The+Walking+Dead+Season+1

__ The Walking Dead: Season 1 __


 * THE BASICS **

The Walking Dead: Season 1 is a third-person perspective, linear game produced by Telltale Games. The game is broken down into 5 consecutive episodes. Within each episode, you as the player reach five crucial points where you must make significant decisions from one of two options (e.g., choosing which character to save). Since each choice directly impacts the game play, there is a “rewind” option for players to back up and explore alternative choices. One of the greatest features of the game is once each episode is completed, the Telltale servers track how many players selected each option and display the percentages to compare the end results with you. This game is rated M for blood and gore, intense violence, and strong language.


 * PLOT DESCRIPTION **

Your journey begins with the protagonist Lee Everett (i.e., you the player) sitting in the back of a cop car. He is discussing his current situation with the policeman driving the vehicle when something attacks the car, causing an accident. After waking up, Lee discovers his first walker, or zombie, and narrowly escapes. While scouring the nearby town for live humans and supplies, he runs across a young girl named Clementine in a tree house. Clementine’s family was on vacation when whatever caused the walkers broke out, so she has been living on her own and waiting for them to return. Lee takes Clementine under his wing and together they set off to find supplies and answers to their many questions. Within each episode, you move to new locations, meet new characters, make hard moral choices, and decide who will continue on the journey with you.


 * SEASON 1 GAME TRAILER **

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 * LEARNING INVOLVED **

Playing this game was a learning curve for me. Immediately I discovered the physical skills needed to be successful in this game. These included understanding the buttons on the controller, knowing how to use the dual analog sticks simultaneously, and having solid hand-eye coordination; I found myself severely lacking the latter two skills. Common scenarios that were intimately intertwined with these physical attributes were Quick Time Events (i.e., pressing buttons quickly so you don’t die). If you miss the button or don’t press fast enough, you end up being mauled by walkers or shot by other humans. Also important were quick thinking skills. These directly impacted the game play. The choices and dialog in difficult situations had to be completed within the short allotted time period. This game really forced me to think critically – not only analyzing different situations but also rationalizing the consequences they could produce. Sometimes I felt there were no good options, but something had to be done. Other times my stomach churned as I had to choose who would live or die. I found myself thinking a lot about this game and those choices throughout the day while I wasn’t playing it.


 * TEACHING INVOLVED **

The first thing I noticed was tracking guidance. By this I mean as you move the right analog stick to look at your surroundings, areas light up with options – each option is shown and can be selected with the A/B/X/Y buttons. These options include looking at clues to the story, dialoging with characters, and collecting important tools/artifacts. As a beginner to the gaming world, I found it incredibly helpful to have indications of what to be looking for and doing. This game also did a great job of alternating its pace; fast-paced action scenes (e.g., killing “walkers”) were placed between periods of discovery scenes (e.g., scouring the environment or video narratives). In addition, save points were frequent to minimize complete frustration by the players. If you do die while playing the game, it shows your death with an announcement (“You are dead”), then restarts you from the last save point (usually right before the action scene). Finally, The Walking Dead provides instant feedback on dialog. For example, after choosing a timed response in dialog with another character, it will display what their response is (e.g., “Clementine will remember that”, “Christy did not appreciate you prying into her business”).

James Paul Gee (2007) outlined 36 learning principles in his book //What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy//. Although I am sure many more apply, a few I found relevant were:


 * Active, Critical Learning Principle (#1)
 * To be successful in this game, the player must actively and critically connect with the plot, characters, and game environment.
 * Psychosocial Moratorium (#6)
 * Players of this game can explore a variety of moral choices and actions in a safe space. They can also take risks and explore different alternative options.
 * Identity Principle (#8)
 * Although some character traits are set (i.e., you will always be Lee Everett, an African-American man with a pre-determined back story), the players can somewhat change his destiny – and how he is perceived by others – through the choices they make in the game. The extremely difficult moral dilemmas within the virtual identity are directly impacted by the learner’s real-world and projective identities. It also creates an environment for players to reflect on the consequences of their actions.


 * RELATED MATERIALS **

Since The Walking Dead: Season 1 was released in April 2012 (the complete collections of episodes was not completed until November), most of the online forums and discussions are now related to Season 2. As I perused some popular forums (e.g., Telltalegames, NeoSeeker, GameSpot), I noted most of the discussions surrounded choice/plot predictions, debates about favorite characters/scenes, reviews, and complaints about the time gaps between episodes being produced.

Walk-throughs – both with and without commentary – seem extremely popular for this game; I’ll be the first to admit that I used one during the first episode when I got incredibly stuck! It was interesting to explore the different walk-throughs since each player makes different choices in action and dialog. This said, they would still be useful for gaining traction if you seemed to have run out of options or clues in a particular scene.

In addition to walk-throughs and forums, IGN produced a detailed wiki page. On this site there were options to explore game highlights, the wiki guide itself, reviews, videos, images, walk-throughs, and cheats (although no cheats were listed). It would be a dangerous place for those gamers who have not yet played the game – spoilers abound! Due to its production type, this game has no modding, theorycrafting, or cheats.


 * OVERALL REFLECTION **

A few friends suggested this game to me, so after watching the trailer I decided I would try it out for this course. I played it on the Xbox 360, a console I had never used before. While the console itself wasn’t an issue for me, I had significant issues with the controller – specifically the dual analog sticks. While I could use either stick with full control, I was miserable at coordinating them at the same time. This created a lot of frustration for me during the first episode. So far I have managed to play through the first three episode successfully, albeit slowly.

I struggled to identify with my character (Lee). It was in the beginning that I noticed many main characters in video games are men. In addition, there were a large amount of fixed traits about him. However, I did like that as I played through the episodes, it was clear what the direct effects of my moral choices in dialog and actions had on the game itself. Despite having little to no similarities to my real-world identity, Lee interacted with the other characters via dialog choices that I selected. Since important conversations had timed response choices, I had to quickly analyze the situation, context, and process how I would react in that particular situation. This all said, I developed a quick and easy attachment and connection with the character of Clementine, and made sure that all of my actions directly benefited her.

Overall, this was a game that I enjoyed playing – and will continue to play through the end! Due to its linear plot and alternating pace, it was rarely frustrating for someone like me despite my minimal gaming experiences. I’d definitely recommend it for those who are not afraid of language and violence in games!