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fox-from-fairytale · 3 months

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Doesn't matter if I already know how it ends, this game will never fail to make me cry.

It's so good that I'd replay it even if I've just finished it, but thankfully there are the other seasons. The thing is, the first one really is the best one. I've always found all the characters so well written and the story is so compelling, even if there are some awkward moments. Couldn't Clem kill the walker with the bat before trying to take the gun/keys? Why didn't the bandits follow Lee and Mark through the open fence? Did Ben really not see the walkers on the other side of the door? Still, those are little things compared to everything else.

The first time I was so focused on Clementine that most of the characters were just background noise to me, but this time I had the possibility to appreciate more of the game since I already knew it, and who shined the most was Lilly. I love that woman for both her good and bad traits, and I'm afraid to replay TFS now lmao 😰

It was a bit annoying how the game seems to try and antagonise her through the other characters bitching about her, but it makes sense since that's something that of course would happen to the only person with the guts to distribute food rations. But still, having Lee as the only one who can say something positive about her and what she has done when the player has absolutely no idea about how things are in the group because it's the beginning of the episode? Lmao fuck you. Also, why does she accuse Carley but if you save Doug she kills him as a mistake? Let my woman show no remorse towards both of them.

She's already hurt for losing the only family she had, so losing the other thing she was protecting so desperately because someone within the group betrayed them is the last nail in the coffin, along with being dismissed while she was trying to find out who did it. I'm not saying it was right to kill Carley/try to kill Ben (who did what he did for understandable reasons from his side), but I still see why she snapped and I can't hate her for it.

It's a pity the game gets rid of her, because seeing someone who still didn't lose her humanity (sure, she doesn’t want other mouths to feed, which should be obvious why since she is the one giving food and knowing they can barely survive with what they can find, but she shows it when she doesn't agree with Kenny if he says that Lee made a mistake putting the girl in Macon out of her misery or when she doesn't want to steal from the stranger - she doesn't want to bear the weight of more people because it would be impossible to take care of them too and she prioritise her family and then her group, but this doesn’t mean she wants to survive on other people's expenses, which, ergh... kinda changes) doing something so ruthless it's so interesting, and I would have loved to see her progression through the game. I guess we do in TFS, but at the moment I'm torn about what they did with her in that season... Also, I simply wanted more of her in the game lmao

Protecting Duck and Katjaa as much as I could + trying to save Larry was a good combo for Kenny, I genuinely think those choices gave me the best of him. I like to make fun of him for being a pain in the ass if you agree with him about everything but a single choice is what makes him despise you and even avoid to save your ass when you need, but I really liked how things evolved in the final episode.

Kenny isn't a bad person, no one at the motor inn and who can join the group later on is, and killing someone (who at the moment is defenceless) because it's what you think is the right thing to do to protect yourself takes quite a lot, and Lee not helping him surely would make him feel like being left alone in such a hard moment and would divide them. But in the last episode, after seeing the worst of him (I mean, I believe that's in s2, but that's another story) because of his loss, the fact that he comes around when Clem is taken and treats you as a pal and uses the last bullet for Ben? I loved that, I think it showed the best of him. I thought he was going to be an asshole till the end, but I'm glad I can be on Lilly's side without having to be hated by Kenny for the whole season. I still loved to kick his ass in the third episode though lmao

I've made some pretty different choices compared to the first time, putting more thoughts behind them, especially when it came down to end someone's life.

Lee is a man who killed before it was necessary to survive, but it wasn't premeditated (or so I believe at least), and still has the heart to take care of a random kid as if she was his own. In the end, I only made him kill the girl at the motor inn who was bitten, the one screaming in Macon, and the stranger. Following this, I didn't let Clementine shoot him, and I'm glad the game made me give the actual reason I thought about: killing changes you, and I don't think a parent (that's who he is in the end) would make their child go through that, especially when said parent knows what it's like, and not only after the apocalypse.

It's clear that in the world she lives in she'll end up doing it, but it wasn't necessary to her safety, and Lee is no coward, and I like to think that he would keep prioritising Clementine over himself even in such a moment. Yes, it's sad for Lee, and Clementine surely is going to regret this, but I wanted to make the choice as Lee, not as the player nor as Clem.

These aren't all my thoughts on the game but the rambling got a bit too long, so I'm going to end it with the love of my life being pissed:

#the walking dead game #twdg #twdg season 1 #twdg s1 #twdg lilly #twdg kenny #twdg lee #lilly twdg

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juno-box · 7 months

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Okay then! Moving onto your ideas for a fix-it time travel style fic for TWDG, do you have any concrete ideas so far of what you'd want to do with it? Who'd be going back in time, how drastically things would change, plot points, that sort of thing? If you don't mind sharing of course, I'd understand if a lot of that would be spoilers should you decide to actually write it.

Would you believe I’ve spent the better part of last night thinking of this very fic idea? I couldn’t land on WHO the heck would I send back.

I’d send them back as the age they were during that time, so Clem going back to S1 from S4 would be 8-years-old all over again but with the mind and knowledge of 16/17-year-old Clem.

Clementine would be an obvious choice, right? As a character from the start to finish, she could easily make the most change. Depending on what point she travels back from in the series, she could very well change a lot of things. For starts, Clem from any season after S1 could:

Not talk to the stranger over the walkie.

Knowing her folks are dead, and probably want to avoid Savannah all together.

Be aware about the St. John’s, not trust them and campaign for them not to go. But then comes the fact that she’s a child and possibly the only person who would take her seriously would be Lee. So that could be something she might not be able to fully change.

