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Old 09-30-2003, 12:24 PM   #1
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So what do you guys think of AGON? Anyone tried it out? The serialized approach is interesting; I think I'm going to download the first episode. For only $10, why not? Sure, it's $140 by the time you've gotten all the episodes, but for being spread over two years, that's not bad at all. It's definitely something new to the gaming world.
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Old 09-30-2003, 12:42 PM   #2
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wow! That's a lot of bucksees for a single game. My belief is that a game should give you as many hours of satisfactory gameplay or afterthought as the number of US$ you spend on it. Can this game give me over 140 hours of gameplay?

The review says 4 hours each...

*sigh*

But given it's a good review, I'm sure it's worth a look into.

*waddles off to the website to read about it*
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Old 09-30-2003, 12:47 PM   #3
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You don't buy many adventure games, then, do you? :P How many $50 adventure games give a solid 50 hours of playtime? Not many. That being said, AGON certainly has a higher dollar:hours ratio than most adventure games, but if each episode is 4 hours long, we'll end up with 56 hours of gameplay by the end. That's $2.50 per hour. Honestly, that's not much more than what you get for most new adventure games at $50 or so. It's definitely still not a great value, but bear in mind you're not ever paying $140 at once. $140 over the course of two years does NOT feel like $140 to your pocket book. That's like 6 bucks a month--hardly even noticeable.
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Old 09-30-2003, 12:56 PM   #4
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Well, I am only recently into the world of adventure games, so, no, I haven't bought many

The only ones I've ever bought are IJ and Fate of Atlantis (FoA), MI1, MI2, MI3 and MI4, Full Throttle...

All these games, I can honestly say have given me 2x the hours as the number of dollars I spent on them. And I guess this was possible because I bought all these games pretty recently, when they were cheap, and not when they were released. (I have yet to play MI4, doesn't work on my hunk of computerous mass.)

Other than that - none.

But, you have a point, given the non-replayable nature of adventure games, perhaps the rule shouldn't apply. I've generally applied this rule to FPSs and RTSs and I've stuck by it for the past couple of years. Maybe it's time to break the boundaries

btw, The music samples for this game are mindboggling!
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Old 10-02-2003, 11:16 AM   #5
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The catch is, will they even be able to finish the story? If it's determined not to be commercially viable, the company could just abandon the project in the middle and the story would go unfinished. IMHO, this is the biggest flaw about serialized games. And that's one reason I wouldn't play it unless the last episode was released.

by the way, I've played adventure games over and over again FAR more times than I would even consider playing an FPS game or any other game. Replaying adventure games is like reading a good book all over again, IMHO.
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Old 10-02-2003, 11:29 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neovsmatrix
by the way, I've played adventure games over and over again FAR more times than I would even consider playing an FPS game or any other game. Replaying adventure games is like reading a good book all over again, IMHO.
I find that rereading a book, no matter how good, is a boring affair in and of itself. Usually a book's story entertains me. The story, to me, cannot be retold in the same fashion ever again, after the first reading. But I do read books again (if they're really good) given a couple of months' gap. It's similar with games. The story entertains me. And the story cannot ever entertain me the same way after I've finished it once. When it comes to something like an FPS or RTS, there's multiplayer that provides replayability.

Anyway, you have a good point regarding the dedication of the team. It is risky to put full trust in them and then not get your money's worth of an ending. However, if that were to happen, you could always finish it yourself - in your head
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Old 10-02-2003, 12:19 PM   #7
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krkode - A book (or a movie, or a game, or a work of music) does not have to be all about the story, though. If this were truly the case, our generally accepted ideas of who we consider "great authors" to be would be radically different. The way a story is teld can be much more important than the story itself, which is why Shakespeare, for example, is still so widely read today. He certainly didn't make up most of those stories; most of them were traditional stories that had been passed down for generations. Now, whether you DO like Shakespeare or not, it's pretty hard to deny that his style of storytelling is one that has captured and inspired millions of people over centuries. A truly great game, likewise, should have reply value not based on the story (or at least not entirely based on the story), but based on the way that story is told. The reason I keep playing Grim Fandango is not because the story is particularly original--it pretty much takes from a bunch of well-known film noir stories, as well as movies like Casablanca--but the style in which it was told and the overall feel of the game is incredibly unique and moving. That's just an example in the gaming world; there are many others.
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Old 10-02-2003, 01:01 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by remixor
If this were truly the case, our generally accepted ideas of who we consider "great authors" to be would be radically different.
Who y'all consider great authors... I agree with all that you have said, and I agree with many of the views regarding the greatest authors of all time, and while I consider how a story is told to be a very important factor in a book/movie/game, that aspect - how the story is told is also covered in attempt #1. For that matter, the story and the way it is told, to me, atleast, get a little repeitious - sprouting boredom. I can list all the books that I have read more than once, easily, because it is a short list, and I trust you (if not you, the general opinion) will agree that they are indeed great stories that are well told: Count of Monte Cristo, Moby Dick, Picture of Dorian Gray, The Lord of the Rings, and finally, Great Expectations. All classic, if you ask me - in a league of their own
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Old 10-02-2003, 01:09 PM   #9
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Well, I've read all the books you brougt up, and the first two stories you mentioned, at least, are really not that complex: a guy gets injustly imprisoned and takes revenge, a captain really wants to kill this one whale. The next hardly even HAS a story: a guy gets his soul put into a picture (that's about it--the entire book hardly has any plot, it's essentially all about Dorian the character himself). The story of LOTR is pretty basic as well--it's the context the story is put in that provides the excitement. Great Expectations is perhaps the exception to the books you listed--it was originally published in serialized form (how coincidental, given this thread ), so the whole point was to have a rapidly evolving story that would keep readers' interest from months to month.

