Episodic Games-Your Opinion
 

Lately episodic games like Bone, Sam'n Max season 1,Half Life episodes,Sin episodes etc are being published by companies. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was also planned to be published in episodes but later the producers changed their mind and published it as a single game which was better imo. Personally I prefer a game being published as a single game rather than in weekly or monthly episodes.I mean it might be good for a tv/movie episode to wait till next week/month but when it comes to games it's not the same.First of all there is the issue of unstable time periods between episodes as sometimes it takes longer to make a game than it's originally planned.Last but not least there is also the price issue which sometimes make you kinda feel robbed because of paying too much for a game unfinished or too short.What do you say?

Episodic is rubbish. I just want a complete game. Hardcore half life 2 fans loved it but I'd rather wait for all episodes to come out then buy it as one game. I think buying 3 separate episodes is much more expensive than buying one complete game equivalent to the length of the original half life 2. This is probably going to be much the same story for any episodic game. But the main problem is always going to be the short length of episodes and then having to wait months for the next one. No thanks.

Hasen't this topic been done to death?

Episodic do not want, but I see the advantages for developers and distributers so I live with it. So far none of the games that have been distributed in episodes has catched my attention (although HL2 could have been a great adventure. I remember someone posting about a HL2 adventure mods but can't find it right now...)
Apparently not if some still reply.

If not to death, it has been discussed here

The key to good episodic delivery is to give the player the feeling that they have a complete game at the same time that it is part of a greater whole. To simply take a twenty hour game and split it up into four five-hour episodes is not going to work because there will no closure and the player will be left a little unsatisfied until the final episode comes out. The key is to introduce a sub-plot or secondary story for each episode that is brought to a conclusion at the end of that episode. You would then have additional gameplay to go along with this story, which means that each episode may well be eight hours or more. Over the whole series you could be getting twelve hours or so of additional gameplay that you wouldn't have got if the game had been produced as a single entity.

It could be argued that the Broken Sword games are episodic, it's just that each of the episodes are single games in their own right. The same could be said for Gabriel Knight, Monkey Island, etc.

to solve the whole five million year wait thing, why dont they just make the whole thing and then release episodes weekly?

It's a nice concept. It's always nice to see new approaches to making games, and the market can certainly sustain both formats. Now, I don't think it's as critical an issue as others seem to think- A good story is a good story, no matter how long you have to wait for it.

Because they'd need lots of money for that? :shifty:

I guess it could work if everyone would buy every episode in advance :P

--Erwin

Why not?

I like episodic model, especially downloadable episodes. For example, for me personally it is quite good, the games are cheaper, not breaking the bank, and mostly available throughout the whole world at the same time. I bought Half-Life 2 episode 1 instantly, and was able to play it on the release day, which is awesome, considering had it been a regular game launched through the retail channels, it would have never ever gotten released in Pakistan.

Read the next sentences

I think Fahrenheit would've been better episodic because the main reason that the ending goes KERAYZEE was because of the deadline of the full game.

I didn't think the next sentences really justified the statement. ;)

People resist what they're not used to. TV has always been episodic first, with boxed sets following only recently, so people think that's the way it's supposed to be. Games have traditionally been the opposite. That doesn't necessarily mean that games are less suited for the episodic model than TV is.

Also, people who say that they'd rather play a "full game" than episodes need to remember that this elusive "full game" probably wouldn't be made. The episodic model allows companies to take chances that they wouldn't take if they had to put millions of dollars and 3-4 years into the project up front.

I like it, in fact I like so much that I even bought Sin Episodes and can't wait for the next one. :)

As for the value Half-Life: Episode 2 will come with team fortress and portals, that will probably have for entertainment than most of the full-priced games available.

That said I'm very interested to find out how the Sam and Max release plan will work (every month).

Also, I think Fahrenheit would have worked better is it had sticked to the original plan, they would have more time to develop the last part of the game instead of that rushed "lets stick everything we've got".

yeah, if it was episodic i doubt we wouldve had that crazy

"TEH AR71F1C1AL 1N73LL193NC3 MAD3 1N TEH 80S BY TEH 1NT0RN37!! OMG LOL!!!!1!"

still a good game, but that seemed a tad weird.

I read the first would be in October. The next in December, then monthly after that. Once they get the foundation in place, the construction (so to speak) of further episodes is probably more streamlined.

The only thing that really makes me sad/angry about episodes is the fact that I don't own a high-end pc, so I went out and bought Half Life 2 for my Xbox, and now I have to buy the entire game again for the Xbox 360 if I want to experience the episodes. :/

I agree with one of the posters above that episodic games are only interesting if they have a good beginning and ending.. if it's just like the 'serials' so it would have something like 'to be continued' then I really won't buy it.. It's so frustrating to be in a game and then having to wait another x days or weeks.. and especially with episodic stuff, how certain is it that there will be a next episode.. remember 'the lone gunmen' serie, episode 12 'ended' with 'to be continued' but it never was continued (finally it was wrapped up in an episode in the x files season 9)...

I'd rather have just the full game than episodic games...

Well, because episodic TV and Movies aren't necessarily a good thing either. Or at least what they are remembered to be. The gold standard of episodic movies was Flash Gordon. But that was never the main event. It preceded or proceded the primary feature, and was the reason someone might come back next week, not only to see how that episode ended, but to watch the next week's feature film. And to pay for it.

The current version of episodic TV, e.g., 24 or Lost aren't getting the rave reviews they got when they started. There is a point where episodic anything becomes stale. I think S&M might be there before we see the first episode.

Think I will wait for the compilation, and if that's too expensive I'll forego it altogether. But the layaway plan won't hook me in.