Is this game stillborn?

[Anakin Skywalker]

It seems that most of the KQ fanbase has already decided to dislike this game before they've even seen a screenshot, trailer or otherwise. This game, which isn't even out yet, seems to be disliked even more than MoE! Most of the now hip negative feelings about it have come from some very disgruntled members of one or more fangroups who are angry that TellTale was chosen and they weren't--and they've managed to poison the atmosphere surrounding this game, being negative about it at any and every turn, I guess they feel they might as well try to bring this game down and kill it before it's born out of spite.

So, is this game stillborn--Dead in the water? Has the game been doomed to fail by most of the fan base deciding not to like it, and even in many cases, refusing to play it, before they've seen even a screenshot? I think it just may be.

I think KQ fans have been spoiled in a way by the fan games and now expect an official game to in essence be nothing more than licensed fan fiction, to be a game filled to the brim with fan service wankery, twisted plots and distorted versions of the characters.

[thom-22]

Dude, chill. As someone who has absolutely no involvement in any fan-made KQ content ever, I can tell you that the skepticism concerning TTG's ability, desire for that matter, to produce a game that fits with KQ tradition stems primarily from many things of TTG's own doing, it's not instigated by the fan-made game crowd. Look at the BTTF forum or some discussions last summer when Sam & Max 3 was in production.

And skepticism seems to be all it is, I haven't really seen anyone say they dislike the game no matter what; in fact, most, including those associated with the fan games, have been saying they're keeping an open mind and are posting as a way to encourage TTG in a preferred direction. You're the only one jumping to conclusions here.

The people in the fan-made game crowd love KQ as much as you or I do, there are clearly lots of differences of opinion within the KQ fanbase. Let's try to discuss them friendly-like, without any paranoid flame-baiting. In the end, there are going to be people who like the TTG game and those who don't. Let's hope for all our sakes that the number of the former is far greater than the number of the latter.

[doom saber]

There are lots of factors in it. One of which is that it is handled by a company that never made a KQ game before. This has happened before with professional games that makes bad games, but ended up making a good licensed game. To name a few: Wayforward's Contra 4, Mercurystream's Castlevania, Grin's Bionic Commando, etc..

[Olaus Petrus]

I thought that most people were excited about getting new King's Quest game. And the fact that it's more than decade from the previous game made the news even more exciting.

While I agree that some of TTG's previous games are bit too easy, they at least know how to write good stories. If they can add difficult puzzles then the game is going to be gold and even in the worst case scenario where game is too easy it will at least have interesting story.

[Simo Sakari Aaltonen]

I choose to be supportive rather than pessimistic by default. Sometimes that faith is part of the alchemy that helps make magic happen. I believe Telltale realise this is not just another project for them. It is a milestone and a possible point of departure for significant expansion.

They are bound to know the handling of this property will have a significant impact on their future, moreso than the finite Back to the Future and Jurassic Park franchises. So I think past projects alone are not necessarily an entirely sufficient guide to what we can expect here.

[Lambonius]

Originally Posted by Olaus Petrus

While I agree that some of TTG's previous games are bit too easy, they at least know how to write good stories. If they can add difficult puzzles then the game is going to be gold and even in the worst case scenario where game is too easy it will at least have interesting story.

I strongly disagree. I don't give two shits how good the story is if the game sucks and fails to capture the "feel" of the old King's Quest games. If I can't lose myself in a fully explorable fantasy world, then no amount of good story or hard puzzles (wishful thinking, I know) can salvage it. King's Quest games should not be interactive movies.

[Irishmile]

Way too early to tell... I think the majority of KQ fans are pleased.. The negative people are just more vocal about it... Many of the negative people may be won over when we learn and see more from the game.

[tmsmyth4]

This game needs to be very different to every other telltale game if its going to be a success. Im not as pessimistic as some people on here and I think they could do a satisfying job of it if they get their priorities right. It has the potential to be the best TT game by far if they do. I'll remain sceptical until we hear more about it, as Telltale have given us no reason to believe they are willing to change their approach

[doggans]

There are two things that give me hope:

1. Jurassic Park demonstrates that Telltale is willing to at least experiment with different things right now.
2. The fact that they have so many new properties they're working on means that they can target multiple styles and demographics at once. If one of the other games is the usual Telltale fare, they may be willing to take more risks with KQ.

[wilco64256]

I hear that Jurassic Park is plenty of fun and very different looking from many of their titles, though still a casual play at heart. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what it's like for myself too.

I'm definitely very interested to see what comes of their work on Walking Dead and King's Quest. Even if it's not what I hope for, I'll probably still buy the full King's Quest series just to help support the adventure market in general as much as anything else.

