The proof that video games are media has never been so apparent. As the gaming equivalent to television, episodic gamers and developers need vast channels of game content for surfing, mixes of gameplay, and other forms of entertainment novelty. That's what is required to give some meaning to the term 'episodic games.' It's television for the gaming population.
I hope you'll forgive the worldly cynicism of this avid gamer, as I find this approach to be a bit gimmicky. Creating and releasing games in episodes holds major financial advantages over traditional game development. Developers are able to 'pilot' games to find out if they will work out in the market prior to making multi-million dollar investments. Episodic games are also ideally suited for digital download because they are bite-sized entertainment with all the graphical bells and whistles of multi-gig retail titles. At long last I am glad that developers are finally adopting the single-unit gouge and are making a premium by selling 'episodes' at the same price we're used to paying for multi-level expansion packs.
However, this approach does bode some great potential innovations. The questions abound: Can players influence the course of the series based on the results of online multiplayer tournaments? Can players implement a story themselves for MMORPGs into each episodic iteration? Of course, I know that there are some logical issues that come with those ideas: Does multiplayer break the fiction of the single player campaign? And what happens to the multiplayer tournaments once the last episode in the series is released? I have high hopes for Valve in the innovation department with regards to episodic gaming, as their track record clearly proves that innovation is their middle name.
Television has had decades to perfect a model for entertainment which includes a variety of content with a mix of genres and releasing them in what is known as 'appointment schedules.' That term means that the goal there is entice people to make it a point to follow episodes of their favourite series and discuss it with their friends. Episodic gaming is appointment gaming and it is the most genius, yet simple and obvious marketing ploy I have seen so far from gaming publishers.
Comments
Great editorial, Al. Just a tipbit: media is plural, medium is singular, so games are a medium.
However, it is not. And as a result, episodic content only comes off as a good idea to those with fast reliable internet connections, and who are lucky enough to have the associated download/shopping clients work properly.
My old PC had MAJOR problems with Steam, and as such, i hated it, i despised it. So much in fact, that, as big a half life fan as i am, i played HL2 twice, then uninstalled it and never looked back.
Until now, now i have a reasonably fast, reasonably reliable internet connection. So i figured, sure, why not, i'll give it a go, and am downloading episode one as i type. It only cost $20 (£10ish) so it's hardly a major hit, and even if it clocks in at 2 hours or so, it's still technicly better value than most other games.
However, what i do not agree with, by any distance, is the pre-requisite of being connected to be able to sign on and play a steam game. That to me, is not only restrictive, but insulting. Why should i have to have your client wasting my system resources? As well as being connected to the internet, for a single player game?!
I am considering buying Sin episode one, and i am lucky this time around, steam seems to be running fine and causing no problems, and i am very interested in things like Portal, and the support Valve gives to the mod community.
I still cannot stand having to be connected and sign in to play my games however. Although i do support the ability to play them without a disc. But again, i do not like not owning the disc for the game. What if the servers go down? I cant play the game? Oh... What about if they loose all my account details? I lose all my games? Ouch...
Sure, those are longshots, but they are possible.
The forced updating before you can play the game is another annoyance...
But digital distribution aside. Episodic content is neither a high nor a low for me, so long as i consider what im getting to be value for money, then it's fine.
http://mostly-harmless1.blogspot.com/
What's important to me is game series putting out content out more frequently. Two years and more is too long between games.
NeoJedi