Tell Me Why (XSX/XSS/XB1/Steam) - Life is Strange Dev Dotnod. All 3 Chapters now free to own for the whole of June.

Release dates for each Chapter: 27th Aug/3rd Sep/10th Sep 2020.

Tell Me Why is the latest narrative adventure game from DONTNOD Entertainment, the studio behind the beloved franchise Life is Strange. In this intimate thriller, reunited twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan use their special bond to unravel mysteries of their loving but troubled childhood.

Set in the fictional town of Delos Crossing, Alaska, Tell Me Why features a cast of intriguing, true to life characters and mature themes. As you interact with memories of the past, you will make choices that determine the strength of the unique bond that Tyler and Alyson share—and shape the future course of the twins’ lives.

Tell Me Why unfolds across three chapters, all of which will release in the Summer of 2020 with Xbox Game Pass and will also be available for purchase on Xbox One, Windows PC and Steam.

Developer: DONTNOD Entertainment
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platforms: Xbox One & PC (Windows Store & Steam) [Included with Gamepass]. Won't be coming to other platforms.
Players: 1
File Size: 9GB
Release Dates: Episode 1 (August 27th) Episode 2 (September 3rd) Episode 3 (September 10th)
Price: £24.99 for all 3 chapters or free with Game Pass.

https://www.tellmewhygame.com/
https://twitter.com/tellmewhygame
https://www.facebook.com/TellMeWhy.DONTNOD
https://www.instagram.com/tellmewhygame/

Reviews - https://opencritic.com/game/10048/tell-me-why/reviews or https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/tell-me-why

Announced today at X019 in London, the story-driven episodic experience will focus on two twins – Tyler and Alyson Ronan – as they unravel memories of a precious yet troubled childhood. Chances are it will jump between the past, present and future.

It takes place in a small town in Alaska, once again adopting the charming, somewhat grounded roots of the studio’s other works, albeit with a supernatural element of sorts thrown in for good measure.

DONTNOD has confirmed that Tyler identifies as a transgender man; the studio says it has worked closely with LGBTQ organisation GLAAD to shape Tyler as an authentic character.

“Microsoft and DONTNOD have approached Tyler with a real commitment to authenticity,” explains Nick Adams, Director of Transgender Representation at GLAAD. “Tyler is a fully-realized, endearing character, whose story is not reduced to simplistic trans tropes. Creating a playable lead trans character – and taking such care to get it right – raises the bar for future LGBTQ inclusion in gaming.”

Tyler and Alyson will be dual protagonists, both playable throughout Tell Me Why’s three episodes, shortened from the usual five since DONTNOD is aware that fan’s aren’t the biggest lovers of the long wait between installments.

“We listened closely to fans of narrative adventure games, and we heard loud and clear how painful unpredictable gaps between episodes can be,” said Peter Wyse, General Manager for Xbox Games Studios Publishing. “We’re thrilled to announce that the entire Tell Me Why story will release in Summer 2020.”

Tell Me Why will release simultaneously across Xbox One and PC (via Steam) and will be available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch, which itself saw a flurry of new announcements tonight. We’re super curious to see how Tell Me Why shapes out, and we’ll be sure to share more information once we have it.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/tel ... ro-3954796

https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/14/dont ... character/

Published by MS and launching on Game Pass.

I still need to get back to LIS2 at some point. I made the mistake a playing it too early. The gap between episodes doesn't really work for me as I want to run through the whole thing at once, otherwise I'm just going to forget half the details.

This is, apparently, already causing quite a stir given no trans people were involved with the game. Obviously the trans community, which has its fair share of well known and considered game devs, is rather upset.

EDIT: For those that aren't aware, one of the main player characters in this is trans.

See, this is one thing I don't get. Why aren't other people allowed to make things about things they are not? I honestly don't get it.

Pedz wrote:See, this is one thing I don't get. Why aren't other people allowed to make things about things they are not? I honestly don't get it.

