The Walking Dead and the Choices We Make

Before this class I'd watched The Walking Dead be played before. I'd watched my cousin play the game a few months ago and I'd watched several walkthrough/voice overs on YouTube. Neither me, my cousin, or YouTubers like Pewdiepie made the same decisions even though we all ended up with the same outcome; Lee dead, leaving Clementine behind to try and make it through the world without him. Although we all end up with the same outcome I do believe that our choices matter in the game. In his article, Kirk Hamilton quotes game critique, Sparky Anderson, and his blog about choices in The Walking Dead. Anderson says, "...the choices in The Walking Dead aren't really about changing the world, they're about changing Lee. The player's choices define who Lee is, whose company he values, what principles he chooses to uphold." I agree wholeheartedly with Anderson. No matter what choices you make you're going to end up dead. That's just how the game goes. However, throughout all five episodes you're given a series of choices and those choices dictate whether or not you're going to be an asshole or a somewhat decent human being. (In the end I think it's impossible to escape without choosing to do at least one assholey move.) These choices effect the dynamic of how people in your group perceive you and interact with you. For example, my cousin, when he played, choose to be BFFs with Kenny. Because of this, Kenny was (most always) on my cousins side while people like Lily, Larry, Christa, etc. where at odds at him because of his, I guess you could say "alliance" with Kenny. I on the other hand, hate Kenny with a passion. I don't know exactly why I just do. Because of my hatred for Kenny I made it a point to disagree with him and bash his ideas every chance I got. As a result, Lily and Christa were much more willing to hear me out and the dynamic of my group was much different than my cousins experience. So while the end result might not necessarily change, I do think that your choices in the game matter. Even if they don't always seem to. 

I couldn't really think of a good question to ask but I did have a kind of rhetorical question type thing relating to Ben. In class we made it clear that most of us can't stand Ben. Most of us even let him fall to his death the first chance we got. But it got me thinking, "If a zombie apocalypse were to happen, wouldn't most of us be like Ben?" I mean let's be honest, not many (if any) of us are going to turn into this super macho badass like say, Rick or Lee or even Carley. No, I think most of us would be just like Ben. Scared, confused and just trying to do what we think is best at the time without necessarily thinking about the consequences. But I don't know, maybe I'm not giving you all enough credit. Maybe you all would turn into badasses like Rick, Lee, or Carley. If I were to judge myself though, I'd say I'd end up just like Ben.