It's very possible I could have just misunderstood what you meant in the first place, though; if so, feel free to ignore me
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Old 10-02-2003, 01:17 PM   #10
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I doubt you have misunderstood, Remixor. Perhaps it is I who was unclear in expressing my opinion.

As you have shown, the stories of my favorite books are indeed simple. But it is how they were told that makes them my favorite. They're either good vs evil, revenge, or hunt for something, relatively clichéd plots, even for their time, I would think. But they were wonderfully told, and that's why I reread them.

Yes, I too value how a story unfolds, and perhaps that explains why I am never bored of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. But, you must admit, not every game has what that game has (I haven't played Grim Fandango)
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Old 10-02-2003, 01:20 PM   #11
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Yeah, I see what you mean now. It's essentially what I was saying as well.

And of course not every game is able to achieve that. That's why we have bad games, good games, and great games. PLAY GRIM FANDANGO.
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Old 10-02-2003, 03:13 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neovsmatrix
The catch is, will they even be able to finish the story? If it's determined not to be commercially viable, the company could just abandon the project in the middle and the story would go unfinished. IMHO, this is the biggest flaw about serialized games. And that's one reason I wouldn't play it unless the last episode was released.
This is the same business method that other episodic media use, such as magazine stories (err.. what are these called?) and TV shows. Some TV shows are even pay-for -- HBO's, for example. So once the ball is rolling, this won't be a problem.
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Old 10-03-2003, 04:54 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by remixor
So what do you guys think of AGON? Anyone tried it out? The serialized approach is interesting; I think I'm going to download the first episode. For only $10, why not? Sure, it's $140 by the time you've gotten all the episodes, but for being spread over two years, that's not bad at all. It's definitely something new to the gaming world.
I'm going to d/l the first episode as well. Let me know what you think of it remixor.
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Old 10-03-2003, 07:17 AM   #14
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I was with you guys in the beginning. If I hadn't gotten a review copy I don't know if I would have played it. I don't want to be in the middle of a story - no matter how great it is - and then have no closure due to financial issues on the part of the company. But hopefully enough people will jump on board to make this financially viable.
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Old 10-04-2003, 03:02 AM   #15
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According to their FAQ, it is a possibility that lack of interest and/or funding would cause early termination of the project, but it sounds like they would still try to dedicate some effort to bringing closure to the project:

Quote:
If there is very small interest in AGON, this undesired situation may occur. In that case all of us will be deprived of an exquisite adventure but developers will be deprived in another way as well... Private Moon Studios will attempt to „play its part” even for a very small audience. It will offer real fans the opportunity of providing further small donations supporting continuous work. But it also hopes that as a result of the success it will soon be planning the sequel.
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Old 10-04-2003, 07:21 AM   #16
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I'd be interested to hear second opinions from whoever plays Episode 1.
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Old 10-06-2003, 05:40 PM   #17
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Well, I played for a while, then I idiotically quit without saving. I've never managed to do that before, so I don't know what happened this time In any case, I'm enjoying it so far for the most part. Years of LEC- and Sierra-style adventures have built up in my a pretty strong resilience to node-based games (this is in fact the first one besides Myst I've managed played for more than a few moments). It's not astounding, but I really like that you pick up clues that you have to write down yourself. That's something I've missed from a lot of recent adventures. It feels good to have a sheet of paper covered with my otherwise illegible scribbles at my side while playing the game. Anyway, I think I'm pretty close to the end of this episode, but I'll have to start over and redo all the stuff I've done due to my dumb mistake. I'll post again once I'm done.


EDIT: Bwhahaha, check out JA+'s first line of their AGON preview:

Quote:
Originally Posted by JA+
"Adventure game developer Private Moon Studios is to release Agon, the first adventure game series ever."
Did you hear that, guys?! It's the first adventure game series EVER!!!!!1111
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Old 10-06-2003, 06:10 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by remixor
Did you hear that, guys?! It's the first adventure game series EVER!!!!!1111
LOLOLOLOLOL

I'm interested to see if the episodes end relatively satisfactorily or if they leave you hanging, waiting for the next part...please enlighten as to this once you're done, Remixor
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Old 10-06-2003, 06:33 PM   #19
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Is it true that you get a copy protection code that's only good for one single installation of the game when you buy it? I've read that that's the case on another forum. Incredibly stupid if it's true. One hard drive crash and you'll have to buy the game all over again, not to mention if you, after uninstalling it, would like to replay it in the future. Money (140 dollars worth of it) go bye bye...

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Old 10-06-2003, 07:07 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kode
LOLOLOLOLOL

I'm interested to see if the episodes end relatively satisfactorily or if they leave you hanging, waiting for the next part...please enlighten as to this once you're done, Remixor
Well, from what I can tell, each episode continues the previous one but is also able to be played as a self-contained game. As such I'd imagine that the endings don't leave you hanging TOO much (although one would hope for at least some suspense as incentive to play the next one).


magskvalp: I'm not sure. You do get a code, but I don't know if it's only good for one install. I'll check their website.

EDIT: Ok, this is how I THINK it works (don't quote me): Each code is only good for one install of the game, but since your billing information is on file you should be able to re-download the game if need be, which should get you a new code.

EDIT AGAIN: Ok, this time it's official. I checked their FAQ. Each code is only good for one install of the game, but if you need to reinstall or install on a new computer or something, you just email [email protected] and they'll get you a new one.

LAST EDIT, SERIOUSLY: Ok, so everything in EDIT AGAIN stands, but also apparently if you're reinstalling on the SAME COMPUTER as your original code (or at least the last one you were assigned), you don't need a new code.
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