If she doesn’t or can’t stop the event of EP2, then there could be a chance that she can intervene on Ben’s deal with the bandits. She would have to keep an eye on him specific pay attention to him whenever he leaves the inn or is on watch, which she’ll have to do w/o raising any attention.

If she can do that, and convince Ben to listen to her, even if she’s just a kid, they might be able to warn the group and get out of dodge before the bandit’s raid begins, so they could leave for the road a few days early.

If that happens, Lilly’s meltdown might not happen. If Larry died during EP2, then she’d still be depressed and in mourning of course, but not paranoid since there’s not a conspiracy going around the group about betrayal. Meaning Carley/Doug might not get headshot.

This also means Katjaa & Duck survive for now, and thus Kenny doesn’t have his complete character arc in S2 if his whole family is alive, since that loss played a huge part in his arc.

That also means that Lilly might stick around longer, and we may not get a Delta!Lilly.

They still take the train, as Clem can’t do anything about the train being in the way.

But then Clem realizes the train rolls right through Savannah, and there’s no avoid it anymore.

But Clem knew not to listen to the Stranger, so her sneaking away to meet him only to be kidnapped possibly won’t happen.

Meaning… We don’t lose Lee, which would’ve been Number 1 on Clem’s list of things to fix.

If that happens, the group has no reason to leave the house, meaning Vernon and the cancer group can’t get the boat.

Speaking of the boat… it’s WAY too small for their group.

Lee, Clem, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Chuck (since our group is big, I doubt they’d let him die the way he did), Lilly, Carley/Doug, Ben, Christa & Omid? That’s 11 people on this boat meant for at most like… 4 or 5.

Cue the talks of changing their plans. And much to Kenny’s chagrin, Katjaa agrees.

The group decide to put a pin in the boat plan and mull over their next move. This is where Clem chimes in and says they should head for the country, and get out of the city ASAP.

At this point, Lee would be way more trusting of Clem’s intuition and agree, so would Christa. Katjaa, Lilly, Doug/Carley, Ben would agree with the majority, and Omid would pick whatever he thought was best for Christa and their unborn baby.

They gather their bearings and plan their route out of Savannah over the night. The next day they discover the boat’s gone. So, Kenny really has no choice but to agree with their plan.

I feel like once the group is out of Savannah, and Clem has time for, well, downtime, she’ll want to think about how she’ll get back the other important people in her life like AJ, Javi and his family, and the Ericsons kids (especially if she romanced Louis or Violet). She wants to see them again, albeit not in the same circumstances as before.

On the other hand, is would I send back Lee? Another start to finish character (at least for S1), Sending Lee back from the end of EP5, Lee could make changes as well, his only hold up would be protecting Clementine even more since she really is 8-years-old:

He’d probably train her earlier, like between EP1 and EP2.

EP2 is the hardest to change, because it’s a group choice. It would probably go down similar to that deleted scene of them voting, where Lee would vote against going but be out voted by everyone else.

He doesn’t trust the St. John’s in the slightest, and when he goes back with Mark to check the perimeter, he tells him keep his guard up and watch the trees. Since Mark’s a bit more attentive, Mark gets grazed by the arrow instead of full impaled, and the scene plays out the same.

They make it back and Mark’s still a bit injured but not remotely as bad as before, so he’s able to attended dinner without having to go through Brenda’s, ahem, “check-up”.

So, who’s for dinner then?

Mr. Parker! Mmm, barbequed band teacher-

Let’s for back a bit, during the hunt with Lee, Mark & Kenny. They find Ben, Travis & Mr. Parker.

They don’t cut him out in time, but this time Lee doesn’t try to hack his leg off, remembering last time how he still bled out and died by time they made it back.

Lee instead tells Mark and Kenny to grab the boys and go. Before they can protest, the walkers are coming in, not many, but enough.

Travis makes a go at Mark’s rifle, but Mark shoots him in the leg. So now they have to carry him back.

So, Ben and Travis live! And Mr. Parker… for now.

Hypothetically, let’s say the dairy boys got to Mr. P before the walkers did.

So, he’s for dinner.

Dinner scene plays out the same, but this time Parker takes Mark’s place.

The Larry in the locker moment plays out differently. Since Mark is there, he’d help Lilly revive Larry.

Unfortunately, leaving Lee to argue with Kenny about not killing Larry. He’s trying to prevent as many unnecessary deaths as possible.

I believe Kenny and Lee would actually tussle over this, but Kenny would lose.

And by some miracle, Larry would win. As in he’d live.

Rewinding to where Lee was investigating the farmhouse, in the cabinet he found the morphine and wire in, he’d also find nitroglycerin pills. Lee kept them on the chance the moment in the locker happened.

Rest of the scene plays out the same until they make it out the locker.

Lee meets Carley/Doug, Ben & Travis outside the barn.

Since Mark’s arm is still a bit injured, Lilly shoots Andy.

Fight goes the same. Lee spares Andy and leaves him to his fate.

Interesting change, when it comes to the Stranger’s car, Lee purposely tries to distract the group from hearing the car.

Unfortunately, Mark sees it.

Lee is adamant about not taking from it, and doesn’t give Kenny the keys.

This almost prompts another Kenny v. Lee fight, until Larry steps in and argues they need it since the dairy was an absolute bust.

Lee uses Clementine’s argument that it’s more than likely someone’s car, and they might not be far. Since he knows it’s the strangers, he’d mention it probably belonged to a family.

A dreaded vote, and it’s Lee, Clem and surprisingly Lilly vs. Kenny, Katjaa, Travis, Carley/Doug, Mark and Larry.