I've written about 3 versions of this post trying to explain why, but honestly I can't find any other way to say it than the obvious. This is a story about a minority written by people from the discriminatory majority, people who have no experience of what it is like to live as a member of the minority group they are making the centre of their narrative. Considering there are many hundreds of trans writers, artists and developers out there, the fact that not one of them was approached by the team is sort of stunning.

I mean, the closest other pop culture example I can think of is Scarlett Johansson playing a shitload of white washed characters while claiming "I should be allowed to play anything I want!" It's a total dismissal of the power dynamics of race and sexuality that define western culture.

EDIT: It's not about "other people not being allowed to write about things they aren't." It's the fact that a group of non-trans people felt it appropriate to write a trans narrative without hiring anyone with direct experience of that narrative, despite there being ample opportunity to do so.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Pedz wrote:See, this is one thing I don't get. Why aren't other people allowed to make things about things they are not? I honestly don't get it.

I've written about 3 versions of this post trying to explain why, but honestly I can't find any other way to say it than the obvious. This is a story about a minority written by people from the discriminatory majority, people who have no experience of what it is like to live as a member of the minority group they are making the centre of their narrative. Considering there are many hundreds of trans writers, artists and developers out there, the fact that not one of them was approached by the team is sort of stunning.

I mean, the closest other pop culture example I can think of is Scarlett Johansson playing a shitload of white washed characters while claiming "I should be allowed to play anything I want!" It's a total dismissal of the power dynamics of race and sexuality that define western culture.

EDIT: It's not about "other people not being allowed to write about things they aren't." It's the fact that a group of non-trans people felt it appropriate to write a trans narrative without hiring anyone with direct experience of that narrative, despite there being ample opportunity to do so.

I think the Scarlett Johansson thing is different personally. Though again o did always assume myself that the entire point of acting was to play things you actually aren't. Otherwise your just being you in a film.

I dunno. It genuinely seems like it's getting to a point where people aren't allowed to write, make, create things that they aren't.

Well the percentage of white male writers in any medium you care to mention is direct evidence to the contrary of that.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Pedz wrote:See, this is one thing I don't get. Why aren't other people allowed to make things about things they are not? I honestly don't get it.

I've written about 3 versions of this post trying to explain why, but honestly I can't find any other way to say it than the obvious. This is a story about a minority written by people from the discriminatory majority, people who have no experience of what it is like to live as a member of the minority group they are making the centre of their narrative. Considering there are many hundreds of trans writers, artists and developers out there, the fact that not one of them was approached by the team is sort of stunning.

I mean, the closest other pop culture example I can think of is Scarlett Johansson playing a shitload of white washed characters while claiming "I should be allowed to play anything I want!" It's a total dismissal of the power dynamics of race and sexuality that define western culture.

EDIT: It's not about "other people not being allowed to write about things they aren't." It's the fact that a group of non-trans people felt it appropriate to write a trans narrative without hiring anyone with direct experience of that narrative, despite there being ample opportunity to do so.

I understand your overall point but I think your edit is a little unfair seeing as they’ve said they worked closely with GLAAD to shape the character. It’s not like they undertook the task with no input from an appropriate source at all.

This is true. Which, I dunno, makes it worse somehow? They knew to consult with trans advocacy groups but still weren't bothered enough to hire anyone who was trans?

Damned if you do...

Pedz wrote:Damned if you do...

Well no because if they did, ie cared enough to pay someone from a historically discriminated against minority, then that would have been great.

So really it's: not damned if you do, damned if don't by putting only a token amount of effort in without ever really committing to the 'true to life' nature of the narrative they're selling.

'Consulted with' is extremely different to 'hiring'. The latter sets an important precedent, the former does not

Chapter One out 27th August.

twitter.com/TellMeWhyGame/status/1286336567645265923

Looks like more Life Is Strange 2 to me, which I didn't like.

Meep wrote:I still need to get back to LIS2 at some point. I made the mistake a playing it too early. The gap between episodes doesn't really work for me as I want to run through the whole thing at once, otherwise I'm just going to forget half the details.

