Games: Is The Telltale Formula Stagnating? (SPOILERS)

In order to avoid a reader catching any spoilers from the Telltale Game Of Thrones series that could be in this article I'll put a nice big picture at the beginning of it; and unlike the very, very silly article the BBC did it won't have a spoiler literally IN THE CAPTION of the picture. So that's nice. 

None of these people are important. Also, don't read on if you plan to play The
Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones without spoilers. 

So Telltale Games, creators of the highly praised Walking Dead game, The Wolf Among Us and most recently, Game Of Thrones and Tales From The Borderlands, have been taking a bit of fire from starboard today, in the shape of a post on Reddit titled 'Criticism Of Telltale And Their Priorities'. 

'I've enjoyed Telltale games almost as much as the next person, but I feel like we've let them off too lightly in too many areas.' theAangstykid writes. The post is linked above, but I'll cut to the end of the post to get to the real meat of things. 

'Has anyone replayed their most recent games? Try replaying GOT, for instance. Try saying different things to characters, picking different choices. Now I get that they aheed to choices being "illusions", but even then, the game rarely caters to what the player does.

Characters often say the exact same things to many different dialogue options. Choices should at the least affect the entire episode or two before Telltale segways back into the main story (like choosing Carly or Doug in TWD) but they've almost entirely dropped that for very inconsequential changes that often segway back right after or in the same episode.

To put it simply, it's kinda unacceptable. If any other major company did the practices that telltale does, we'd be eating them alive. We need to be more vocal to Telltale, especially with the onset of TWD S3. If they don't improve their practices they'll lose their reputation over the next 3-4 years.'

Lee (right) and Clementine (Centre) are two beloved
characters of the Telltale franchise.

So is this criticism justified? Well, yes, to a fairly chunky extent. Lets brush over the illusion of choice in Telltales Walking Dead series for a moment and simply leave this picture here (WARNING 2: Spoilers) for a decent idea of exactly how much choice changes things in the Walking Dead (Clue: It's not much) so we can get right to the latest Telltale title I've played, Game Of Thrones. 

See Telltale are nothing if not dedicated to the stylings of the series they are making a game for. In the Game Of Thrones game you play in part as Ethan Forrester, a young boy trying to keep the house of Forrester in one piece. Following the disaster for the North that was the Red Wedding, House Forrester is being put under lots of pressure by House Whitehill for their portion of the ironwood; a very tough type of wood that has various military applications. But enough about that. In true Game Of Thrones style, Ramsey Snow turns up at the negotiations over the ironwood, an in typical uneventful style reminiscent of Game Of Thrones stabs Ethan Forrester in the throat. One of your main characters is dead already. Credits roll.

This Game Of Thrones story extends from the Wall in the far
north of Westeros, to the eastern shores and Mereen whilst
under siege.

You might think that this an amazing, if horrifying moment to kick off with; and you'd be right. I watched my friend playing it and backseat gamer style I chastised him for making the decisions that lead to Ethans death. He should have made Ramsey wait outside the gates; in view of the army. He should've had the garrison inside the hall, and so on. But then of course, he said that it doesn't matter. Ethan dies either way, and you have no choice about the matter. He was right of course. It doesn't matter what plans you make for Ramsey Snow's arrival at Ironwrath, House Forrester's

fort. Ethan dies either way. That carries with it a few twinges of disappointment. 

Telltale Games has been all about this illusion of choice since they came into vogue; and it could be argued that it worked with the Walking Dead. The illusion of choice on which Telltales Franchise bases its games was forgivable for a few reasons: firstly because Walking Dead was all about how there wasn't a right choice. There were various cases where the player had to choose between the best of two bad choices; between good and between survival. Secondly because Telltales story telling is very good; there are plenty of moments in the latest episode of their Game Of Thrones where you grin helplessly, or are dragged to the edge of your seat; where you think characters are about to meet their messy end or when they actually do. As a story it is good; a dramatic piece of work that can play with you as much as the series does. 

Ramsey Snow. We're just catching him on all his bad
days. 

But as time goes on and the false decisions become more prominent, the idea that you have any say in this story is eroded piece by piece, the mirage of having any say in these events falls away. You cannot save Ethan Forrester, just as you can't save Lee in the first season of Walking Dead. What markets itself as a story-game where you make the decisions becomes a story where you are trapped in a single wide corridor of elastic walls, with no option but to travel to a conclusion which you probably haven't affected in any way; and that eats away at your feel for the game. It's not your game, not your choice. It's someone else's story you watch play out.

Which is fine except it really isn't. Games are first and foremost about interactivity, about choice. Games are about making your own way, about facing the challenges and finding solutions, or about making choices that make the difference between bad and good in a variety of different ways. In Battlefield you decide which piece of cover to take, what shots to take. In Skyrim you choose sides and weapons and quests. In Deus Ex you choose non violence or violence. Games of every genre and every type are games because of the choices they force you to make; if there isn't choice there isn't a game. Game Of Thrones doesn't really give you those; you talk to everyone, dodge some things in quick time events and make 'big' choices that in the grand scheme of things change nothing. Does it even qualify as a game?

Among other things theAangstykid is right about this; if this were any company we would be eating them alive. If Heavy Rain, an old choose your own path game from the ps3, had killed one of your characters while you watched on helplessly people would have been mad. If it had given you one set ending people would have been mad. If your different choices had no impact on the flow of the game people would have ripped that game apart. Telltale had no doubt escaped a lot of criticism simply on the game-playing count. People criticised Heavy Rain's interactive movie style; in truth in terms of interactivity, Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones aren't even in the same league. 

Heavy Rain suffered in terms of it's characters, but was a far better
interactive experience then either Telltale's Game Of Thrones or
Walking Dead.

This could be argued to be a little harsh for several reasons; firstly, because the death of Lee and of Ethan were both pivotal moments (although they are far from the only examples of the lie of choice). Lee's death led into a Clementine based second season, and Ethan's death was a fantastic ending to the first episode of Game Of Thrones and of course, tells us directly that there is no safe character in the entire series; which is very true again to the series the game is based on. Secondly Heavy Rain was an AAA game, with a budget of forty million euros compared to Telltale's rumoured five million. Incidentally, Heavy Rain also suffered in terms of the pull of it's characters; Lee from Walking Dead in particular being far more memorable then the characters from Heavy Rain, a game about catching a child killer. 

But since the opening season of Walking Dead, Telltale could be argued to have gone backwards. Walking Dead was a game with a little bit of puzzle play mixed with the storytelling formula; Game Of Thrones though has very little in the way of puzzle mechanic; so more and more it is a game simply of the 'choice' based story telling we know to be more and more false. It is a decline, inarguably, even from the opening of The Walking Dead where to paraphrase from above comments 'At least choices affected a few episodes rather then almost nothing at all.'. If a player sees the game simply as a story to play then they can be happy with it, but there is an undeniable feeling, and agreement with the redditor that in the long term Telltale have to change their formula in order to avoid stagnating. Otherwise, maybe Telltale itself will go into decline. And maybe this golden age of writing games for huge shows will instead become a time where Telltale pays for complacence.