Has Fone Bone become...a geek?

While lovable nerds make great heroes for adventure games, in his move from comic to game, Fone Bone's nerdiness may have gone from lovable to terminal.

In the comic, when Bone wants to impress Thorn, he flexes an enormous bicep, displays some impressive tree-climbing skills, beats up a giant bee, downs a fifth of scotch, sticks a stogie in his teeth, and says, "Better put some steak on that." ... well, except for the scotch, stogie, and catch-phrase part. But anyway, this little guy stares down rat creatures without blinking (lots of sweating, but no blinking!) and can deliver an occasional tongue-lashing. The Bone of the game complains of burning salad and wanders around a fair trying to improve his "manliness." When did he lose his self-esteem? He's already as manly as a two-and-a-half-foot naked albino Smurf is likely to get. Frankly, during that part, I was thinking he should ditch Thorn and find a girl who's a lot less moody. Maybe that bonus pay-off from the twenty stuffed cows will raise his confidence in the sequel.

[Emily]

Welcome to the forum. Did you see him flash his bicep in the game? He does it.

In any case, I think carrying a copy of Moby Dick around pretty much secures his geekiness.

...downs a fifth of scotch, sticks a stogie in his teeth, and says, "Better put some steak on that." ... well, except for the scotch, stogie, and catch-phrase part.

And here was me about to get enraged with Telltale for compromising. Though, I was mildly annoyed when I read in a blog a little while back that they decided not to let you smoke Smiley's cigar because they didn't want to encourage smoking. Opposing smoking is the first step in a trajectory that pretty early on involves invading Poland... and gets worse from there on.

Yeah, Fone Bone is already a giant geek in the books.

Wait, so Smiley still smokes his cigar in cutscenes and all that, right?

[Emily]

He had a cigar in Out from Boneville. I can't remember if he had it at all in The Great Cow Race. He and Phoney do drink beer, though.

Though, I was mildly annoyed when I read in a blog a little while back that they decided not to let you smoke Smiley's cigar because they didn't want to encourage smoking. Opposing smoking is the first step in a trajectory that pretty early on involves invading Poland... and gets worse from there on.

Invading Iraq?

I'd argue that invading Iraq after invading Poland would actually be getting less evil in the scheme of things, seeing as I'm pretty sure Poland had a somewhat legitimate government, whereas in the case of Iraq under Saddam, calling it that would be a stretch. I was thinking more along the lines of Denmark and Norway being the followup invasions to Poland, but this is getting less and less relevant to Bone with every word I type.

I'd argue that invading Iraq after invading Poland would actually be getting less evil in the scheme of things, seeing as I'm pretty sure Poland had a somewhat legitimate government, whereas in the case of Iraq under Saddam, calling it that would be a stretch. I was thinking more along the lines of Denmark and Norway being the followup invasions to Poland, but this is getting less and less relevant to Bone with every word I type.

lol.. I'm pretty sure the Nazis were into stopping people smoking (unlike some US & European states)

Is invading for a political ideology really worse than invading for money?
Is invading for a political ideology really worse than lying you the people you represent about why you're going to war?
Is killing millions of innocent people because you’re mental really worse than killing millions of people for profit?
& so on and so forth... that kinda nonsense...

[Heatherlee]

Though, I was mildly annoyed when I read in a blog a little while back that they decided not to let you smoke Smiley's cigar because they didn't want to encourage smoking. Opposing smoking is the first step in a trajectory that pretty early on involves invading Poland... and gets worse from there on.

That's not exactly accurate. We were trying to have Smiley have an object in his inventory that represented his character, like Fone has Moby Dick and Phoney has his money. Even though Bone is not designed specifically for children, we enjoy the fact that kids like the games and even more that kids and their parents like to play the games together.

If we wanted to use the cigar for Smiley's "personal" inventory item, we would have to allow the player to select it and make Smiley smoke it anytime they wanted. Or possibly to offer it to others. At that point we can't avoid making some kind of statement about smoking, since it is a very charged issue. Do we make Smiley take a puff and say something like "ahhh....that's great!" or do we have him smoke and say something like "cough cough! I should really give these up!"

We asked Jeff Smith his opinion and Jeff didn't feel that not letting Smiley light up whenever he wanted was compromising the character. Furthermore, he volunteered that Smiley carries with him an endless supply of cheese sandwiches, so that's what we went with.

In the United States (mabe not so much in other countries, I don't know) smoking is a very charged and devisive issue. In California, where Telltale is located, it is illegal to smoke indoors in any public building, even in bars. There was even some law on a ballot to illegalize smoking in parks. (I don't know if that was passed or not).

So don't take it as us "opposing" smoking. Take it as us exhibiting a wise sense of diplomacy.

[Udvarnoky]

I'm a strong advocate for getting the little stale bread thingies that Smiley loves in the comics into his inventory next time.

At that point we can't avoid making some kind of statement about smoking, since it is a very charged issue. Do we make Smiley take a puff and say something like "ahhh....that's great!"

Sounds like you've got the perfect solution right there. I can fully understand why you decided to go for the cheese sandwiches though, and I was joking about being annoyed anyway. I blame those damn antismokers for making this such a heated issue in the first place. Will their evil never stop?

lol.. I'm pretty sure the Nazis were into stopping people smoking (unlike some US & European states)

I'm not sure whether you were somehow arguing with me, or agreeing with me or what, but that was sort of my point. If you already realised that, ignore me because I must have failed to understand your post.

I'm not sure whether you were somehow arguing with me, or agreeing with me or what, but that was sort of my point. If you already realised that, ignore me because I must have failed to understand your post.

lol... naaa, the point I was completely failing to make was that since Hitler just a little mental his actions (though terrible), may be considered 'diminished responsibility' (I know that sentence makes no sense, but I'm completely shattered, so, please, go with me here)

Whereas the president (& his advisors) are presumably 'sane' so although their actions are minor in comparison, they are much worse morally/ethically (because they were made by people fully aware of the resulting impact they would have on millions of peoples lives)

I've completely forgotten the point I was trying to get across, and re-reading my post I sound like a complete d**k, so ignoring it is probably the best move.