作者：Stanislav Costiuc

当我第一次玩Telltale的《行尸走肉第一季》时（即在游戏刚刚发行时），那真的是一次让人惊艳的体验。那时候我根本不熟悉《行尸走肉》这一授权内容，所以对我来说那便只是一款游戏，而在完成每一个章节后我觉得非常沮丧，因为我迫切希望下一个章节赶紧发行让我能够尽快回到游戏中。虽然我知道将会出现一些糟糕的内容并且该系列游戏不可能如此平和地结束，但却还是希望所有一切都能够好好的。而随着游戏第三季的发行，我决定去重新玩这款游戏，并且我在游戏中所获得的情感就和第一次游戏时一样，尽管我已经了解了大部分的剧情发展。

每个游戏章节都伴随着一份免责声明：“这一游戏系列将适应你所作出的每个选择。游戏故事是基于你的游戏方式。”但其实在《行尸走肉》中，玩家所作出的选择不会像影响主角以及他/你和其他角色间的关系那样影响整体的故事结果。

游戏中只有3个角色出现在全部5个章节中。其中Lee和Clementine是2位核心角色。他们真的是整体体验的核心。玩具需要找到那个小女孩，与她建立起继父与继女之间的关系，并教授她如何生存下去。她也将教你如何保持人性。你将开始真正去照顾Clementine。但不管你做什么，Lee和Clementine彼此间的关系都很好。

twd(from gamasutra)

而第3个出现在全部5个章节中的角色便是Kenny。你与这个角色的关系则是完全不同的，即他代表的是完全基于你的选择去定制故事。但对于我来说却不是如此。

以下便是我在Kenny身上所遇到的问题。在最终章节前，他其实是双面性的，即既讨厌你又是你最好的伙伴。例如在重新玩第一季游戏时，我便：

在农场中拯救了他的儿子。

在与Larry的争吵中站在他那一边。

告诉他谁是药店真正的主人。

提供食物给他和儿子。

尝试着去救Larry而不是像Kenny想要的那样打爆他的头。

在那之后Kenny便开始讨厌我了。是的，Larry占一大部分原因，而在那之后即使我反复去帮助他或他的家人，他也仍然觉得我和他不和。而我的反应便是：“什么鬼？Kenny是什么情况？”

我假设这可能是因为Kenny只有2种类型的对话/行动：与Lee关系不好，与Lee关系好，所以当情况变得复杂时，游戏便会只选择不好的关系这一选项。也许我的想法不对，但至少游戏带给了我这样的感觉。

这是非常让人受挫的。在最后一个章节一切体现得更加具体，例如Kenny承认虽然存在分歧，但Lee始终都是他的家人。从很多方面看来最终章节就像是Kenny的忏悔，即不只是从他贯穿于整季游戏的角色弧来看，同时也可以从游戏处理我们与他的关系中体现出来。但同时游戏也仍未删除我从这个角色中所获得的挫折感。

而这里也存在最有趣的一部分。玩家将基于不同方式去看待它。他们并未认为Kenny在大部分系列内容中拥有多元对话设定是创造值得信赖的关系的缺陷。他们认为这是自己角色的一部分。就像在讨论Kenny时你可能会看到这样的形容：“如果你忠实于Kenny，他也会忠实于自己的设定，经过一再冲突，他将会选择你而不是一个群组，但如果你不能证明他信任你的话情况便不是如此。”

尽管人们不断谈论着他就像是不受控制的朋友，但是在《行尸走肉第二季》Kenny出现时情况便有点不那么明确了。我们可以找到许多其它关于Kenny这个角色的辩护或讨论。

出于各种原因这对我来说非常有吸引力。因为我认为一个角色基于所有这些不同的理解去表现自己是非常有趣的设定。但同时我也认为它表现出了Telltale让玩家基于选择去定制自己的故事的原则。

而关于Telltale游戏的最大批评便是玩家的选择并不能改变全局故事走向，就像我们在大多数RPG游戏中所看到的那样。

但在你们个人的游戏体验中，那些较小的选择还是具有影响力的。就像你所扮演的是怎样的Lee。你如何教授Clementine。你如何看待其他角色以及他们如何看待你等等。这都能帮助你去定制属于自己的游戏体验，这也是Telltale所遵循的准则，虽然这不如《巫师2》那般浩大，但却取得了巨大的成功。

这并不是关于目的地，而是关于旅程。关于背景。Carla和Doug都会死亡，不管谁先谁后。但如果你有机会你会先救谁？为什么？你的群组将从车里拿食物，而你会和他们一起这么做吗？还是你会站在认为偷食物是不对的的Clementine那一边？你是否会用枪射击你朋友那被感染的孩子而避免他自己出手？还是你们会放任那个濒死的孩子不管？

这些都只是《行尸走肉》呈现给我们的部分问题。游戏中还有更多更多等待你去回答的问题，而你的回答方式也将决定着你将面对怎样的故事，即就像游戏一开始所承诺的那样。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Walking Dead, Choices, and Kenny

by Stanislav Costiuc

When I first played Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season One, back when it was released, it was an amazing experience. I wasn’t familiar with The Walking Dead franchise at all then, so it was just the game, and after every episode I’d feel like shit. Really depressed. And would get back into it as soon as the next episode was released. And I knew that something awful would happen again, that there’s no way the series is gonna end in a good way, but still had this damn hope that everything is going to be alright. And then that hope would get obliterated. And I’d get back for more. And with the release of the third season I decided to replay this, and the journey was as emotional as it was on the first run, even though I knew most of the things that would happen.

