18 CINEPHILE / Vol. 11, No. 3 / Fall/Winter 2016 Sarah Stang

18 CINEPHILE / Vol. 11, No. 3 / Fall/Winter 2016 Sarah Stang Player Agency in Telltale Games’ Transmedia and Cross-Genre Adaptations Though severely understudied, video game Hutcheon describes adaptation as “thematic and adaptations have become a highly popular and narrative persistence [combined] with material lucrative transmedia business. Film-to-game change” (4). Telltale follows this persistence in their adaptations are now standard for many big-budget adaptations while also centralizing player choice, Hollywood productions, and video game developers an element unique to interactive media. Within have also turned to other media for inspiration: The Walking Deadand its sequel, The Walking from comics to television series, game adaptations Dead: Season Two (2013-2014), player choice is the of popular franchises are proving to be productive basis for most of the gameplay. The unique selling areas for both profit and creativity. Founded in point of these games is that “the story is tailored 2004, Telltale Games is an American independent by how you play.” After the player makes a choice, video game developer and publisher best known for the games often remind them that “this action its adaptations of popular licensed products. Telltale will have consequences.” Despite these looming focuses on digital publications which are released repercussions, players only have a matter of seconds episodically, and most of its productions are point- to make morally-heavy or completely ambiguous and-click adventure-style games which centralize decisions. Other characters will certainly voice their narrative, character development, and player opinions, but the games offer little moral guidance choice. Telltale has adapted from various media, and no reward for playing the games as selfish and including comic books (Sam & Max, The Walking antagonistic or as kind and heroic. Rather than Dead), a web cartoon (Homestar Runner), multiple the game superimposing an evaluative system, film series (Wallace and Gromit, Back to the Future), players make their decisions based on the limited a television series (Game of Thrones), and other information available to them; the opinions of video game franchises (Borderlands, Minecraft). In other characters, who are written to be flawed or this article, I will discuss Telltale’s most successful even untrustworthy; and their gut reactions to each adaptations and explore how their artistic approach situation. and particular source material have determined their level of popularity and acclaim. Most of my discussion will focus on The Walking Dead (2012), Telltale’s most successful adaptation. I will argue By allowing the player to make that because its main characters are unique to the morally-heavy decisions and making game, rather than adapted from the source material, it seem that those decisions shape the The Walking Deadfosters an incredibly realistic illusion of player agency, which sets it apart from narrative outcome, Telltale’s games other Telltale adaptations and most video games in foster an incredibly realistic illusion of general. In her book, A Theory of Adaptation, Linda player agency. Adaptation, Translation, Permutation / Articles 19 Beyond providing a compelling initial comic, book, show, etc., and exercising control over experience, offering multiple choices and multiple the characters and events therein. endings to the player is also a wise marketing tactic, as it encourages players to play the game Player Agency in a Transmedia Adaptation multiple times. Telltale’s games follow a branching decision tree format in which the narrative splits Although branching narrative trees are a popular based on player choice and then converges again design technique for games, they are not enough at specific points in the game. This format cleverly to satisfy the player if they do not feel that the facilitates giving the player the feeling that every choices offered are meaningful. While players are decision they make matters significantly while not aware developers have pre-determined the game’s expending excessive resources on narrative content possible choices and subsequent outcomes, if the that the players might not encounter. As such, choices offered seem significant within the game while the sensation of agency is cogent in these world, that awareness can fade and the player can games, many of the decisions offered to the player maintain a feeling of control and agency. However, are false choices because the different options when that game world is part of a larger franchise, eventually lead to (mostly) the same outcome. with its own lore and existence outside of the video Toby Smethurst and Stef Craps point this out game, the concept of player control and agency is during their analysis of The Walking Dead: complicated. The events in Game of Thrones take place The narrative branches that the player does not travel concurrently with the fourth season of the down but perceives as possibilities are just as important television series. While the player controls to their understanding of the story as the events that characters who do not exist in the show, they often actually play out on the screen. One could reasonably interact with the show’s main characters. Because field the argument that this overarching antinarrative the show’s characters exist outside of the game or phantom narrative is even more powerful than world, the player’s control over the in-game events the narrative itself, since it colludes with the player’s imagination to create might-have-beens that the game’s is necessarily limited. While the game tells the developers could not possibly have anticipated or player that his or her actions have consequences, included in the game (15). the player knows that no matter what choices he or she makes, the game cannot go against the This kind of trick is only possible in an show’s canon. Similarly, another Telltale adaptation, interactive medium like video games, in which The Wolf Among Us, based on Bill Willingham’s the player believes that the narrative is responding Fables comic book series, is set as a prequel to the to his or her actions. By allowing the player to series and, more importantly, is canon with the make morally-heavy decisions and making it seem comics. As such, the player knows that his or her that those decisions shape the narrative outcome, choices, no matter how seemingly relevant, cannot Telltale’s games foster an incredibly realistic illusion contradict anything within the established series. of player agency. From the beginning of each of these games, players The discussion surrounding agency and video familiar with the source material know which game play can be traced back to Janet Murray, characters will survive and which will not, as well when she defined video game agency as “the as much of what will happen within the story. satisfying power to take meaningful action and While this does not necessarily make the player’s see the results of our decisions and choices,” and experience less enjoyable, it does make his or her pointed out that players desire this subjective choices feel less meaningful, and therefore weakens experience of authority and control (126). The the sense of agency he or she experiences. feeling of being in control of the game world Tales from the Borderlands, a rare example of a can also foster the illusion that the experience is game-to-game adaptation, is a narrative sequel to unmediated: players often refer to their characters the Borderlands first-person shooter series. A cross- in the first person and identify with their actions genre adaptation, Telltale turned a fast-paced game (Jenkins 31-32). The appeal of video game with a shooter mechanic and limited character adaptations, then, is in the pleasures associated interaction into a point-and-click adventure with entering into the familiar world of the film, heavily centralizing character interaction and 20 CINEPHILE / Vol. 11, No. 3 / Fall/Winter 2016 development. The character-heavy aspect of Telltale critically acclaimed production. The adaptation productions is central to their appeal, because, as won numerous Game of the Year awards from Telltale Games’ Steven Allison observed, “[w]hen several gaming publications and is credited with properties become a franchise, people fall in love revitalizing the point-and-click adventure game with the characters” (Corriea para. 6). Since this is genre [1]. Critics praised the game for its morally- a sequel, rather than a prequel or concurrent event, heavy emotional content, difficult decisions, and Tales from the Borderlands gives its players the sense the realistic relationships between its characters. that anything could happen, that his or her choices These characteristics are essential reasons behind could have consequences on established characters. The Walking Dead’s success as an adaptation and While this feeling of control is also an illusion, are dependent upon the player’s lack of pre-existing since the game’s system of false choices and periodic knowledge. Although the world is adapted from convergences limit narrative flexibility, players an existing comic book franchise, almost all the are not already aware of what will happen and so characters are entirely unique to the game. In this the sensation of control is powerful. Additionally, way, unlike Game of Thrones and The Wolf Among the main series’ developers have announced a Us, the player does not already know what will future title and it is possible that they could base happen to most characters and is not already aware particular elements of that new installment on of events which will occur in the game. Telltale Telltale’s statistical data about its players’ choices. worked closely with the creator of the comic series, After completing each episode of the Telltale games Robert Kirkman, whose only stipulation was to discussed, players are shown the statistics of other avoid mention of the comic’s main character, Rick players’ decisions at major moments in the game.

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