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While in a rapid state of REM the majority of today I have been awoken by a few things; hunger, nature calling and what I'm about to type.
We always watch series programs on TV like a hawk and patiently await the next chapter of the story or the next misadventure of our hero/heroine.
So, question is, would series/episode gaming work?
If my memory serves me correctly I do remember a game previously being released in episodes but I can't remember the name of it - I think it was in the US only for the time but may be wrong. It was not my sort of game though, so that may be why it's long forgotten in my mind, but what if say one of the most favoured genres in gaming, FPS games, was to be made into a series of episodes each one ending in a cliff-hanger effect to leave the player gagging for more and this way a successful game can be priced far cheaper because you would be guaranteed people will buy the next episode in the title if they enjoyed the first!
It would be one game obviously but a big one at that. Instead of today’s 4-5 hour campaign trekking through 8 countries with an arsenal of guns, episode gaming could be solely story based with particular elements borrowed form other games of the same type to keep everything highly interesting. I particularly like Deus Ex's style of conspiracy theory and free roam to some extent of the game mechanics so you choose your own way. Somewhat like the way user-created, Half-Life mods was released? I think it could be good, but how big is the market for downloading 100mb every few months on a 56k? Not huge I'd think, so it’d have to be marketed, and if not enough people bought into it, we’d be in big trouble.
Episode gaming would work rather nicely for adventure games. Check out these sites for examples:
http://www.fahrenheitgame.com/
http://www.ladystar.net
Not just adventure gaming but other genres too, you might for example have an FPS game where in one episode you are in one country doing a mission over several districts and the next episode takes you to another country or a plot twist sends you on a rollercoaster ride needing you to go back to the previous episodes and recheck things and/or speak to old people to get more info needed to get past the latest episode, it all would kind of fit in place like a jigsaw where each piece of the game is vital to get along. At present, few games are noted for putting their plot first. And that’s the most important hook in order for any next episode to become 'must-have'. And it does not appear to be practical at our current rate of game development. It just takes too long to make a game; the graphics would probably look outdated the moment its out, etc.
Surely this kind of thing would be much more feasible online, where every week or so, the games staff would add a new event or something. For example, say it was a game where you played the part of a New York detective and you were investigating a murder case. Perhaps every week a new murder could occur, complete with new clues or a new suspect? If it was done offline, would people actually go out week-in, week-out just to buy the next short instalment of the game? The prices would sky-rocket, both for the publishers, having to churn out a brand new short game every week and for the consumers, having to buy a new computer game every week. Perhaps if you initially bought the full game and mini add-ons were released free on the Internet, or came with magazine cover-disks, maybe that would work well.
Think about the chapters of cack games like "Blair Witch" etc! This will lead to developers (marketers?) releasing all kinds of bugged up cack in the knowledge that they can include a patch in the next chapter, never mind selling a complete game, sell another add on like "MOH Spearhead" which other than nine new levels was simply the multi player stuff which should have been included in "Allied Assault". What if MOHAA was sold in nine level "chapters" for £30 a hit? Spearhead has sold and is selling well, so don't say people wouldn't buy it, remember EA are in it for the money as they are a business first, and if they thought releasing chapters was the way forwards that is what they will do, think of "The Sims", anything new in the add on packs by way of originality?
You just know software publishers would abuse the idea if it were put into practice. I remember they tried that once with the Steven King novel, "The Green Mile". It was cut into six parts and released every few weeks or so at a price of £1.99 but as the experiment was never repeated again, I doubt it was a success. All six parts were paperback meaning collecting the whole series would set you back just under £12, double the price of a full paperback novel. Fact is, I can read a book in a couple of days; I can also complete a game within a week. Being made to wait a week or so just to continue the story/game and be charged extra for the privilege would not entice me to invest in the series.
I think that it’s basically a good idea, but there's not money in it. So it’s not going anywhere.
Thanks for reading,
Flux.
We always watch series programs on TV like a hawk and patiently await the next chapter of the story or the next misadventure of our hero/heroine.
So, question is, would series/episode gaming work?
