Do you mind when one choice in a decisions has a greater payoff than another?
On some occasions, choosing one option resulted in a greater payoff than another.
The Doug / Carley choice is a prime example. If you picked Carley, you had the opportunity to tell the Motel group about your past and were (sort of) able to explore a romance option. With Doug, all you got was... being able to trip the St John brothers. Ultimately, choosing Carley was the better choice for your Lee.
This season we had the shoot Conrad / take his deal choice. If we shot him, Tripp would be mad at you for just 5 minutes till the whole herd issue popped up / he died and Eleanor would be angry with you regardless of your choice. If we took his deal, we could learn a great deal more about him and he could survive till the very end. So ultimately taking his deal was the "better" option in that there was more to gain from it and very minor consequences.
Do you mind if certain choices in a decision have a better payoff than others? Or do you think both options should visibly and differently affect the story each?
Comments
*decision
Obviously, some choices are considered 'canon' for the developers. They might branch out the story and keep misleading the players all they want, but it always was one original scenario which was written before the others. You can sometimes see it through the prism of development - just like you mentioned, with Carley you explore a whole new story part, and with Doug, he just kind of hang around. Personally I would always pick Doug over Carley, as she drives me nuts with her attitude, but this choice doesn't feel right in terms of the general story.
You would think the 'right choice' doesn't exist, but it's the video game we're talking about and its got people behind it.
Eh I still think shooting Conrad fits much better storywise. I was a little sore about his determinant treatment after episode 3, but Telltale made shooting him matter in the end since like 90% chose to.
Personally I preferred the Doug route because you got some really good comedic moments and see Doug sacrifice himself for the sake of another.
IMO shooting Conrad was the best choice because we get a really dramatic screen in E4 and It makes the choice between Tripp and Ava easier.
And then Tripp forgives you, so no consequences for shooting that son of a bitch.
"Why are you doing this?!"
Shooting Conrad helps Clem decide whether to go with Javi or do the opposite when it comes to helping Kate or Gabe, and that does affect their (and David's) determinant status, so depending on who a player wanted to save, they might argue that the payoff isn't greater for going with Conrad's plan.
With the Doug/Carley choice, it also affects the motor inn escape sequence. Saving Doug means you have to deal with enemies on both sides of the RV, and while it was a frustrating segment in terms of aiming, a lot of players appreciated that they got to do more than point-and-click, choose dialogue, and QTE (especially if they're the kind of player that likes a challenge). Saving Carley makes this easier, though, since she covers whichever side Lee's not on.
shooting Conrad Is not what causes her to pick something in episode 5 .
The flashback choices are what make her pick either one ((Accept Ava s offer or not , Inject AJ or not and Spit on David s face/Say goodbye to AJ))
At least you can hug Clementine if you shoot Conrad !
Worth XD
You can also hug Clementine if you dont shoot Conrad.... which is stupid
Really ?
What the fuck telltale did during all these years ?
Severals year without a walking dead game and when they finally release it, it is full of incoherence
Here we arrive at the essence of the issue lol
They really should concidere to play at Colony Wars Vengeance to learn how create choice which matters
well that s pretty much the point of this thread if you mind when some choices have a greater payoff than the other the payoff for having Conrad live is alot better than having him dead.
"Because my master told me to. King Dragon sends his regards"
Nevermind how on edge is someone, if he threat a kid, I put a bullet on him "in a heart beat" "maybe twice to be sure the lesson is learnt"
Depends on the context, the characters involved, and what it does from a story standpoint, really.
With the Carley thing, I suppose it does make sense for her to encourage Lee to tell everyone given that she and Larry were the only two who knew and Lee had proven himself to the group by that point. With that said, I kinda wish her presence wasn't necessary to being able to do it at all, since Lee coming to the conclusion himself would've been a nice alternative.
I knew the Conrad choice would be a big one going forward and am happy that they took advantage of it to do a few neat things from a gameplay perspective. But I still feel like we definitely could've gotten more out of it, such as more time with TET!Conrad, some appropriate vitriol between him and Clementine/Gabe, and his absence having a much clearer effect on Tripp instead of simply having him act like an idiot regardless.
Beware don't misinterpret what I wrote above. I didn't shot Conrad because he threatened Gabe, I did because he threatened my daughter Clementine.
I tried every possibilty than I could to get Gabe killed each time I could !
Nobody hurt my Clem, it is already horrible to know she lost one finger and have been marked like any cattle
she doesnt really get hurt thought and the only time she mentions it is saying Javi should be the one to walk thought the herd in episode 5 because of the Conrad situation.
Haha, got the reference.
But at the moment of the choice you don't know what would happen to Clem next, I just pick what I would have choosen in the real life
i usually just try to keep people alive if i can when i play these games no matter what they do.
Usually I do too, but I become overprotecting when it is about Clem safety I died for her in Savannah ! So I have to still protect her
You tried to get Gabe killed every chance you got? That's a crappy thing to do.
And then he gets a much better death scene than Ava. Awesome chain reaction.
He rats me in front of everyone in my first game when I did what I had to do to save him and Clementine !
After that I just replay the game to try to kill him !
Nobody rats me without having to pay the price !
XD