March Community Playthrough - Life is Strange

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Since it was brought up, I will point out that it is possible to save Kate...

[wildbil52]

Starting to get a little spoilery, guys...

[singlebanana]

Starting to get a little spoilery, guys...

According to the checkpoint guide, we are in Week 3, which means we can talk freely through Chapter 2. Catch up sucka!  

[wildbil52]

Starting to get a little spoilery, guys...

According to checkpoint guide, we are in Week 3, which means we can talk freely through Chapter 2. Catch up sucka! 

I don't see anything in the OP that says we can talk about spoilers once we reach a chekpoint, only to use spoiler tags if you "think something is crucial to the game that might be a spoiler"

But Ok, :sniff sniff: I'll leave..

[singlebanana]

Starting to get a little spoilery, guys...

According to checkpoint guide, we are in Week 3, which means we can talk freely through Chapter 2. Catch up sucka! 

I don't see anything in the OP that says we can talk about spoilers once we reach a chekpoint, only to use spoiler tags if you "think something is crucial to the game that might be a spoiler"

But Ok, :sniff sniff: I'll leave..

That's always been our standing rule for playthroughs when there are checkpoints up.  The fear is that things will get lost in spoiler tags, i.e. people won't go back and look at and discuss them, so we try not to overuse them.  Sorry buddy. You should be able to catch up quick and add to the conversation though.

[singlebanana]

Since it was brought up, I will point out that it is possible to save Kate...

[img width=600 height=800]http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.89676285.1697/flat,800x800,075,f.u1.jpg[/img]

I'm in da club.

[wildbil52]

LOL

[singlebanana]

Floyd needs this t-shirt.

[Fleach]

Floyd needs this t-shirt.

Definitely!

I finished chapter 3 and seeing as we've got some people who are done with the game and other who are pretty close, let's just make this a free for all.

There's a big shocker at the end of chapter 3 and I think it's very heavily tied into the game's theme of cause and effect/living with our decisions.

Spoiler (hover to show)

When Max gets the picture of her and Chloe from Chloe's mom she realizes that she just wants Chloe to be happy. The punk attitude is just a shield to protect her from more harm, at least that's what Chloe thinks. She's got some emotional wounds and wants to Teflon coat herself from further disappointment while hiding her scars. Knowing that I went back to the moment when Chloe's dad went to pick up Joyce and hid his keys in hopes to prevent his car accident. But by messing around with the past I'm not happy with the present (Max is in the Vortex Club and Chloe's disabled). The cause of my desire to change things, produced an effect I'd rather not have.

I think this game is going in a direction with a message about the strength to move on and how selfish it would be if we could change things, however, would we be satisfied with the results of the changed we made? Like Chloe said, "crazy shi*t can, and will, happen" and people have to be able to accept what happens in order to have the strength to continue with the lives. It's a bit of "be-careful-what-you-wish-for" too, because though we all wish we could change things, we can't guarantee those changes will really lead to better end results.

I've seen this concept handled by film and novels, but never in a game. Or at least, never as thought provoking as this.

[Crabmaster2000]

I'm not trying to be argumentative by any means, but my point wasn't that you were playing with the "intention of [getting] a "good", "bad" or "neutral" ending."  I was referring to the alignment of your character in terms of chaotic, neutral, lawful, etc. I think that anytime you play a role playing game that allows alignment options, you  have in mind how you want to play it (example: being a hard ass or a more sympathetic character like in Wolf Among Us). This alignment could be based on your general personal nature, or some opposite role you don't condone in the real world. Saying that you weren't able to save Kate and that it's going to greatly effect your decisions going forward proves that you prefer to attribute a certain alignment on your character.  Though you say you may not have an outcome you desire, I think you still would like an outcome(s) that prevents harm to others.  With that said, I think these sort of things go hand in hand sometimes in a game and I think that paying more attention to the "details" in this game and making appropriate alignment decisions will probably result in a "brighter" outcome if you will.

This brings up a good point about the game. While it seems that Chapter 1 was a more introductory chapter with very little consequence, the stakes certainly get higher in Chapter 2. It will be fun to see where it goes from here.

I kind of agree with this, but either in a game or real life moral decisions don't always have a right and wrong answer. Ethical choices are very subjective and as such will be different for each person and situation. Every decision doesn't fit nicely into "neutral" or "Lawful good".

I don't feel like Max would try to intentionally hurt someone with what I know about her, but I'm sure some of you used the opportunity when Frank was threatening Chloe to use the gun to scare him off. If I felt Chloe's life was in jeopardy would I have been more willing to pull the trigger? Possibly.

