The Player/Character relationship with Lee (The Walking Dead)

With most games you have some sort of relationship with the “hero”. Telltale’s The Walking Dead is no different. The player either feels like they’ve become the character, became the sidekick, or a God to the character, controlling their every move. With Lee, I feel as though I am him, and also playing God. There are some instances in the gameplay where I think, “No, I don’t want to help them. They were rude to me.” While other times I think “Well, I’m making Lee side with Kenny so I should stick to it.” If I had a different relationship to Lee where I felt like a sidekick (so sort of like Clementine) I feel as though the feel of the game would be different, it wouldn’t be as immersive, and right now I fell as though what happens to me is effecting me (even though it doesn’t).

The player/character relationship I would want to create is something like in the game Fable, where you make the character however you want, and feel as though the character is completely you (or some version of yourself). I feel as though I enjoy games more when I feel like I’m in the game in some way, but there’s nothing wrong with an arcade game such as Mortal Kombat either.