Each episode starts with a disclaimer. “This game series adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play.” And from time to time, the game shows in the corner what has become somewhat a meme, that “This character will remember that”. However, in The Walking Dead the choices you make, they don’t affect the possible overall narrative outcome as much as they affect who the protagonist is as a person and what his/your relationship with other characters is.

The Walking Dead, Choices, and Kenny

There are only three characters in the game who are present in all five episodes of the series. The core duo of Lee and Clementine being two of the three. They are really at the heart of the whole experience. Finding that little girl, developing a step-fatherly relationship with her, teaching to survive. And her teaching you to try and keep some of the humanity. You start to really care for Clementine. But, regardless of what you do, Lee and Clementine will have a good relationship with each other.

The third character who’s present in all five episodes is Kenny. And he’s the character you can have really different relationships with, supposing to represent the principle of tailoring the story to your choices in full. That said, to me, he doesn’t.

The Walking Dead, Choices, and Kenny

Here’s the problem that I have with Kenny, though. Until the final episode (and very end of episode 4 as well), he is very binary – he either hates you or is your best bud, nothing in between. For example, in the replay of the first season, I:
– Saved his son at the farm. (+)
– Sided with him in argument with Larry. (+)
– Opened up to him regarding who the owners of the drug store were. (+)
– Gave food to his son AND him. (+)
– Tried to save Larry first instead of smashing his head outright like Kenny wanted. (-)

And that’s it, after that Kenny just hated my guts. Yes, the Larry situation was a big one, but even while repeatedly helping him or his family after that moment, he still went on how I never agree with him, how I never help him, how I’m always against him (even though I didn’t blame him for what he did), and even sometimes refuses to lend me a hand in spite. And to me it’s like, ‘What. The. Fuck. Kenny?’

I presume that’s because there were only two types of dialogues/actions for Kenny: negative relationship with Lee, and positive relationship with Lee, so when there’s something more complex, the game just chooses the negative relationship option. I might be wrong, but at least that’s how it feels like.

That is very frustrating. In the final episode (as well as the end of episode 4), it gets more detailed, like for example Kenny acknowledges how even though there were disagreements, Lee was always there for his family. And in many ways, the final episode is sort of a redemption for Kenny, not just in terms of his character arc that he went through the season, but also how the game handles our relationship with him. And while that’s nice, it still doesn’t remove all the feelings of frustration I had with that character due to what I consider a flaw in design.

But here’s the most interesting part. The players tend to look at it differently. They don’t look at Kenny having binary dialogue possibilities for most of the series as a flaw in making a believable relationship. They look at it as part of his character. In discussions about Kenny, you see phrases like, “Kenny is loyal to a fault if you’re loyal to him, to the point that he’ll choose you over a group in times of conflict, but that’s not the case if you don’t prove his trust in you.”

The Walking Dead, Choices, and Kenny

Or even people discussing how he’s like an abusive controlling friend, an idea that gets ambiguously explored in the Season Two of The Walking Dead where Kenny reappears. And there are many other justifications or discussions about Kenny as a character.

And that’s very fascinating to me for several reasons. Mainly because I think it’s interesting how a character gets a life of his own with all these different interpretations. But also I think it validates the Telltale’s principle of tailoring story to your choices.

The biggest criticism regarding Telltale’s games is that the choices there don’t change the global narrative direction, like one would see in plenty of RPGs for example. And that’s true that at least so far there are very few choices in Telltale’s productions that have massive ramifications over the global plotline.

But all the little choices do have ramifications over your personal experience with the characters surrounding you. What kind of Lee you are. What do you teach Clementine. How do you see other characters and how do they see you. And that helps personalize the experience a lot, which is why the Telltale formula, while not as epic in scope as let’s say The Witcher 2 (where the whole middle of the game is entirely different depending on one choice), became so very successful.

The Walking Dead, Choices, and Kenny

It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey. The context. Both Carla and Doug will always die, one later than the other. But who do you save when you get the chance? Why? Your group will always take food from the car. But will you do it with them, or will you support Clementine who thinks it’s wrong to steal without knowing if it belongs to anybody? Will you take the gun to shoot the infected child of your friend so he wouldn’t do it yourself? Or will you both just leave the dying boy in the wild?

Those are just examples of some of the questions The Walking Dead poses. There are many, many, many more, and the way you answer them really tailors the story to how you play, just like the disclaimer in the beginning promises.

Thank you all for reading. Feel free to leave any comments below. If you’d like to keep an eye on my future blog posts, feel free to follow me on Twitter @farlander1991 （source：gamasutra）