Outvoted, Larry snatched the keys from Lee and they pillage the car. Doug/Carley comes up to Lee with batteries for Clem’s walkie, but Lee takes them instead, saying they might need them for something important.

EP2-3, Lee is aware that at this point the bandits are going to attack the inn because of Ben’s deal. So, Lee decided to nip the bud and go to Ben directly. He’d say something along the lines of “Don’t talk anyone in the woods, especially bandits who claim to have his friend.”

Sprinkle in a little, “Or else” because Lee’s DEAD serious on nothing that happened in EP3 happening twice. And Lee’s threat worked…

For Ben, at least. Because the difference between this time and last was Ben’s deal with the bandits.

He didn’t account for Travis being made the same deal.

So, color Lee terrified when Lilly comes to Lee about missing supplies.

He didn’t think she’d be paranoid, now that her dad was still alive.

He knew everywhere to check by the back of his hand, the signaling system, the chalk, all of it.

First, he trucked it over to Ben and immediately called him off the RV. Ben climbs down and Lee lays into him (well, where only he and Ben could hear) and accuses him of being guilty.

Ben’s confused more than defensive, which throws Lee off. Ben asks is it about what he warned him about a week ago, and says he hasn’t seen or talked to anyone outside the inn after he warned him about the bandits, and is generally confused as to what Lee’s blaming him for.

Lee apologizes and leaves. He checks the grate and what’s in it. Meds, of course.

He brings it to Lilly. The motel gets held hostage, but this is different; when they get held hostage, Mark taps on the window Lilly would exit from and warm them before they eventually hear for themselves.

While Lilly tells Lee to stall them, Larry does something stupid. Stubborn as an idiot, he refuses to be held up like he just was a week ago and goes for one of the bandit’s guns, getting shot in the process, causing all hell to break loose.

Lilly leaves her vantage point and goes to get Larry while Mark takes her place, the group splits up like they did before.

Lilly manages to pull Larry behind cover and tries to save him, so Mark has to deal with the bandits and keeping enemies off of her while she’s distracted.

The fending off goes the same, each group gets inside the RV, Duck is still bitten.

Lilly has to leave Larry, so now freshly mourning, and losing the inn, Lee knows all hells about to break loose.

Lilly pins it on Carley if she’s there, or Ben if Doug’s there.

Lee would defend Ben, saying he thinks it was someone else, and for the first time asks Travis.

Travis gets immediately defensive, just as Ben did before. Lee knows he did it.

But Carley/Doug would tell Lee to lay off him. Lilly would believe Lee’s claim that it was Travis since he’s helped her before.

Travis pins it on Carley/Doug.

Ben defends Travis, getting hi back under the microscope.

RV hits a walker, they’ve got to stop. Everyone exits.

Lilly shoots Travis in the head.

…

Lee knew it was Travis. But even so, the act alone caused the group to vote to leave her behind.

Katjaa calls Lee up front and tell him Duck’s bit.

Lee is angry that he’s failing to stave people this time around.

The train scene goes the same, they meet Chuck, Duck and Katjaa die, but instead of training Clem, since he already trained her a bit more and cut her hair, he decides he should tell Clem the new plan for Savannah.

Chuck compliments Lee on teaching the girl to survive.

He tells her that even though Kenny’s deadest on finding a boat, he thinks their best bet is getting out of the city ASAP and making it to the countryside.

Clem wants to find her parents, but Lee tries to gently tell her that they’ve been gone for so long that the chances of them being there or alive are slim to none.

Clem hates that answer.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Clem—”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Well, at least that radio won’t be a problem.

They meet Christa and Omid. The next morning, Lee is horrified to hear Clem’s radio go off.

She’d been talking to him again.

Again.

Kenny says he thought the thing was broken, to which Carley/Doug will admit they gave her batteries for it when she’d asked.

Without a second thought, Lee angrily chucked the radio out the train. He’d be damned if that bastard gets his hands on Clementine again.

The they get to Savannah. Molly tolls the bell, they make a break for it. Ben runs from Clem, Chuck saves her and gets split from the group.

They get to the house. And get inside, Doug/Carley keeps watch. Everything plays out the same. Clem goes to Crawford with them. Carley/Doug actually gets killed instead of Brie, however.

Lee saves Ben at the bell tower.

Since Ben isn’t guilty, Kenny has no ill will toward Ben, but also threatens that if he leaves Clem like that again he and Lee will tag team his ass. Ben gets the message quick.

Vernon still offers to take Clem. Lee knew it was coming but isn’t as mad as he was at the suggestion to give away his adoptive daughter. He still declines.

I should note that Clem has definitely notice her walkie’s missing, but Lee says she might’ve accidentally dropped it while they were one the train. She’s really sad about this, and a bit anxious.

Clem asks Lee if they’re going to get on the boat with Kenny. Lee says they might. Due to him trashing the walkie, cutting off all contact with the Stranger, they may be able to all get on the boat; He, Clem, Kenny, Christa, Omid and Ben.

Clem asks if they’ll have time to look for her parents, Lee tells her what he said on the train.

She cries and leaves the room.

Since the group is downstairs, Lee lets Clem have her space. She’s probably really upset with him.

He tries not to fall asleep, but dozes off for a bit.

Lee jolts awake when he realizes. He looks around and doesn’t see Clem near him before remembering she’s downstairs.

He turns and looks out the window, expecting to see Kenny working on the boat.

Instead, his blood runs cold as he sees Clementine, standing outside the fence, talking to someone beside a car.

A station wagon.

