Minecraft May Not Be the Best Candidate for Telltale's Next Episodic Adventure Game

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Today Telltale Games announced that they'll be doing another of their signature narrative-driven games with yet another phenomenally popular license. Hot on the heels of both Tales from the Borderlands and their take on HBO's Game of Thrones, the next property that they'll be working on is... Minecraft. I first read that news in a post-nap stupor, and I wasn't sure that I was properly awake. Maybe this is a strange joke. Maybe Clickhole dipped into videogame humor again and -- look, I don't know. There were a million things you could have told me that would have made more sense than that particular arrangement of headlines did.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Telltale's games and I think they're very good at what they do. I welcome just about any news I hear about what they're working on, especially when it comes to franchises I hold near and dear. But Minecraft is a strange, even ill-fitting choice for their particular narrative-driven formula, and here's why:

Just about every other major franchise that Telltale's taken on in their post-Walking Dead boom has come with a pre-existing settings and storylines to work off of. Telltale's takes on these franchises always tell their own stories with their own characters, but they typically branch from and interweave with what the fan/player is already familiar with. Their games may resonate as they do with players because they operate with all those familiar elements, while simultaneously empowering the fan/player to reach out and touch them -- change them even in a small way -- for the first time. That's a really powerful way to engage someone with something they've maybe only passively absorbed until that point.

Minecraft may be the square peg for Telltale's round hole, however. It's a series that has almost no lore or story to speak of outside of what pockets of the community have developed, and where players are rarely given anything but choice. The world is entirely open around them, and what they do (especially when it comes to the legions of players who only play in the game's boundless Creative mode) is almost entirely ungated. It's almost the antithesis of Telltale's current format.

But that doesn't mean they can't do something with it. Some of the most popular Minecraft Let's Plays and personalities often veer into storytelling as much as they do actual play (Yogscast's Shadow of Israphel series is a good example). There is also the option of going full .hack and creating something very meta based on the multiplayer server experience. 

Ultimately I'm not sure how Telltale will turn Minecraft into one of its signature narrative adventures -- or if they'll even be able to pull it off -- but nevertheless I'm very interested to see what they come up with.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Ezra]

I'm more worried they're stretching themselves too thin. The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Borderlands, Game of Thrones and now this, and we've already had The Wolf Among Us season 2 put off until next year and as far as I know, little word on the next Walking Dead.

[Drew956]

Hey Iris, I just read an interview with the author of the script that appears after you beat Minecraft.
I felt like you might find appreciate some of the little gems in the interview in the same way I did, although I do not really not for sure.

Here is my Fb post about it, with the url, that kind of explains the deep feelings I have and that were stirred by some of the comments in the article:

"This may be a spoiler if you haven't beaten minecraft, but I found it to be a deeply insightful and thought-provoking read.
I don't know how many of you feel the deep and profound emotions I feel when I think about virtual reality and identity, about the potential and significance of games as an art medium and as a medium that can expand our minds and help us achieve states of consciousness otherwise unattainable, but this read, while very very long, startled me time and time again with its little gems of insight.
If you can stomach a long read, and ^ any of the above sounds like it resonates with you, give it a read, I recommend it. :)

‪#‎SecondLife‬ ‪#‎SAO‬ ‪#‎AccelWorld‬ ‪#‎FullDiveFuture‬ ‪#‎Minecraft‬
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/09/ending-an-endless-game-an-int.html
"

If you see the hashtags above, I tag SL, two animes about VR and "Full-Dive technology", and Minecraft, which the interview is about.

If you haven't watched the anime Sword Art Online then you might not have the deeply profound feelings, expectations, hopes, and dreams for real Virtual Reality, maybe not see the profound implications and the beautiful and deep emotional meaning behind the bonds of those that connect within and meet up within virtual worlds, and the medium of VR itself, as a window into our own hearts and souls.
I know our real reality will complicate things, and with advertising, subscription fees, and whatnot, the real VR world may not be as ideal as it appears in animes, but I do see the profound implications and beautiful beautiful potential for the kindling and connecting of the human spirit, one being with another.
I am sure a lot of MMO players have deeply profound feelings and friendships and bonds with their guilds and random friends they made online, and these profound connections and bonds can only grow with real VR. (full-dive. Although, griefers will grief I suppose)