Why Telltale is the greatest game studio ever
When I say "greatest" I'm not just referencing the fact that they make Sam & Max games, but mostly referencing the way they treat their fanbase, mostly though their forums. See, with most companies' forums, there is very little interaction from employees at said company, pretty much the only interaction comes in the form of official announcements and some suit posting "<COMPANY NAME HERE> does not comment on rumors or speculation.".
Now Telltale is a vastly different beast altogether, albeit a much more social beast. Not only do you have employees of the company posting on the forums, but they're posting frequently. And not only that! They're freely offering up little tidbits (i.e who worked on what for a particular episode, plans for future episodes, what they changed their minds on) and actually giving satisfying answers to their fan's questions! I was actually quite shocked when I started reading these forums and noticed all this. I also appreciate the casual tone that Telltale word their announcements in, as though it was written by a normal person, not some head of marketing suit. It gives me a "connection" to the studio, while at the same time not sounding "forced", the results of cold-hearted "market research" (looking at you Microsoft at Sony).
You can really feel the passion for both their work, as well as the love for their fanbase (which, as I think we all know, is what's selling Sam & Max!) that Telltale exhibits. One event in particular that stands out to me is where someone, out of curiosity, asked for a top-down view of Sam & Max's DeSoto. Almost instantly, Jake posts a render of just what was asked for. This was obviously no small task, programs would need to be opened, renders rendered, tasks which most studios would consider a waste of company time. All for a single fan. You'd never get that kinda thing from any other studio, it lends Telltale a down-to-Earth, indy-like tone which the video game industry needs more of.
And finally, they really seem to listen to fans. I know most companies say they listen to customer comments, but you know they very rarely do. Where as with Telltale, they've taken a general consensus from the forum populace,
So congratulations Telltale! Give yourselves a round of applause! You've got yourself a fine studio, with top-notch customer relations, a shining beacon of how a company should interact with their fanbase! Keep up the great work, and don't go changing on us!
Now Telltale is a vastly different beast altogether, albeit a much more social beast. Not only do you have employees of the company posting on the forums, but they're posting frequently. And not only that! They're freely offering up little tidbits (i.e who worked on what for a particular episode, plans for future episodes, what they changed their minds on) and actually giving satisfying answers to their fan's questions! I was actually quite shocked when I started reading these forums and noticed all this. I also appreciate the casual tone that Telltale word their announcements in, as though it was written by a normal person, not some head of marketing suit. It gives me a "connection" to the studio, while at the same time not sounding "forced", the results of cold-hearted "market research" (looking at you Microsoft at Sony).
You can really feel the passion for both their work, as well as the love for their fanbase (which, as I think we all know, is what's selling Sam & Max!) that Telltale exhibits. One event in particular that stands out to me is where someone, out of curiosity, asked for a top-down view of Sam & Max's DeSoto. Almost instantly, Jake posts a render of just what was asked for. This was obviously no small task, programs would need to be opened, renders rendered, tasks which most studios would consider a waste of company time. All for a single fan. You'd never get that kinda thing from any other studio, it lends Telltale a down-to-Earth, indy-like tone which the video game industry needs more of.
And finally, they really seem to listen to fans. I know most companies say they listen to customer comments, but you know they very rarely do. Where as with Telltale, they've taken a general consensus from the forum populace,
(that the Soda Poppers are very annoying)
and turned it not only into a joke
(the Soda Poppers are more evil then Satan himself!)
but the ending to the final episode! And not only that, they let us know that they are listening, and what they think of fan's suggestions.So congratulations Telltale! Give yourselves a round of applause! You've got yourself a fine studio, with top-notch customer relations, a shining beacon of how a company should interact with their fanbase! Keep up the great work, and don't go changing on us!
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[ spoiler ]Your Text Here[ /spoiler ]
Without the spaces between the brackets.
And yes, while TT does give us a few canned "I cannot confirm nor deny that" (like the S2 casefile) they dont spout that all the time! They DO drop tidbits quite often and even when they are supposed to say "I cant confirm or deny that" they do it in such a way that we're all 80% sure what the answer is! (again with the casefile)
I need to point out one thing, BB12, you said TT has an indie feel, every site I've seen them mention on DOES classify them as "indie" so that seems to be the case
In all I think it can be summed up in 4 words
WE LOVE YOU TELLTALE!!!
DONT EVER CHANGE! PLEASE!!!
It's not a big deal, I'm just saying.
At least Caravel Games (Deadly Rooms of Death, DROD: Journey To Rooted Hold, DROD: The City Beneath), Nadeo (Trackmania/TM Sunrise/TM Nations/TM United), Bioware (Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire et al.), Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2), Epic Megagames (Unreal, Unreal Tournament et al) frequent their own forums quite a bit...
But yeah, the rule of thumb is "the smaller the company the more likely their employees participating in their own forums".
Sorry, just had to get that one off my chest.
np: Justus Köhncke - Yacht (Safe And Sound)
*Shakes fist*
Well, everyone at Telltale also wanted Flint in the game on their own, but yeah :rolleyes: ...
3D Realms also participate often. (At least, Joe Siegler and a couple others do)
Kudos to you for mentioning Nadeo
And yeah, I must agree, Telltale are really great when it comes to interaction and overall niceness. They really do care about us. For example hose they send us that free DVD of the whole season, or bothering to re-release the full collected comics and the case file and stuff.
Keep it up guys.