A station wagon that looked horribly identical to the one from the woods.

From the one that was parked in front of The Marsh House.

He could’ve sworn his heart stopped beating for a minute as she willfully climbed inside the backseat.

Lee booked it downstairs, nearly falling as he slammed through the backdoor as the car peeled off down the street. Lee runs out the back yard but is too late.

And that’s all I have for now! I spent a minuuuute conjuring this all up! Keep in mind, this is all a rough idea of what I could try, not definitive!

#ask #fanfiction #twdg #the walking dead game #the walking dead telltale #telltale the walking dead

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dragynkeep · 1 year

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The worse thing to constantly think about TWDG is that characters consistency are shit when they're not Clem. Kenny has a very strong character when it comes to people he loves (will always cry when he leave for Clem and AJ to live) but he's...a lot, Lily remained strong even when losing her father and pulled through for everyone....but she would willingly mutilate a child, so much of their personalities are weird af and I wish Telltale was a bit more consistent with them

I don't think it's much a consistency issue as it is just missing the middle man, and also the two examples being wholely unlikeable outside of S1. But what gets me is that the way they're treated by the actual writers and story.

Both are unlikeable, but Kenny is constantly fucking babied by the narrative and the fandom, to the point where you're constantly expected to side with him and the arguable best endings are his. He either is treated as this dad figure that Clementine can't bear to leave, or he's the hero who, despite all his flaws, sacrificed his own safety so that Clementine and AJ had somewhere to live peacefully.

Compare that to the alone ending, where it's heavily pushed that Clementine is now forever changed and it's sad to survive on her own, which it is. Or the Jane endings were Clementine is either shown to be a heartless survivor like Jane, or her trust in new people is misplaced because they end up bad.

Nevermind that Kenny is abusive, racist, stupid and just downright hostile in S2, I hated every second he was on screen because he didn't need to be there. His arc was done! He learned to forgive the boy who got his family killed and sacrificed himself so that Ben didn't have to feel pain! It was good!

And I'm sorry, but Lilly was nowhere near as bad as Kenny in S1. The worst thing she did was shoot Carley/Doug after snapping, and if we're supposed to ignore Kenny wanting to abandon Ben to die in Episode 4, far more painfully I might add, then I'm sure the game can push us to be understanding to this.

Except oh wait, S4 brought her back and after Episode 2, just made her into Evil Woman who mutilates kids. I didn't even mind Lily being an antagonist at first, Episode 2 did great imo in fleshing her out through her relationship to Clementine, giving her a good characteristic that made Lilly more nuanced.

Until they just gave up and most of the fandom decided she was EvilTM. Kenny is good ol Uncle Kenny who might have said slurs and beat a kid half to death, but Lilly is pure EvilTM.

The way this series treated these two characters make me wanna cry.

Kenny apologists do NOT interact, I will pour cement in your water pipes.

#twdg #twdg critical #kenny critical #lily critical #answered #luke.txt #im sorry i dont stan the ugly racist who feels like he would also call me homophobic slurs

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yaboisorzoi · 8 months

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"Your Choices Don't Matter"

There is a screed that I see come up in discussions of certain games, predominantly (though not exclusively) within the RPG genre. What do Mass Effect, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Life is Strange have in common?

If you guessed “your choices don’t matter”—or at least, guessed people saying that about the games—then that was the angle I was going for.

This is a statement that I take particular issue with on a fundamental level. Less so for the statement itself—there is nuanced discussion to be had there, and to be discussed below—but for how judiciously it gets thrown around and the sweeping judgments it makes on the games it castigates.

The crux of my problem with this statement is in the contrapositive: detractors say that your choices don’t matter. I ask, what does it mean to have your choices matter? What makes anything matter? What does it mean to matter in the first place?

When you say “your choices don’t matter,” you’re implying that you wish your choices did matter. What does that look like?

This is the topic I want to delve into today. Strap yourselves in, it’s going to be a long one.

What Is A Choice?

This may seem like a pretentious and self-masturbatory question to ask, but bear with me for a moment. I’m just laying down some groundwork and declaring some definitions. At the broadest level, a choice in a game is any time the game expects mutually-exclusive input from the player. If you are given one skill point, and you have two skills you can place that point into, then in its broadest form, this is a choice.

This isn’t a very interesting choice, though. In fact, I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would consider something as mundane as leveling up a character as a “choice.” You could make the argument for games with complex leveling systems, like Mass Effect’s infamous column of skill points, or Anarchy Online’s truly Goliathan 65+ independent skills you can place points into every time you level up—games where the number of skills available to you far outstrip the number of points you will ever have available to put into them all, and where specialization is a genuine decision to be made and committed to.

When talking about choices, people are almost always referring to narrative choices. These primarily take the form of either dialogue or setpiece actions (or sometimes one serving the function of the other). I am among those people when it comes to this discussion.

With that out of the way, let’s move onto the more interesting conversation.

Choices? Consequences.

When talking about choices in games, just as often people are talking about their unspoken counterpart: consequences. And when saying “choices don’t matter”, people often mean to say “choices don’t have consequences.” So let’s talk consequences.

I personally like to split consequences into two categories. The first of those categories is what I refer to as mechanical consequences.

When I say a consequence is mechanical, I mean that there is some measurable, quantifiable change within the core game systems that reflects that choice. The most obvious mechanical consequence is a stat change: I make the change of increasing my character’s strength, there is the mechanical consequence that my attacks now do more damage.

Much like how character-leveling is widely considered an uninteresting choice, though, I don’t think it is particularly controversial to say that stat-changing is considered a particularly uninteresting consequence. So let’s jettison them from the discussion now.

