The Possibilities of Minecraft: Story Mode for a younger and wider audience
I was inspired to make this thread after reading pages and pages of hilarious reaction gifs but sadly polarizing and useless discussion.
After reading and sharing the announcement this morning, I became a little giddy for a moment, and not because I am a huge fan of Minecraft. I used to play it a ton with family/friends for about a year, and loved my time with it, but now I find it tedious and slow. What got me excited was that my youngest brother, who has recently become a teenager, is excited about this game. Knowing that it is not Minecraft, but an adventure game akin to The Walking Dead, which we have played on our tablet.
One of my favorite aspects of Minecraft is the world oozing with infinite possibility. No longer confined to pre-determined areas or goals, the player is free to truly create their own story. I mean who doesn't love recounting the heroic deeds of their first night in survival mode, narrowly escaping the spiders and skeletons after trying to get just a few more pieces of food and wood to survive before sundown.
The idea of a narrative-driven game sounds like the exact opposite of that. And it is. But I think that is the first thing Telltale and/or Microjang thought of when coming together to collaborate on a project like this. The stories that happen in Minecraft are ridiculous, hilarious, compelling, and natural. And it is not completely random, Minecraft is driven by complex systems that create the world and populate it. And these "stories" are also pretty popular, especially among a younger audience.
My brother and his friend group are a few examples of these, watching YouTube series like The MOB Squad (
) and N00b Adventures (
). As well as reading a (not kidding) #1 bestseller The Legend of Herobrine. Like it or not, these have been very successful. I personally don't enjoy any of these, but know people who do.
While most of these fan-fiction type stories are terrible, some of them have good writing, characters, and some videos have good animation. They certainly appeal to the wide audience of Minecraft fans. With Tales from the Borderlands, comedy is written everywhere into the game. Some sections even use the game mechanics as a parody to enhance the comedy, and quite successfully. I am confident that TellTale can do the same thing with Minecraft, and create a compelling story and entertaining choice-driven game along with it. This will also be closer to their roots making a lighthearted story like Sam & Max.
Imagine being given a blank slate and what I'm guessing is a large budget with Microjang involved, and a goal of "make something that fans of Minecraft and fans of Telltale will enjoy".
Comments
Certainly an interesting perspective. I'm curious as to how Telltale will translate the freedom of Minecraft into their new gameplay template.
I really have no clue how Telltale are going to tackle this, I'm not really on board with a Telltale Minecraft game yet.
I honestly see this game turning into a blocky medieval adventure game like CaptianSparklez's music videos are. I still have my reasonable doubts about the game and i'm still not on board but with a clearer mind, I think to give a little more reason to accept this.
There's no doubt in my mind that it's possible for telltale to infuse minecraft's world with a great story- I mean the lego movie has showed that it's more than possible.
But watching movies or let's plays come with a different expectation than playing a game. And most minecraft fans will expect that when they play a game with minecraft in the title they can fight when they want, mine when they want, build a glass tower of cows when they want. And there's no way telltale will be able to achieve that. Fans already have problems with how limited telltale choices options really are- this game is just going highlight it in the same way spandex t-shirts highlight your stomach
I can see TTG trying to broaden their players and target kids and teens; TWAU, TWD and Boarderlands are considered for mature audiences and not recommend for anyone under a certain age. This allows those who can not play these games an opportunity to try TTG and see what they have to offer.
I know my little brother is excited to play this. He's not allowed to play any of the other games but was intrigued by the detail and story when I tried to explain or show pictures. I say give it a chance. Read reviews, ask around but don't give up on TTG. Lets just see where this goes.
Telltale will make sure it is rated M. Steve is going to drop the F bomb here and there. XD I'm just kidding. I just think it's funny how all there games are rated M then they announce this. I can see The walking dead season 3 and the new Minecraft game alternate releases every month.
Their first episodic game was based on Jeff Smith's Bone, and was aimed at children (and they also released Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, which was also aimed at children). Both were fun games for adults to play too (as a matter of fact, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures is still my favorite Telltale series).
It's only been since 2012 that most of their games were rated mature. Before that, most of their games were rated T for Teen or E for Everyone.
This is the most open-ended franchise they have taken on. With less source material to constrict what they can do with the story, it is more likely that there could be branching paths or many different choices. I'm definitely not saying there will be as the amount of work is daunting, but each other franchise has certain story elements, characters, and events that are set in stone and TellTale has to incorporate and work around.
The Walking Dead Season 2 had a few different "paths" at the very end, with a few choices determining one of multiple ending states. That could have been an experiment to test how viable it is to have multiple branching paths.