Please stop forcing episode previews upon us!

edited October 2013 in The Wolf Among Us

While I love Telltale Games and have been purchasing their games since Sam & Max, there's one thing that is really, really annoying me since The Walking Dead, and now with The Wolf Among Us. At the end of each episode there's a hugely spoilery preview of the next episode. There's no way to skip it, and it occurs immediately upon finishing an episode, but before important things like choices and (important to me) credits.

It's doubly annoying because being forced to turn off sound and look away or leave the room (I mostly do the latter) leaves me irritated or angry, and that's no way to end an episode. For all the enjoyment I've gotten out of these games, the last feeling they give me is always annoyance. That's obviously not a good thing.

I would be most happy if the episode previews were ditched altogether, but at least give us the option to skip them, or better yet, let us disable them completely from the options. They are not a necessary part of the experience. Indeed, I would argue that they lessen it.

Unskippable cutscenes is a gaming sin I can live with. Unskippable previews is not.

Comments

  • I love these trailers, feels satisfying to have a first glance at how the choices you just made are already shaping your next episode.
    And I find these Telltale games so addictive that I enjoy every last moment of it, I always want more.
    So the only part that annoys me is the credits because they mean that that's it, I don't get to play before a month...
    (Ha ha, actually, as soon as I'm back on main menu, I start a new game on a fresh save to explore everything I left behind the first time)

  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited October 2013

    Telltale's games are released like an episodic television series. The next time previews are not any different than those at the end of shows such as Doctor Who. There aren't any major spoilers in there, the next time previews are just teasers. Telltale's been doing this almost as long as they've been making games, since at least 2008 with Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People.

  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited October 2013

    I hated the episode previews in Doctor Who as well and really wished the BBC had released at least the Blu Rays without them. Oh, all the times I got hold of that remote too late!! :( :(

    So I do support TiLTs wish for optional deactivation... ;)

    Jennifer posted: »

    Telltale's games are released like an episodic television series. The next time previews are not any different than those at the end of shows

  • Whilst I think you're overreacting a touch, I don't see any reason not to provide the option to skip the previews.

  • Interesting that you feel this way. I totally understand the desire for no spoilers. I'm very much like that about movies (I don't like to watch previews once I've decided to see a movie - with movies I prefer to know nothing about it beforehand.) I dislike spoilers in books and games as well.

    But as much as I dislike spoilers, the preview scene at the end of Episode 1 didn't feel like a cheat to me. Firstly, it really didn't tell me anything revelatory - just a hint of the conflict I'd likely created as result of my choices. Since it was created through my interactions, and since it was part of the story telling medium of the game itself - it just felt like part of the narrative. And I noted the end preview was different after my second play-through with different choices. (And perhaps that is spoilerish - not the preview, but the second play-though. I really wanted to finish the series before I started a second play-through, but I couldn't help myself; The gameplay and setting is just too amazing!)

    So while I respect your feelings about the preview, I guess I was just thankful for the added glimpse into Episode 2, since I literally can't wait to get it! I agree however that if there are players who don't want the preview - it should be simple to hit esc and skip it.

  • I watch a lot of TV series, and none of the ones I watch include previews. I know they're often added to series in the US, but they are almost always dropped by the time they get to Norway, where I live. I know this is a cultural thing, but I find it worse to force previews upon everyone than to not include them. Even TV series that do include previews (and these I only know about because of the occasional downloaded show. Don't worry, I purchase everything I watch and/or play) put them at the very end, after credits and anything else the episode might include, which makes it safe to turn the thing off. Telltale puts these things in the middle of several other things, and it's not even clear whether or not the game has been fully saved and registered as completed at that point, so even if I did want to sacrifice the credits and gameplay stats to avoid the previews, I don't dare risk losing my progress.

    I respect that some (or maybe even a lot. I don't know) of you like previews. That's fine. Just don't force them upon the rest of us. It's not appreciated.

    Jennifer posted: »

    Telltale's games are released like an episodic television series. The next time previews are not any different than those at the end of shows

  • I have to disagree, TTG makes fans wait a very long time for 1 episode. I appreciate the teaser trailers even more. Also I haven't seen a teaser that spoils an upcoming episode.

  • Just like in the first Walking Dead episode, the teaser for TWaU ep2 wasn't so much expositional for the plot of that episode than it was showing off the consequences of your choices.

    These are different kinds of 'bad', but I absolutely understand how both can be disliked by players. Exactly the scenes meant to imprint the setting and central problem of a TV series' next episode are shown in the teaser; and exactly the scenes which give the player the satisfaction of seeing consequences of his choices are spoiled for him in the TWD/TWaU episode preview. Some may like that, but, as previously said, an option to deactivate this is certainly not misplaced.