There are far more interesting ways to engage consequences mechanically. Possibly the most immediate execution of mechanical consequences is the classic “who lives and who dies” decision. This is a classic and a fan favorite, from Kaidan or Ashley on Mass Effect’s Virmire, to Doug or Carley in Telltale’s Walking Dead. A stark binary decision, the consequences of which are immediate: of the two choices, one of them is going to die. They will go poof. They will be written out of the story. And their absence will be imminent and persistent.

Choose to feed Kaidan to the nuke gods, and you will never get to talk to him about his rough time growing up as a biotic, about his conspiracy theories regarding the intentional exposure of expecting mothers to Eezo, or about his classmates and instructors in the academy. Toss Ashley’s pragmatic ass out the atomic airlock, and you’ll never learn about her feeling persecuted for her grandfather’s failures, about her dad’s one-sided fight in raising four daughters, or her surprising love of poetry.

No matter what decision you make, you’re getting entire slabs of content cut out of your playthrough, never to be accessed again. Every time you look at your roster of surviving characters, there will be a hole there in the shape of the one who died—as a consequence of your choice.

Next up, let’s talk roleplay consequences. As one might expect given the name, a roleplay consequence is one that has no mechanical significance, but instead plays into the immersive fantasy of roleplaying. This is most common in, perhaps unsurprisingly, roleplaying games. Though you can find them really in any game, since you could argue any game has you literally playing a role, from Quake 2’s role of being a stranded space marine, to Civilization’s role of being the deathless immortal leader of a historical society.

What makes a roleplay decision a roleplay decision is that it, in some way, informs the personality of the character you are playing as. Is your Shepard serious or jokey? Is your Lee protective or dismissive?

These choices tend to have little to no mechanical significance, beyond changing the flow of the immediate conversation. The most obvious and immediate example of this is the dialogue wheel in Fallout 4, which is often humorously referred to as “Yes, Sarcastic Yes, Yes With More Information, and Yes But Later.”

Of these four options, the last two have some mechanical benefit. “Yes With More Information” is mechanical in the sense that it provides the player with more context with which to engage with the world, which I’d argue has some mechanical merit. The last is clearly mechanical, in that it delays the quest being entered in the player’s log and consequently stalls any triggers that only activate if that quest has been accepted by the player.

The first two options though, “Yes” and “Sarcastic Yes”, I think are far more interesting within the context of discussing roleplay consequences.

Choosing either “Yes” or “Sarcastic Yes” have the same mechanical consequences: the quest is accepted. There is no functional difference between them. So then, one may rightly asked, why the distinction? If saying “Yeah sure I’ll do it” with a straight face and “Yeah sure I’ll do it” while rolling your character’s eyes both result in the same outcome, why would you ever choose one over the other?

If one is only concerned about the mechanical consequences of a choice, then there is no reason to ever choose one over the other. But the choice exists. Surely there must be a reason for it?

Two Choices and a Cosmetic Walk Into a Game Development Studio...

And this is where we start getting into the crux of my problem with the “your choices don’t matter” argument. I put it on equal footing with the “cosmetics don’t matter” argument in defense of being apathetic toward aggressive microtransactions in games. I’m sure you’ve all witnessed that argument unfold—someone begins complaining about how a given game has character skins, vanity items, or other cosmetics objects locked being a paywall or behind lootboxes or behind battlepasses, and someone else chips in with “cosmetics don’t matter, so why are you complaining?”

The argument there of course falls apart once someone puts an iota of thought into it—if cosmetics didn’t matter, then why are they there? Why do artists spend time making them? Why do engineers consume resources implementing them? Why do publishers insist games have them?

And, perhaps most importantly of all, why do people buy them? If cosmetics didn’t matter, then people wouldn’t buy them, right?

The simple answer to it all is that cosmetics do matter. They just don’t matter mechanically. It turns out, people play games for more reasons than just pushing buttons to make the fancy calculator machine crunch a bunch of numbers. In the case of cosmetics, online gaming especially is as much a social affair as it is an interactive one. People buy cosmetics because they want to express themselves to other plays. They want other players to think they’re cool.

Why do people spend money on cosmetics? Because having that dank hat with a huge feather on it makes them look cool.

Why do people pick Sarcastic Yes over Yes? Because delivering witty one-liners, cracking dad jokes, and rolling one’s eyes plays into a personality that the player is pursuing. If they are roleplaying as a badass pirate, then they don’t want their badass pirate saying “Okay I’ll give the starving children bread.” They want their badass pirate to say “I’m not a charity—you best have money in hand, or starving children will be the least of your problems.” They don’t want their heroic paladin saying “Okay I’ll fight the demon.” They want their heroic paladin saying “My holy quest to rid this world of taint and evil shan’t rest until this foul creature’s head lays before my feet.”

Just as cosmetics are important to players in social games, fitting into a particular role is important to players in roleplaying games. It’s really that simple.

So now, let’s finally get back to that statement which started this whole discussion: “your choices don’t matter.”

What choices are these people talking about? What do they mean when they say they don’t matter?

If by “choices” they mean “choices with mechanical consequences,” and by “don’t matter” they mean “have no measurable consequences”, then that is just patently wrong. Mechanical consequences are definitionally measurable. That’s what makes them mechanical.

If instead they mean “choices with roleplay consequences,” then one could make an argument that they “have no measurable consequences”. By the same token, one could argue that they do—and indeed, that is what I just spent the past several paragraphs arguing, in a clever ploy of exposition where I answered the question before the reader even knew the question being asked: the consequences contribute to the role being played, and as such, with necessity matter to the roleplayer.

