltale has.
Then you should change your criticism to realism rather than sexism. Personally, I don't know how having slightly more or less of anything in a story, whether it be genders, races, age groups etc. can be called any type of discrimination. Besides, Telltale's recent title TFTB currently has 4 primary characters, 2 male and 2 female. Don't get more even than that.
Well, its a specific form of realism. Realism's quite broad - I'm giving my specific opinion. In the same way as I specifically said I like Dreamfall's ambience music, not only 'music'.
If you don't see how underrepresentation of groups such as men or women can be seen as sexism/racism etc then I can't really help you.
Yes, it has 4 primary character, 2 male, 2 female. Does having a set of 4 characters with 2 men and 2 women = the entire developer is not sexist in anything they do?
You disagreeing with one of my points does not make the point 'irrelevant' when its an opinion. In my opinion, representing genders equally is less sexism than consistently writing twice as many men as women. You're welcome to disagree, but that's what I think.
So in a thread about what I like about Dreamfall chapters, it is indeed relevant to say I like the lack of gender underrepresentation which is in my opinion sexism. You thinking Telltale isn't sexism is not an absolute fact - it is a valid opinion. It does not make my point irrelevant, it makes it bad in your opinion.
If someone made a thread listing the reasons why they like Clem, and they say that they think she's cute, but you disagree, you shouldn't say 'that's irrelevant' - you should say you disagree that she is.
Nowhere here do I see it say "under representation" is part of what sexism actually is. Therefore Telltale being sexist is not an opinion, it's a fact. Since this definition doesn't match anything of what Telltale does, nowhere in a Telltale game have we seen prejudice, discrimination or stereotyping of any sex, so it doesn't match Telltale. It's not an opinion.
Underrepresentation is one of many results of prejudice....
Also, by that logic, choosing to throw something at a woman just because shes a woman wouldn't be sexist, becuase throwing something at someone isnt prejudice, stereotpying or discrimination.
Not that I'm saying I necessarily agree with some of these, but...
Some of these are deliberate design choices made by Telltale to make their episodes feel more cinematic.
Classic Telltale episodes were longer and had more interaction with background elements. Personally speaking, I'd agree with you in that I wish Telltale had more background interaction in their current games, but the point I'm trying to make is that Telltale deliberately makes their episodes follow that style - it's not like Telltale is incapable of doing so.
Alright, I think this is a good point in time to get back on topic, guys. Thanks!
Puzzlebox said this once, but it doesn't actually make sense.
They wanted their episodes to be able to be completed in one setting was, I believe, the reason given - but 1 hour 50 minute long episodes are easily possible to complete in one sitting. And most people I've spoken to do, indeed, choose to do the whole episode in one sitting.
Also, short things aren't automatically 'more cinematic'. Avatar was three hours long, and most high-grossing films break 2 hours.
Again, I agree, but Telltale seems to imply otherwise. If they wanted to, they could easily include more hubs, puzzles, etc speaking off of experience from playing their past games. Their current format is their interpretation of cinematic gameplay. I personally think having a "cinematic" and an "immersion" mode down the line would be a great idea.
Well, like, that's pretty awkward because that's actually factually untrue.
In tales from the borderlands episode 1 they clearly showed that they are capable of doing their interpretation of cinematic gameplay while maintaining a length their playerbase is happy with. Their reasons for making shorter episodes are much more likely to be related to funding/staffing/timing issues, I personally think, especially since they're in the awkward stage of upscaling their business massively.
Some transparency would be appreciated however - telling your fans half-truths isn't going to make you any friends.
I really hate it when people try to pass off issue/limitations they're having as a design choice or 'feature'. It feels exceptionally weak, and almost patronising.
Well, I should clarify - they never "said" that, that was just rhetorical phrasing on my part. However, they do seem to imply that in their comments they previously made about episode length.
Edit: double post
I mean in terms of you thinking that an even split in genders etc. is realistic. But I guarantee, if you take any random city, you are going to find slightly more or less women/men, children/adults. An even split is extremely unlikely. That's not discrimination, that's just how it is.
Likewise, if you feel a slight, like I said, slight difference in age, gender can be counted as discrimination, I can't help you.
No, but it can also be that they are not sexist in other areas too. This is an example of where there is an even split in a story.
You and I both know that what the developers imply can be just as dangerous as what they outwardly say on a fan forum :P
I agree .
In fact , to be honest I find it kinda ironic . Actually taking your time to count genders/races in a game sounds way more racist/sexist to me . There are people out there who watch movie/tv series or play a game and start counting people of different races , and if one race is dominant in numbers they start talking about racism . My friends and I are mostly males(when we hang out we're like 5 males and 2 females) , by his logic we should be considered sexist too !(It's not like we planned at the very beginning to OUTNUMBER WOMEN !!!!)
It's like they want it to be racist/sexist .
When has TT been sexist?
Also, Dave Fennoy.
I don't really think it's sexist, and not something I particularly noticed. I think they should definitely make the walkers more detailed, as I'm sick of seeing the same walkers in the same damn plaid shirts all over again.
Damn flannel shirt walkers.
I can't stand it.