I always wait for all the episodes to be released before I start. Glad to see these are only a week apart, so I’ll just start as soon as the first is released.

Yeah, its great to see how close the spacing is between episodes. This actually encourages me to play them at release, as (if the story is good) i will be eagerly anticipating the next one to unlock.

Really enjoyed LiS and BtS. Also really enjoyed the first 2 episodes of LiS2 (i though the first episode was incredible), but thought it really lost its way towards the end, which was a shame.

Shame it's not on PS4 as I loved all the LIS games. Barely use my PC nowadays.

Chapter 1 out Thursday at 5pm.

Different team than Life Is Strange -

Game Director: Florent Guillaume (Vampyr lead level designer)
Narrative Director: Stéphane Beauverger (Vampyr narrative director)
Lead Writer: Morgan Lockhart (Halo 4 and 5 narrative design)

gooseberry fool I hadn't noticed it wasn't on PS4

I don't think writing a story about a demographic you aren't a part of is discriminatory, necessarily. I do think it's quite shortsighted and daft, though. It's also not indicative of the quality of the adaptation, either. To use an overt-to-the-point-of-daft example, what wars against the Russians has Kojima ever been in? But he knows all the terms and info necessary and, for the most part, people think that the more realistic parts of MGS when it comes to battle fatigue etc are pretty on point. Contrast that with the LGBT elements in Doctor Who by Russell Davies, a gay man who won awards for his gay-centred show Queer As Folk. The parts in Doctor Who were fkin embarrassing. I could've written better. Proper cringeworthy. But was it homophobic? Of course not, it couldn't be, right?

Yes, sometimes such attempts at writing stories on things you aren't directly involved in or affected by can be discriminatory and out to belittle and defame (see lesbianism in Born Innocent, which basically says "all lesbians are prospective prison rapists") but many aren't. The internet, I often say, is full of people who damage things with their good intentions, but honestly I do wonder if it's more like abuse of power. They can "cancel" huge stars and corporations now, after all. Remember the "cultural appropriation" BS from a few years ago? "You can't wear/eat/watch/listen to/like/do that because you're not from that country!" Absolute unchecked twatting LUNACY based in good intentions. (Oi Badman you can't say Lunacy because you aren't an ancient Greek) I'm a member of a minority and I'm so sick of people being "offended" on my behalf.

Just because no employees who worked on the game were trans (and maybe there are some who just aren't out?) doesn't make this game transphobic or even a poor adaptation of such subject matter - though granted it would increase the probability; the movie Burning Bright has a *hilariously* ill-researched depiction of autism. And I've just realised that that is the issue people have with this game: not that Dontnod didn't consult trans people and affiliates for their fact checking and input, but that they didn't actually employ them. Weird, frankly. And do we know that they didn't research? If they didn't, yes, blind and daft as I said, but still.

Did they work with modern high school photography students in order to better portray the emotions and obstacles they face in Life is Strange? Did they watch interviews of serial killers so as to not disrespect victims with their portrayal of their baddie? Dunno, but you'll notice there wasn't a huge uproar about it because neither of those are demographics you can fit into a buzzword to rally around and use as a soapbox for your own ego when you want to be self-righteous. These people do just as much damage in many ways to these demographics they're defending than the attackers, and should be ashamed. Too often a demographic is seen as a single hive-mind, and not millions of individual people. A trans person close to me doesn't care about the portrayal of the politics of game development on twitter and just wants to go outside without fear. Other trans people are doing the can can in a pride parade. I know the person I know will be very intrigued by Tell Me Why and I'm looking forward to seeing their reaction. They love Persona 4, for example, for its portrayals of minorities but hates 5 for the same reason, despite knowing that 4 was supposed to be the same - be it just how the writing fell, or maybe the translator did a Woolsey of it, for some reason 4 comes across far better. It's like that Forrest Gump rip off starring Christopher Lambert where a Cute Disabled Man blags his way into looking like a god among men but he's just like, wot.

Anyway, now for my originally planned post:

----

Tell Me Why, eh?