Forum order changing?

[RAnthonyMahan]

So, it looks like Telltale has changed the order the various game forums are listed in. This makes sense, since the first forums listed should be for the games that are most discussed (or that Telltale's at least anticipating lots of discussion for). Maybe I'm just being overly speculative, but it seems like we can take this recent reformat as a possible peek at Telltale's future plans (or non-plans, as the case may be). So, let's look at how they're ordered, shall we?

Back to the Future
Jurassic Park
Hector
The Walking Dead
Puzzle Agent

This makes sense. BttF and Hector are ongoing, with PA2, Jurassic Park, and The Walking Dead all coming soon and hotly anticipated. The newest releases come first, this is no surprise. Moving on...

King's Quest
Law and Order
Fables

Of all of Telltale's recent announcements, King's Quest has the largest forum so far, so even though we won't be seeing it for a while it makes sense to list it first. Fables, meanwhile, has brought the least discussion, so they list it last. Law and Order's reception has been pretty...eh so far, but since it's coming out this year they need to place it pretty high. I doubt this will happen (since Fables at least has the broad release date of Q1 2012 announced while King's Quest doesn't even have that), but maybe KQ's higher billing means it might come out before Fables?

Sam and Max
Tales of Monkey Island
Poker Night at the Inventory

Now things start getting sad. The fact that Telltale's two (arguably) best known titles have been moved so far down means we probably shouldn't count on seeing either the Freelance Police or the Mighty Pirate™ return anytime soon. Poker Night being pushed even further down, while also a little sad, does make sense. It was a fun ride while it lasted, but now that we've heard all the dialogue and unlocked all the TF2 items there isn't much else to say about it. At this point another Inventory game looks unlikely, and I suspect the Poker Night board will soon move to The Classics as well.

The Classics: Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures, Bone, Telltale Texas Hold 'Em, CSI, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People

All right, The Classics is pretty much Telltale's forum graveyard, for games where there's pretty much no interest anymore and (presumably) Telltale isn't interested in returning to these properties. This is evidenced by the three games that were in there already. Telltale Texas Hold 'Em was just an engine test that they weren't even originally intending to sell. Telltale lost the Bone license a long time ago, and Wallace and Gromit was something of a flop (and I think they lost the license there too).

CSI being moved there is somewhat expected. I don't think anyone would list a CSI game as one of Telltale's best, and with Telltale making serious attempts at realistic graphics with Jurassic Park and The Walking Dead, they probably want to hide their earlier, less successful attempts at realism. At the same time, though, Fatal Conspiracy came out just last fall, so I'm not sure if it's safe to declare CSI abandoned. Maybe Telltale's decided they're too big now to do anymore Ubisoft shovelware?

Far more upsetting to me is how Strong Bad's been moved there. I've always been a Homestar Runner fan, and SBCG4AP is what introduced me to Telltale in the first place. Getting to laugh my ass off at Homestar-style humor while finding a rare example of a modern developer who does adventure games...I owe a lot of good memories to SBCG4AP. I've always kindled the hope that Telltale would do a Season 2, but now it seems that won't happen. I can't say I'm surprised, though. Like I said with CSI, it's possible Telltale is embarrassed about Strong Bad. As they're growing, they want to acquire progressively larger licenses. Maybe they don't think a game based on a Web cartoon would look good on their resume. And of course, since The Brothers Chaps apparently can't make the effort to update the website anymore (they updated four times in 2010, and zero in 2011 so far) they definitely wouldn't be willing to do another full video game. Hell, I'm amazed Strong Bad even appeared in Poker Night.

Anyway, make of all of this what you will.

[RetroVortex]

Poor Strongbad... :'(

I guess with the move of the general chat forum I guess the Telltale team must be cleaning this place up.

You can't stay cult and successful forever, one has to give, and unfortunately successful pays better.

[coolguy721]

they should order it by the date it came out. Hector should be on top of Jurassic park

[corruptbiggins]

I wouldn't take the 'demotion' of the Strong Bad sub forum as Telltale being unwilling to consider another season, just more about the fact that it's just not that busy and then there's the Brothers Chaps who, for whatever reasons, haven't done much with the Homestar Runner stuff for a good long while and without their support more games about that universe couldn't happen anyway.

If in future that changes, and a sequel becomes a greater possibility then I'm sure the sub-forum would be moved accordingly.

[coolguy721]

aw man the sam and max forums are losing interest

[Chyron8472]

Speaking of which, the list of games on the main "Games" screen doesn't include any TTG games that are more recent than Puzzle Agent. By rights, BTTF, Jurassic Park, Poker Night and Hector should also be on there (in order of release from newest to oldest), but aren't.

Here, I'll show you:



I emailed TTG Support about this months ago but nothing has been updated.

[Martin McFly]

The worst part is that the further down they go, the less people visit the boards thus further diminishing its popularity. It's sad seeing games like Strong Bad in The Classics section.

[Scnew]

I think you're reading too much into this. Those forums don't get posts and don't have any upcoming sequels in the works, that's all there is to it. The idea that they're ashamed of Strong Bad or something is a little silly.

[Alan Johnson]

Originally Posted by Scnew

I think you're reading too much into this. Those forums don't get posts and don't have any upcoming sequels in the works, that's all there is to it. The idea that they're ashamed of Strong Bad or something is a little silly.

Winner!

[Scnew]

Omigod omigod what do I win!?!