I realize in pretty much every video game the choices are divided up into catergories that steer you towards specific outcomes. I like to pretend I don't think that and just play it out as I feel the character would and see where I end up.

PS - Sorry for the spoilers Bil. We were past the checkpoint so it was supposed to be a safe place!!

[Fleach]

I kind of agree with this, but either in a game or real life moral decisions don't always have a right and wrong answer. Ethical choices are very subjective and as such will be different for each person and situation. Every decision doesn't fit nicely into "neutral" or "Lawful good".

I don't feel like Max would try to intentionally hurt someone with what I know about her, but I'm sure some of you used the opportunity when Frank was threatening Chloe to use the gun to scare him off. If I felt Chloe's life was in jeopardy would I have been more willing to pull the trigger? Possibly.

That's been my approach to the game. I'm putting myself in Max's shoes and basing all my choices on how I would act as Max if I was in that situation.

[Crabmaster2000]

Played a little bit of chapter 3 today and am very upset by it. I'm not very far in and it has already forced me to make two decisions I did not want to make. I'd rather it made me fail and had bad consequences. Really broke the atmosphere for me. It makes me remember I'm playing a video game instead of absorbing a story

[Untrod Tripod]

Floyd needs this t-shirt.

Definitely!

I finished chapter 3 and seeing as we've got some people who are done with the game and other who are pretty close, let's just make this a free for all.

There's a big shocker at the end of chapter 3 and I think it's very heavily tied into the game's theme of cause and effect/living with our decisions.

Spoiler (hover to show)

When Max gets the picture of her and Chloe from Chloe's mom she realizes that she just wants Chloe to be happy. The punk attitude is just a shield to protect her from more harm, at least that's what Chloe thinks. She's got some emotional wounds and wants to Teflon coat herself from further disappointment while hiding her scars. Knowing that I went back to the moment when Chloe's dad went to pick up Joyce and hid his keys in hopes to prevent his car accident. But by messing around with the past I'm not happy with the present (Max is in the Vortex Club and Chloe's disabled). The cause of my desire to change things, produced an effect I'd rather not have.

I think this game is going in a direction with a message about the strength to move on and how selfish it would be if we could change things, however, would we be satisfied with the results of the changed we made? Like Chloe said, "crazy shi*t can, and will, happen" and people have to be able to accept what happens in order to have the strength to continue with the lives. It's a bit of "be-careful-what-you-wish-for" too, because though we all wish we could change things, we can't guarantee those changes will really lead to better end results.

I've seen this concept handled by film and novels, but never in a game. Or at least, never as thought provoking as this.

Spoiler (hover to show)

I thought it was thought-provoking, but it's in service of "there is one correct timeline", so I'm not sure how much it was just a glimpse into what the game could have been if they had explored multiple universes instead of saying "YOU'RE LEAVING MULTIPLE MAXES ALL OVER CREATION!!! THIS IS BAD!!! CLOSE THE LOOP!!!

I guess it's a little unrealistic, but I found the ending to be deeply unsatisfying because were it actually available to me, I would have made a lot of different choices than the ones I was given. For a game that is based on multiple choices, there is a LOT of railroading.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

...honestly, loving the discussion. I suddenly feel like I'm in a Book Club.

Last week, once everyone has started forming their opinions of the overall game, I want to discuss whether or not everyone feels like this should be earning the number of awards it has. From my circle of friends on TrueAchievements, the game is pretty polarizing.

[singlebanana]

I can understand how this game could be pretty polarizing and I think it opens itself up to be so.  First of all, there may be some that argue that this might not be a "game" in the sense of traditional games. I wouldn't argue this point, but although not very traditional, it has enough gameplay and decision-making in it to pass the sniff test. It's not like you are merely walking around like experienced with Dear Esther.

Secondly, the story is based on adolescence, which many of us are probably fairly far removed from.  I think that some of the language (which has already been pointed out) and trivial, more adolescent situations may seem a little unrealistic and/or bothersome to some.  There are several references to Catcher in the Rye throughout (which I'll save for the podcast), and that book in itself can similarly be super polarizing to readers depending on the age they read it.  Believe me, I taught it in college and did my Masters thesis on it, so I am pretty familiar.

Lastly, there are some subject matters in the game, which depending on your beliefs/philosophies may be polarizing on their own.  For fear of spoilers, I will not go into that here, but some are recognizable early on.