Just finished playing Episode One a few moments ago, oddly enough. It was excellent! I think it's awesome that you allow video games to be made based off the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a lot of potential to be found in that field and I'm excited to see what the future holds in that regard. Video games have been pretty lackluster lately and it's nice to sit back and actually find yourself immersed with it these days. I know for a fact, if there were more games from ASoIaF I would be playing them quite frequently. An open world role playing game would be incredibly fun if it were designed correctly by a talented studio. Too many games are alike these days and that worries me that somebody might receive the power to create a game for your fans and then completely screw up on it.

Anyways... Hope you're well and that you're enjoying the new year! Just bought The Hound's Helm from Valyrian Steel the other day and it doesn't leave my side. You rock, George! Thank you for bringing a lot of joy, sadness and many other emotions into my life with your writing.

-Zion Hericz
A Loyal Fan

Edited at 2015-02-04 07:25 am (UTC)

Hey George, isn't it kind of fan-fiction here with the House Forrester you've just mentioned once or twice in the books? Or is it ok since it's different genre? I clearly remember your article versus fan-fiction, and quite agree with most parts, so got curious.

clear, golden dragons, I grateful for the treasure of 699 pages that fasting mantenen me, now that my blood cooled by dragons me back to life. Wonderful World, Lord of the dragons in the storm.

"Fan fiction is fan FICTION. Stories.

This is a game. Not fiction."

I disagree. As hinted at by their name, Telltale specializes in telling stories. Video games CAN be just games, but the medium has come a long way from the days when the story was always just a thin excuse for gameplay, and in the case of Telltale the game elements are drastically minimized next to the narrative elements. It's more like an episode of GoT that every once in awhile lets you decide what to say or how to act than anything else.

That said, I don't see any contradiction in your stance on this. The game is officially licensed, based on the TV show rather than the books and was made with the help of someone you trust to get it right. To the extent that it portrays canon characters like Tyrion or Margaery, they've been portrayed faithfully, and in any case the majority of the story is centered on non-canon characters who have little to no effect on the story you're telling. There's a lot of things that separate this from simple fan fiction.

"Fan fiction is fan FICTION. Stories.

This is a game. Not fiction."

This is a story-driven game, George. It's fiction as well. I guess vromb_'s argument is that it's not canon, since most of the characters and several places included in the game are not mentioned in the books at all.

Well, games tell stories too. Telltale Games in particular use their games to tell stories, like visual novels. So, it is fiction, just not text fiction.
That being said, Telltale did do a great job. They always do.

Great game!Now I am going to play it a second time and take a different course of actions and see how I will end up.

People,
can someone tell me, if I can play this game when I'm just finishing the second book ? I don't watch the series and I don't want any MAJOR spoilers. I'm a big gamer, so Id love to play this, but not at the price of spoilers. Thanks !

The title reminds me of the plot of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Hey George! I know there have been a number of video games made from Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones:Origins, The Telltale series, and others), I was simply curious as to what you thought about the value of story telling within the format of a video game. From my understanding there are some writers out there who have a very low opinion of video games, others consider it an art form. I was just curious, hope all is well!

Also, just so you know, it isn't necessary to buy and play this to see what we mean about it being mostly about story. Just go on YouTube, search 'telltale game of thrones no commentary' and take your pick of links. Then watch for a few minutes. You'll see what we mean.

It is rather short.

Hi George. I am very grateful for TY having been with you prior to co-author role now with the expanse book series. I can totally see your influence in that book series such as POV and style ect. I am LOVING the series. Just blew through 2nd book and almost done with 3rd book and bought all 3 'in between' novellas as well that expand some characters with background and side stories. And now I hear SYFY channel is having it as a series this year!


Anyways thank you for your influence!

Good to know about TY having planned this out quite some time ago. Well if you didn't have influence than thank you for promoting it and bringing out attention to it!

I cant stress how amazing it would be(for me, and i imagine all other fans of the book) for you to do a lets play series of the game. i honestly think you would break the internet haha.

I've been playing video games since the original Zork, and I'm a very unforgiving video game critic.

Telltale's game based on your books is the best Game of Thrones video game made to date. It's one of the best video games ever made, period. Really, really well done. Thanks very much for licensing it to the Telltale team.

I've been loving all the Telltale games, GoT being the first one I played. Revealed how indecisive I can be as a player (and person). I just hope I don't die in real life as much as I do in game.

Edited at 2015-02-06 08:40 am (UTC)

Little late to ask this, but the issue has been bugging me and I would be interested to know. I know your position on fan fiction, and the reasons underlying that position, but how do you feel about unlicensed fan modifications made for popular games without the intent of turning a profit?

By the sounds of what you said above, games seem to fall more into the category of fan art or fan music based on the series, which doesn't seem to bother you anywhere near as much as outright making stories based on your world and characters. And some of the mods made based on SoIaF are immensely impressive labors of love, easily rivaling or surpassing anything that has been officially released and yet made for no other purpose other than so people can enjoy them.

Thank you for responding, and glad to hear it.

To be honest, I was hesitant to even bring up the subject here, for fear my even mentioning them would be the first you've heard of such game mods and therefore (if you disapproved) might result in a C&D order headed their way. Since some of them are the product of years of collaborative work, all without the creators earning so much as a dime, it was unnerving even asking.

I am very much enjoying this game. Episode 1 turned me on to the TellTale games, so I bought the Walking Dead season 1 while waiting for episode 2 of Game of Thrones. Walking Dead was amazing too, though Game of Thrones has only just begun. and is my favorite.

The characters that I relate to and am invested in the most in this game are the female characters. Very much as I am in the novels. This is a great game, and really fun to play.

The game is great and I loved it so far. I believe that you should play it. Some of the characters are very interesting. Do you plan to incorporate any part of the game storyline in your books?