    On a sidenote: In The Walking Dead episode 1, the scenes in the teaser actually didn't end up in episode 2, which was hilarious because, errr, what was that teaser for anyway? ;)

    MissDRJ posted: »

    I have to disagree, TTG makes fans wait a very long time for 1 episode. I appreciate the teaser trailers even more. Also I haven't seen a teaser that spoils an upcoming episode.

  • well I guess that TTG should think about having an option to skip teaser trailers, and I understand what you mean I don't want to see any of my choice/consequences either.

    Vainamoinen posted: »

    Just like in the first Walking Dead episode, the teaser for TWaU ep2 wasn't so much expositional for the plot of that episode than it was show

  • Most of the scenes in the Walking Dead teasers did not happen, maybe because of radical change, or because they want you to think something will happen but then do the exact opposite, I got a good feeling they are doing the same thing with TWAU.

    Vainamoinen posted: »

    Just like in the first Walking Dead episode, the teaser for TWaU ep2 wasn't so much expositional for the plot of that episode than it was show

  • Right, call me old fashioned but can't you just close your eyes and sing or leave the room and furiously squat?

  • It's only 1-2 minutes of preview , you can simply mute + shut down the display screen and go have a cup of coffee or something.

    by the way guys , Don't ever watch episodes on youtube , I watched a different preview than mine and it contained a huge spoiler for any1 with my choices.

  • That's what I do, but why should I have to? If Telltale is producing something where "leave the room for a while" is a preferable option to actually watching their content, then someone has made a wrong decision at some point.

    All I'm asking for is the option to not have to watch them. I don't need to be told what's going to happen. I want to watch it happen when it happens. It changes the experience of playing an episode from "I wonder what's going to happen next?" to "I wonder when that thing I saw in the preview is going to happen". It completely spoils the mood and the core premise of these games for me. Notice the bolded part. I really don't care whether or not you like the previews as long as we both have the option to experience these games in a way that works best for each of us individually. That's the point of choice, a concept that is ironically a central part of both The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.

    ruairi46 posted: »

    Right, call me old fashioned but can't you just close your eyes and sing or leave the room and furiously squat?

  • Furiously squat??

    ruairi46 posted: »

    Right, call me old fashioned but can't you just close your eyes and sing or leave the room and furiously squat?

  • An alternative way to use those two minutes for something productive. May I also recommend writing a short romantic novel.

    MissDRJ posted: »

    Furiously squat??

  • But it doesn't spoil anything.

    TiLT posted: »

    That's what I do, but why should I have to? If Telltale is producing something where "leave the room for a while" is a preferable option to ac

  • But this is an episodic game and the preview are no different from a preview for a tv show. It's a good thing that we have him, especially why we wait for the next episode.

  • next time my boss ask for paper work, I'll tell her to squat furiously while I put on the finishing touches. LOL

    ruairi46 posted: »

    An alternative way to use those two minutes for something productive. May I also recommend writing a short romantic novel.

  • edited October 2013

    That argument often pops up, and it typically boils down to a different understanding of spoilers. To me, and many others like me, any information about upcoming events, no matter how trivial, is a spoiler. Even if the preview lies and shows you only stuff that won't happen, that's still a spoiler because it completely changes how you approach the content when you actually end up experiencing it. It spoils your experience, hence the choice of word.

    A spoiler is a spoiler, no matter if it's as trivial as revealing what a character will say at some point in an episode, or as dramatic as revealing the details of an upcoming plot twist. Every variant of this is unwanted.

    BullseyeRey posted: »

    But it doesn't spoil anything.

  • edited October 2013

    I think the trailers exist to create controversy and discussion (i.e. the nudity thread) which leads to promotion of the game. If nothing else, they fuel this forum.

  • I have nothing against trailers. In fact, I like that they're available for those who simply can't wait for new content. I've been there. What I don't like is being forced to watch them. Give me a choice!

    Cyreen posted: »

    I think the trailers exist to create controversy and discussion (i.e. the nudity thread) which leads to promotion of the game. If nothing else, they fuel this forum.

  • I always skip the "NEXT TIME ON HOMELAND" teasers, because I truly do want to be shocked and awed each and every episode.

    I love these trailers, feels satisfying to have a first glance at how the choices you just made are already shaping your next episode. And I

  • The second episode was rewritten pretty hard, but Telltale took more than two months for it. That's why the teaser didn't 'hold up'.

    From episode 2 on, most of what the teaser showed was in the next episode IIRC.

    Most of the scenes in the Walking Dead teasers did not happen, maybe because of radical change, or because they want you to think something will happen but then do the exact opposite, I got a good feeling they are doing the same thing with TWAU.

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