And yet, people still bang this drum. Are they just wrong? Or is there something that we are missing? Perhaps we should take a different approach here, and see what it is that these people are referring to specifically.

It’s All About the Destination

This is a spoiler warning for Bioware’s Mass Effect trilogy, Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and dontnod’s Life is Strange. I will be discussing these three games’ endings explicitly and in detail.

When people level the argument “your choices don’t matter”, I almost always see them being thrown specifically against a game’s ending. The Mass Effect trilogy is an epic 60-hour-journey spanning three games, wherein you are tasked to make countless decisions, both mechanical and roleplay, all throughout its runtime.

In the closing moments of the game, you are tasked with making one final decision: do you destroy the Reapers that threaten the galaxy, do you take control of them and use them for your own purposes, do you use poorly-explained space magic to inseparably combine the Reapers with the sentient life they are so determined to exterminate, or do you tell the annoying space kid to go fuck himself and damn the galaxy to death and destruction?

It’s an epic decision fit for capping an epic journey. And yet people use it as a quintessential example of “your choices don’t matter.” The options laid before the player are fixed. No matter what choices you made throughout the game, you will always be presented the same options. Save Ashley or Kaidan, same four options. Kill or spare the Rannoch queen, same four options. Punch or don’t punch reporter al-Jilani, same four options.

The consequences of the choices vary a bit more than the choices themselves, with one of several different montages playing for each option, depending on the major choices and overall “war assets” score the player has at the end. But each of them all broadly speaking hit the same beats: the Reapers are destroyed, the Reapers are controlled, the Reapers are synthesized, the galaxy is fucked.

In Deus Ex Human Revolution, you are given a similar decision at the end: you can choose to reveal the truth of the Illuminati conspiracy to the masses, blame the extremists so that cybernetic technology can continue unimpeded, cover up the involvement of the Illuminati so they can continue pulling their strings in the shadows, or be an enlightened centrist prick and take no measurable action at all. These choices are mostly static, with two of them depending only on a single decision to rescue a different major character. And again, the consequences are slightly altered montages that all hit the same major plot points.

In Life is Strange, you are given an even simpler binary choice: save Max’s best friend, whom she has literally torn reality itself apart several times over in several bids to prevent her from dying, and in doing so let an entire town of people be killed; or let said best friend die, preventing the catastrophe that is looming from occurring and allowing the townspeople to live without ever knowing they were in peril. These choices are both static, always available to the player regardless of the decisions they made, and their consequences are similarly static.

In all three cases, the accusation that “your choices don’t matter” is levied against them. And from a mechanical standpoint, seeing how these are the endings of these stories and there is no continuation beyond them? I’d say that’s fair. There are no mechanical consequences of these choices.

But from a roleplay perspective? I’d argue there are no more important choices to be had in these games. As stated before, Mass Effect is an epic 60-hour journey where the player is set upon with a singular mission: destroy the Reapers and save the galaxy. Throughout their journey, however, they are presented with two alternative solutions. The Illusive Man suggests that throwing away the sheer power of the Reapers in blind eradication is foolhardy and short-sighted, that by controlling the Reapers and redirecting their powers for the good of the galaxy, so much more could be accomplished. And the Catalyst suggests that the Reapers’ programmed mission of exterminating all sentient life before it can become a threat to itself could be short-circuited by infusing the Reapers with sentient life, providing an out to an otherwise seemingly-endless cycle.

It is up to the player, then, to decide whether their Shepard has remained undeterred in their original mission to destroy the Reapers; if the Illusive Man’s argument of harnesses the power of the Reapers to help the galaxy was able to sway their opinion; or if the Catalyst’s suggestion of a way to perpetually and permanently break the cycle is the best option. Or if they just really hate the Starchild and are willing to destroy the galaxy all to give it one final middle finger.

It is up to the player to decide if their Adam Jensen has become disillusioned with the march of technology and the damage it has wrought; if they are blindly devoted to the vision of men like David Sarif and their plans for a cybernetic future; if they believe that humanity is best served with the shadowy Illuminati guiding its technological evolution; or if he is a filthy centrist.

It is up to the player to decide if their heartwrenching journey of trying and trying to stop Max’s best friend from dying, only to not only be met with failure every time, but to actively make things worse for everyone with each attempt, has led to her finally learning that she has to let go and let Chloe die, or if the constant string of catastrophizing failures has only hardened and resolved her unrequited and undeterred love for her best friend, and she is willing to let an entire town of people die so that she can finally be with the one person for whom she’s literally unraveled reality in her attempts to save.

All these endings are the absolute culminations of their stories, and the roles the player has been sitting in throughout their recounting. They are the final exam of the class that has been the last 10, 20, 60 hours of playtime that has been committed to them. They are the ultimate test of what kind of person their character is.

I can’t think of how these choices could possibly matter more. They are, by all accounts, the single most important choices in their respective games. They are what these games have been building up to since their beginning.

To say that these decisions don’t matter isn’t just wrong. It’s patently absurd. It’s staring reality in the eye, and rejecting it outright. If you accept the thesis that roleplay decisions hold any merit at all, then you cannot in good conscience say that these final decisions, these literal ultimate decisions, have no meaning.

So then, if it’s not the choices themselves that people are saying don’t matter… what, exactly, are they talking about? When people say your choices don’t matter in Mass Effect, or Deus Ex Human Revolution, or Life is Strange, what exactly do they mean?

The Illusion of Choice, But Not the Illusion You’re Thinking Of.

