Comments on: A Treatise on Episodic Gameplay, Part One

By: FPS rantings: where the bias is almost as strong as the opinions » Episodic Content

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:58:17 +0000

[...] While surfing the intArw3b we all know and love. I happened across this person’s view of the new trend in gaming culture. Episodic Content. He’s written two parts to the “rant”. The first one taking a stab at FPS games that are doing this, (HL2, SiN, Battlefield 2) and the way in which they do it. He brings some very valid points to the table and I tend to agree with him. The second part picks up with his view on MMORPGs which, even he admits, are a different breed for getting new content. [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 19:59:58 +0000

I find it amusing that you think SiN: Episodes was good… and I agree… if this was 1996, and games centered around boring pewpewpew sections interspered by painful dialogue and overdeveloped mammaries. There’s really nothing the game offers that wasn’t already offered back in Quake. The dynamic difficulty system has some serious problems (get a couple of headshots, and the game will never back down on difficulty… EVER), and the context-based look system tied to NPC response was already available in the Source Engine through mapping tricks.

This model is ideal for distribution over the production of “blockbuster” games. Half-Life 2 took 6 years, and took in no community feedback during that time. The episodic formula allows us to receive the same amount of content in less time, with the ability to influence the develop of future episodes. Driving parts too long and painful? Well, you’re in luck, because Episode 2’s will be cut down. More physics puzzles with the gravity gun? Episode 2 claims to have the biggest and most complex physics puzzle to date.

This is important in these days of budgets spiralling out of control, and schedules being tossed to the wind. With all the pressure to make big games that pack in tons of content, teams are taking years longer than before. Soon, more and more games will become Duke Nukem Forever… another example of overly long development time with lack of community input.

By: P/O ed

P/O ed — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:30:28 +0000

I’m just pissed off that Valve cut the ending off of HL2, just so they could sell it to us in tiny packets for $20 each (I didn’t buy into their crap so I don’t know whether anything was actually resolved in Episode 1, probably not…).

By: mittens

mittens — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:29:18 +0000

I’m not knocking the idea entirely, but thus far I’m completely unimpressed with the way things are starting. With SiN: Emergence, I do say that I think it has potential for a completely episodic game that’s getting it’s first start with this initial segment. It definitely feels like a Source-powered game, which can be both good or bad depending on your viewpoint (I’m not a fan of Half-Life 2, but I love Counter-Strike, so this dredges up memories both great and ghastly), but it introduces a whole lot of neat things that I think could end up being pretty damn fun.

Half-Life 2: Episode 1, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same presumptious lead in my head. It already had a “monolithic game” coming into the arena, and so far it feels more like a well-polished, but very poorly executed expansion pack to HL2. I’m not completely giving up on it yet, as the trailer for Episode 2 had some potential, but I won’t hold my breath.

Also, good information on the Alone in the Dark stuff, Phil. I read shortly after I wrote this editorial that the first “game” was shipping as ten full episodes (or something along those lines), but didn’t think to add that into this, if partially because the information was still a bitch sketchy. Definitely an interesting idea, though. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Great comments though, guys, thanks. Especially a very nice, thoughtful comment by Scott. I didn’t really have much to add to it or else I would have; well stated.

By: MammonLord

MammonLord — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 06:13:34 +0000

If you really don’t like episodic content, wait until the final episode *then* play. You will end up waiting the same amount of time you would have been *forced* to wait for a monolithic game and get a very similar experience.

Choice is great, don’t knock it.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 01:11:20 +0000

IIRC, the new Alone in the Dark game is simply confusingly described, in light of other recent “episodic” games.

My understanding is that the storyline will indeed progress in an ‘episodic’ format, but you don’t buy them separately — all the episodes are included on the CD/DVD. It’s more akin to buying the DVD set of a TV series… the story plays out in episodes, but you don’t have to wait for (and pay for) each new episode individually.

By: Scott Markwell

Scott Markwell — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 07:05:21 +0000

Hollywood is out of ideas.
RIAA is out of talent.
The game industry is looking for a revenue model. It is expensive to make up shit apparently. I’m not in anyway saying this is OK. It’s pointless and a waste of my time as a gamer who is seeking a rewarding experience. I am refusing to drop $40 for two “episodes” of a shallow interactive movie with the exact same FPS stuff, why bother? How long is the Half-Life episode story going to be? If each episode is going to be $15~$20, and there are 4, then I am paying $60~$80 for a story. Nothing prevents them from doing more then 4, nothing prevents them from stopping midway through because they are bored. They are selling map packs for outrageous prices.

I doubt this “trend” will fail. People will buy it because they are attached to the story, because they love Half-Life, or because they love Valve.

I think there is episodic content out there that will some day be worth it. I don’t think the economics of what Valve currently add up for the end user.

I guess this brings into my mind, why does someone play a game? It is something to everyone, and as long as people contiune buying it, it will be made. Someone is out there right now trying to think like me, trying to think like you, and then trying to market you.