[Valiento]

I don't know... if this game somehow alienates all the original fanbase (I think unlikely), but still draws in a brand new audiece of fans to the new series (who want more of the Reboot), then from Activision/Telltale's perspective, whatever they did was a great decision... They were able to strike the right cord to make it mainstream (what's a few lost fans along the way?).

Will they end up creating something that alienates everyone old timers and new comers, alike? I highly doubt it. Is it likely to divide the fanbase? Probably, but probably not more than previous games have divided the fanbase throughout the years...

When it is all said and done, Telltale is a business, and they will do whatever business model it takes, to make the game sell successfully. Whatever that takes, may not be what the old fans want, but it may be what the current market requires to open things to the widest range of demographics. When its all said and done, Telltale will do whatever it takes to make money.

[Olaus Petrus]

Originally Posted by Lambonius

I strongly disagree. I don't give two shits how good the story is if the game sucks and fails to capture the "feel" of the old King's Quest games. If I can't lose myself in a fully explorable fantasy world, then no amount of good story or hard puzzles (wishful thinking, I know) can salvage it. King's Quest games should not be interactive movies.

I believe that nothing can feel exactly the same as the originals, not even if the new game would be designed by Roberta Williams. But I wonder why you oppose my wish that game would have good story and decent puzzles, King's Quest 3-6 had good stories and challenging puzzles. First two games had little story but puzzles were good, while last two games had all right stories but no difficulty. Without decent puzzles and story you would have game which has as much story as KQ1 and as much challenge as KQ7.

[Lambonius]

Originally Posted by Olaus Petrus

I believe that nothing can feel exactly the same as the originals, not even if the new game would be designed by Roberta Williams. But I wonder why you oppose my wish that game would have good story and decent puzzles, King's Quest 3-6 had good stories and challenging puzzles. First two games had little story but puzzles were good, while last two games had all right stories but no difficulty. Without decent puzzles and story you would have game which has as much story as KQ1 and as much challenge as KQ7.

Well, I don't necessarily oppose the idea of the game needing good puzzles and a decent story, I'm just saying that the best KQ games had a specific element to them that is all but missing in every single Telltale game yet--exploration and interactivity.

I mean really--people weren't playing KQ3 and KQ4 because the story was constantly gripping and kept them sucked in--the story set up the reason for exploring and interacting with the game world, and then it left the player alone to go and do just that. And you could interact with EVERYTHING (pretty much.)

If you think about it, the "story" is practically non-existent in even KQ3 and 4--it just pops up at the beginning and ending. It bookends the exploration and puzzle solving and doesn't intrude onto them. It is revealed in bits and pieces throughout the game (the cutscenes with Lolotte, the conversations between animals in KQ3, etc.) but it doesn't overshadow the sense of escaping to that fantasy world and being free to explore and solve puzzles at your leisure.

If they can't get that sense of exploration right, then the quality of neither the story nor puzzles will matter, because the game just won't feel like King's Quest.

[tmsmyth4]

Again it comes back to the episodic format limiting exploration. Has it been comfirmed KQ will be episodic? If this was a full game or an extra long episode (if they want) then i'd be more optimistic

[Olaus Petrus]

Originally Posted by tmsmyth4

Again it comes back to the episodic format limiting exploration. Has it been comfirmed KQ will be episodic? If this was a full game or an extra long episode (if they want) then i'd be more optimistic

It's not necessarily limiting, for example KQ3 and 5 had points from where you couldn't go backwards, so in similar manner episodic KQ could contain different areas to explore in each episode.

[thesporkman]

Originally Posted by Olaus Petrus

It's not necessarily limiting, for example KQ3 and 5 had points from where you couldn't go backwards, so in similar manner episodic KQ could contain different areas to explore in each episode.

And KQVII was even divided into chapters.

[Valiento]

It's not necessarily limiting, for example KQ3 and 5 had points from where you couldn't go backwards

So did KQ2 technically!

[GuybrushWilco]

I don't think the majority of KQ fans are upset, but I too am annoyed at quite frankly, how much whining has been going on.

[Olaus Petrus]

Originally Posted by GuybrushWilco

I don't think the majority of KQ fans are upset, but I too am annoyed at quite frankly, how much whining has been going on.

It's nothing unusual. I remember when they were making Tales of Monkey Island there was large "This game will suck because it's not like Monkey Island 1 & 2. We want Ron Gilbert's version of Monkey Island 3." -crowd.

[chucklas]

Do I think it wont live up to what I think it should be, yes. Will I give it a chance and hope for the best, yes. To me it has a chance, but if it isn't good, telltale has more to lose than just one game. A large number of people are going to determine if they stick around and keep playing tell tale's products or leave all together based on one title. It is in TTGs best interest not to screw this one up.