They are talking about a small facet that I glossed over in my previous descriptions of these endings. They aren’t talking about the choices themselves, but the conditions behind the options—or more specifically, the lack of conditions.

When someone says “your choices don’t matter in Mass Effect,” they mean that no matter what you do in the 60 hours of gametime up to that point, you are always offered the same four choices: destroy, control, synthesis, rejection. When someone says “your choices don’t matter in Deus Ex Human Revolution”, assuming you did all the side-quests and so saved both Sarif and Taggart, they mean that you are always offered the same four choices: reveal, deflect, obscure, be a spineless coward. When someone says “your choices don’t matter in Life is Strange”, they mean that you are always presented with the binary choice of Save Arcadia Bay or Save Chloe.

When these people say “your choices don’t matter”, they’re talking about how the choices you make either have exactly zero, or effectively zero, impact on the choices that are given to you in your final decision, in the ultimate choice of the entire game.

Don’t they, though?

Mechanically, no, they don’t. We’ve established that definitionally: we just plainly stated that these games have no systems in place to take in as input your previous decisions and use them to change the options available to you.

But as we’ve discussed at length, there are more than just mechanical consequences to choices. Roleplay consequences are just as significant, especially in developing and expressing the type of person your character is. A dogged Shepard will destroy the Reapers, as per their original mission. A greedy Shepard will take control of the Reapers for themselves, to shape the galaxy as they see fit. A gentle Shepard will synthesize sentient life and artificial intelligence in a bid to craft a better galaxy for both. And a truly badass Shepard will tell the Starchild to go fuck itself and damn the galaxy in the process.

It doesn’t matter that the game has no mechanical systems that gate off the available options to these final decisions, based on some metrics that the programmers deemed important enough to influence the ability to even entertain the idea.

For the player who has been truly engaged in the story, who has truly fallen into the role of their character, the options honestly don’t even matter at all. After 60 hours of trudging through Hell to get to the Catalyst, you’ve already decided what your Shepard is going to do. By the time you’re on Panchea station, you’ve already made up your mind what Jensen thinks of the Illuminati, David Sarif, and William Taggart. By the time you’re on that cliff with the storm raging below, you already know whether Max’s heart or her brain dictates the choices she makes.

In truth, the final choice having options at all is irrelevant. The game isn’t suggesting that your choices don’t matter. If anything, it’s asking you exactly the opposite: do you think your choices matter? If you do, if you truly and sincerely believe in the choices you made, in the journey you crafted, in the personality you sculpted for your character, then there is only one right option. The others may as well not even exist.

If you have to stop and think about the decision you’re making, by the time you come to the end of your character’s journey, then it’s not the game whose saying your choices didn’t matter.

It’s you.

#essay #video games #roleplaying games #rpg #character dialogue #choices #your choices don't matter #im really fucking chuffed with that banger of a conclusion

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kierreras · 11 months

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thank you for the tag @brekker-by-brekkerr , i feel so honoured 🫶 rule: tag people you want to get to know better last song i listened to: i can see you by taylor swift (obsessed with it) last show: the bear and the society (rewatching this one) currently reading: every summer after by carley fortune current obsession: emilly henry book universe, i still can’t move on from happy place tagging, as always, everyone who wants to participate, please don’t be shy

#tag game

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talldecafcappuccino · 2 years

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Tag Nine People You Want To Get To Know Better

Thanks @notyourdaisybuchanan for the tag!

favorite color: Purple 💜

currently reading: I finished a book today! I read Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. It's her first novel and aside from one plot issue, I really enjoyed it! I've been describing it as a better version of People We Meet on Vacation. I'm also working on Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and debating between starting How to Walk Away by Katherine Center or Us Against You by Fredrick Backman (which probably means I'll start neither lol I also just ordered two new books....so....yeah.)

last song: I don't know because I can't figure out how to check my Spotify for what music I was listening to earlier! Is this being old or just not knowing how technology works? Last *thing* I listened to was an old episode of Best Friends with Nicole Byers and Sasheer Zamata.

last series: I finished The Bear and I have one episode left of A League of Their Own

last movie: Last movie in theaters? Top Gun: Maverick. Last movie at home? Billboard Dad lmao

sweet/spicy/savory: Savory! Always savory! Although I just had ice cream...but savory still wins. Give me the olives and the cheese and the capers and the other pickled things (salt, just give me all the salt).

currently working on: I've been jotting down little bits and pieces of a couple ideas I've been sitting with for awhile. I think I'm going to start focusing on one of them...but I'm sort of worried that by focusing on it I'll lose all interest. Focus is a sneaky salty bitch 😫

tagging: whoever is reading this because it is very late and my brain isn't letting me think of people at the moment 😂

#meme #that was fun!#i didn't realize how much media I had consumed lately lol #a nice range (for me)

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ericsonclan · 2 years

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Favorite character outside of seadon 4?

Oh, let's see..

Well, to start we excluded Lee and Javi from this list because they feel like they are on a different level. Being the protagonist comes with its perks, especially ones as cool and likable as those two. So we wanted to be able to highlight some of our other favorites. This is a really tough question because we love so many characters outside of TFS but we narrowed it down to four.

First up is Carley, right off the bat she left a strong impression. A badass reporter who can shoot and is able to figure out things others don't like Lee's backstory. She's a levelheaded and caring person. Someone you'd want to have in the apocalypse but also someone you'd respect and admire in day-to-day life.

Next up is Walter, he is one of the kindest people throughout any of the games. He is both wise and down-to-earth. While the game has him as an example of what can happen if you are too kind in the apocalypse, he also shows how powerful empathy can be. Especially with his scene with Nick. You can't help but see that through thick and thin Walter is a great person.

