Creating a character for S2

[BourbonTeacup]

I don't care what Telltale does for the new protagonist as long as its good (Please don't take that 'Navy Seals team 6 sniper' suggestion that keeps going around, in the words of Kenny "Thats fucking stupid Ben") I would really like us to be able to actually create a character (I mean what they look like and their origin, not just personality) Of course I understand that Telltale has a lot of limitations when creating their games so I completely understand if they give us a protagonist. But I just think it would be really cool if we got to put ourselves or our ideal character into the ZA. Think about it, with Lee we already saw the apocalypse first hand and were shaped by it. But this character has already (likely) been surviving for a while (I'm guessing they will start off where Season 1 left off, which is 3 months in) Which means they should already be shaped by experiences. We put ourselves into our Lee so why don't we take it a step further and actually create our survivour. Gender, origin and appearence. I think this would be a cool idea for the next season.

[Matrox Yang]

Character looks creation would be really cool, but I doubt it'll happen. I'm not computer whiz or anything so this may be nonsense but just the character models in the game don't seem like the type that could be made through a character creator- they all have a kind of hand-drawn look.

[dustpuffs]

Well, I have no problem playing as whatever character they create, and I think they'll do season 2 like season 1 in that regard. I can't see them giving us character choice, even if they were technically able. But reading your post got me thinking: how fun would it be to see each others play throughs and look at the characters created?

[Kinky John Fowler]

Considering the game is completely story driven I think the worst thing they could possibly do is give the player the opportunity to create their own character.

[BourbonTeacup]

Originally Posted by dustpuffs

Well, I have no problem playing as whatever character they create, and I think they'll do season 2 like season 1 in that regard. I can't see them giving us character choice, even if they were technically able. But reading your post got me thinking: how fun would it be to see each others play throughs and look at the characters created?

Exactly!

[RobtMyers]

I'll just say that if you have the option to dress Lee in something at all mismatched, stupid or silly, it would sap the emotional weight from the story. This series isn't a sandbox, a collection of dolls, a simulation or a competition. It's a test of character.

If I want to play a silly looking character in a ZA there's plenty of games out there for that. This is the only one I've found with this much gravitas, and I want season 2 to keep it that way.

[DreadMagus]

Given the style of games these are?

No... just.... no.

[TheNNerdGamer]

clem has gone by what you told her in your final words and what you taught her.

[RAnthonyMahan]

Has any adventure game ever allowed you to create your own character before? I can't think of any.

Anyway, there's no way Season 2 would allow you to create any backstory you want and just have the game acknowledge it naturally. That kind of technology doesn't even exist with the big developers, let alone Telltale. The best you could hope for is maybe choosing between a male or female character, with the main character getting a few different reactions depending on his/her sex. And even that's probably too much to expect.

[BourbonTeacup]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Has any adventure game ever allowed you to create your own character before? I can't think of any.

Anyway, there's no way Season 2 would allow you to create any backstory you want and just have the game acknowledge it naturally. That kind of technology doesn't even exist with the big developers, let alone Telltale. The best you could hope for is maybe choosing between a male or female character, with the main character getting a few different reactions depending on his/her sex. And even that's probably too much to expect.

I was thinking more like Mass Effect where you and others occasionally in dialouge bring up your characters backstory.

[Rink]

Well imagine Season 1 when you could pick your own "backstory" (out of 3 in mass effect?), it just wouldn't work anymore if Lee wasn't a criminal/murderer. I think Telltale should invest in choices during the game and not before the game even starts.. only then there is some emotional weight to it and maybe this time around after season 2 not everyone has the same results no matter how they played. I would love that.

[dustpuffs]

I agreed that it would be fun to see what other characters people come up with. I imagined people with characters of all different ages, looks, and sizes killing zombies, and I thought it would be cute to see the creativity of others. But I loved the characters TT made in season 1, and I know that it is a story driven adventure where we would never be able to do that. I don't even want individual characters, I want season 2 to flow like season 1.
What might work for Bourbon's individualized game? Sims: Zombie Edition

[Sutinen]

If they all will have same voice actors and the same lines, it's just makes it worse. Imagine what it would be like if someone replaced Lee with some shitty joke character.

[BourbonTeacup]

I can see all the flaws in my wish trust me. I just thought it'd be a cool thing to try out.

[marcu5]

i really don't want to play as anyone else besides another black male. im not racist, but there's so few black protagonist.

[Warge]

A lot of flawed arguments here - there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be able to create our own character - with the gender of our choice as well.

Case in point: The games from Bioware (Mass Effect, Dragon Age et al) - it is fully possible to have player-created characters that look whatever you want, chosen from the palette provided by the game. In games like Mass effect, the PC is only referred to as 'Shepard', and that works very well, actually.

I think a player-created character (within some boundaries of course, liek perhaps the name) would give more depth, and also provide more replayability - my black chick is an a-hole, my white dude is a saint. For a role-playing game, this is so much more satisfying than to play within the confines provided by the game.

Apart from The Walking Dead by TTG, there is also the games The Witcher 1 and 2 by CD1 (great games, really recommended) and they suffer from the same thing - I don't want to call it 'flaw', because it isn't, but the immersion into the game is much more shallow than in a game like Mass Effect where you are bound by at least the last name - and compare that to the classical pen and paper RPGs where you have no limits at all, but they do give the absolutely best immersion into the character.

But we can't have that in computer games, lest we all get super-computers and an AI we can only dream about as a GM, so I think we could definately settle for the next best: a player-created character.

[Tyrant]

Lol this game would be quickly becoming Mass Effect.

[notoriousmercy]

Originally Posted by Kinky John Fowler

Considering the game is completely story driven I think the worst thing they could possibly do is give the player the opportunity to create their own character.

I agree. Let Telltale decide that for us.

[Textbook]

This is right off the table as it would prevent Telltale from writing a carefully structured narrative and isn't in the spirit of the all-roads-lead-to-Rome story they're doing.

[Warge]

Originally Posted by Tyrant

Lol this game would be quickly becoming Mass Effect.

Or any CRPG to be honest. Which would be a good thing. Just look at say Baldur's Gate for example - the story is there, the background is there - but for the main plot it doesn't matter what gender you are, what class and not even which race. And I'm not even asking that much from TTG.

Originally Posted by Textbook

This is right off the table as it would prevent Telltale from writing a carefully structured narrative and isn't in the spirit of the all-roads-lead-to-Rome story they're doing.

Really? We are bound by two of things regarding Lee: a) he is black, and that comes up as an issue ONCE, and b) he was sentenced to jail for murder. This second point is the only one having any real bearing on the game - it wouldn't matter if Lee had been young, old, hispanic, white...

And that all-roads-lead-to-rome has a less good equivalent term, and that is railroading.