Third is Sarita, another kind-hearted person who the game sacrifices. Sarita is somebody for us whose potential in the series wasn't fully utilized. She is a strong and capable person who tries to see the best in others but will stand up to adversity and conflict.

Lastly is Tripp, the big sweary teddy bear man. Tripp is fiercely loyal, surprisingly forgiving considering how deep into the apocalypse things are. He is the definition of a gentle giant and someone you can always rely on. Part of us likes to believe he survived that fall especially because writers simply killed him off to increase the death count.

#twdg #twdg carley #twdg walter #twdg sarita #twdg tripp #asks

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healthcar · 1 year

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Padre Pio - 2023 Review

Padre Pio, also known as Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, was a Capuchin friar, stigmatist, and mystic who lived in Italy in the 20th century. His life and spiritual journey have been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and films, including the 2000 Italian biographical drama "Padre Pio: Miracle Man."

Directed by Carlo Carlei and starring Sergio Castellitto in the lead role, the film tells the story of Padre Pio's life, from his early years as a shepherd boy in Southern Italy to his calling to the priesthood, his spiritual battles with the devil, and his many miracles and healings.

Padre Pio Movie

Upon its release, "Padre Pio: Miracle Man" received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike. Some praised the film for its powerful performances, stunning cinematography, and faithful depiction of Padre Pio's life and legacy, while others criticized it for being too melodramatic and formulaic.

One of the film's most significant strengths is Castellitto's mesmerizing portrayal of Padre Pio, which earned him critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor. Castellitto fully captures the saint's humility, compassion, and unwavering faith, as well as the physical and emotional toll of his spiritual battles and physical suffering.

The film's cinematography, which captures the beauty and ruggedness of the Italian countryside, also received high marks from many critics. The stunning visuals, combined with a stirring musical score, create a compelling atmosphere that immerses viewers in Padre Pio's world.

Padre Pio Movie

However, some critics felt that the film's pacing was uneven and that it relied too heavily on cliches and melodramatic plot twists. Others also felt that the film did not do enough to explore Padre Pio's spiritual teachings and philosophy, instead focusing primarily on his miracles and mystical experiences.

Despite its flaws, "Padre Pio: Miracle Man" remains a powerful and moving tribute to one of the Catholic Church's most beloved and revered saints. The film's stunning visuals, exceptional performances, and inspiring message of faith and hope are sure to resonate with audiences of all backgrounds and beliefs.

It’s entitled Padre Pio [+], but Saint Pius of Pietrelcina only forms half the focus of Abel Ferrara’s new film, which was presented in competition during the 19th edition of Giornate degli Autori, unfolding within the Venice Film Festival. In order to depict the man who would later become an icon of Catholicism, venerated throughout Italy as a second Christ, the American director - who has lived in Rome for many years - intertwines the story of the monk’s first days in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo in Apulia with the historic popular uprising unfolding in that same region, against the large landowner oppressors. This means that, on the one hand, we witness the solitary torments of the future stigmata-bearing saint and the personal battle he fights against the devil, and on the other, we follow the ups and downs of a community of peasants battling for their rights.

(The article continues below - Commercial information) The First World War has only just ended and soldiers are returning home, welcomed by tearful loved ones. But there are also those who haven’t made it back, a letter arriving in their stead, announcing their death on the battlefield. At the very same moment, Padre Pio (Shia LaBeouf) - at this time Francesco Forgione - enters into a convent to find God, but it’s the devil who pays him his first visit, torturing the monk over his evasion of military service and calling him a coward. In this sense, there are two parallel stories playing out: at the dawn of the first free elections, in San Giovanni Rotondo, people are starting to talk about socialism, abolition of private property, and the need for the consensus of the masses before making changes; in the silence of the convent, however, Pius prays, he asks questions, he despairs. His journey towards faith is full of obstacles and terrifying, horror-esque visions.

The two storylines move in opposite directions: while the condition of the poor people of San Giovanni Rotondo becomes increasingly dire (peasants are treated like slaves, dying prematurely due to a lack of medical care, and socialists suffer savage beatings in which the Church itself is complicit), up until the well-known epilogue (stolen elections, the people’s revolt, the killing of 13 people, which took place in real-life on 14 October 1920), Padre Pio moves upwards towards the Lord, until he finally finds him, but only through atrocious suffering. Shia LaBeouf, who, after a life of excesses, announced he’d converted to the Catholic faith following this role, plays the saint with conviction and grit; one of the film’s most moving scenes sees him denying forgiveness to a parent (a surprising Asia Argento in male clothing) who is guilty of having sordid thoughts about his little girl yet shows no real sign of repentance.

The ample space given to historical-social drama within this film might prove disappointing to those expecting a greater focus on Padre Pio and his miracles; the film actually ends when the first stigmata appear. Instead, communion, in suffering, between a man of God and the people is clearly the key which the director has favoured for his story, and in this sense, there’s no shortage of intensely dramatic moments. The movie’s extensive cast also includes Marco Leonardi, Luca Lionello, Vincenzo Crea, Brando Pacitto and Roberta Mattei, to name a few.

Padre Pio is produced by Germany’s Maze Pictures in co-production with Italy’s Interlinea Film and British firm Rimsky Productions. International sales are entrusted to US outfit Capstone Studios.

#Padre Pio #Padre Pio (2022) dir. Abel Ferrara #shia labeouf #padre pio #padre pio 2022 #Padre Pio review

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