If my memory serves me correctly I do remember a game previously being released in episodes but I can't remember the name of it - I think it was in the US only for the time but may be wrong. It was not my sort of game though, so that may be why it's long forgotten in my mind, but what if say one of the most favoured genres in gaming, FPS games, was to be made into a series of episodes each one ending in a cliff-hanger effect to leave the player gagging for more and this way a successful game can be priced far cheaper because you would be guaranteed people will buy the next episode in the title if they enjoyed the first!
It would be one game obviously but a big one at that. Instead of today’s 4-5 hour campaign trekking through 8 countries with an arsenal of guns, episode gaming could be solely story based with particular elements borrowed form other games of the same type to keep everything highly interesting. I particularly like Deus Ex's style of conspiracy theory and free roam to some extent of the game mechanics so you choose your own way. Somewhat like the way user-created, Half-Life mods was released? I think it could be good, but how big is the market for downloading 100mb every few months on a 56k? Not huge I'd think, so it’d have to be marketed, and if not enough people bought into it, we’d be in big trouble.
Episode gaming would work rather nicely for adventure games. Check out these sites for examples:
http://www.fahrenheitgame.com/
http://www.ladystar.net
Not just adventure gaming but other genres too, you might for example have an FPS game where in one episode you are in one country doing a mission over several districts and the next episode takes you to another country or a plot twist sends you on a rollercoaster ride needing you to go back to the previous episodes and recheck things and/or speak to old people to get more info needed to get past the latest episode, it all would kind of fit in place like a jigsaw where each piece of the game is vital to get along. At present, few games are noted for putting their plot first. And that’s the most important hook in order for any next episode to become 'must-have'. And it does not appear to be practical at our current rate of game development. It just takes too long to make a game; the graphics would probably look outdated the moment its out, etc.
Surely this kind of thing would be much more feasible online, where every week or so, the games staff would add a new event or something. For example, say it was a game where you played the part of a New York detective and you were investigating a murder case. Perhaps every week a new murder could occur, complete with new clues or a new suspect? If it was done offline, would people actually go out week-in, week-out just to buy the next short instalment of the game? The prices would sky-rocket, both for the publishers, having to churn out a brand new short game every week and for the consumers, having to buy a new computer game every week. Perhaps if you initially bought the full game and mini add-ons were released free on the Internet, or came with magazine cover-disks, maybe that would work well.
Think about the chapters of cack games like "Blair Witch" etc! This will lead to developers (marketers?) releasing all kinds of bugged up cack in the knowledge that they can include a patch in the next chapter, never mind selling a complete game, sell another add on like "MOH Spearhead" which other than nine new levels was simply the multi player stuff which should have been included in "Allied Assault". What if MOHAA was sold in nine level "chapters" for £30 a hit? Spearhead has sold and is selling well, so don't say people wouldn't buy it, remember EA are in it for the money as they are a business first, and if they thought releasing chapters was the way forwards that is what they will do, think of "The Sims", anything new in the add on packs by way of originality?
You just know software publishers would abuse the idea if it were put into practice. I remember they tried that once with the Steven King novel, "The Green Mile". It was cut into six parts and released every few weeks or so at a price of £1.99 but as the experiment was never repeated again, I doubt it was a success. All six parts were paperback meaning collecting the whole series would set you back just under £12, double the price of a full paperback novel. Fact is, I can read a book in a couple of days; I can also complete a game within a week. Being made to wait a week or so just to continue the story/game and be charged extra for the privilege would not entice me to invest in the series.
I think that it’s basically a good idea, but there's not money in it. So it’s not going anywhere.
Thanks for reading,
Flux.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
While in a rapid state of REM the majority of today I have been awoken by a few things; hunger, nature calling and what I'm about to type.
We always watch series programs on TV like a hawk and patiently await the next chapter of the story or the next misadventure of our hero/heroine.
So, question is, would series/episode gaming work?
If my memory serves me correctly I do remember a game previously being released in episodes but I can't remember the name of it - I think it was in the US only for the time but may be wrong. It was not my sort of game though, so that may be why it's long forgotten in my mind, but what if say one of the most favoured genres in gaming, FPS games, was to be made into a series of episodes each one ending in a cliff-hanger effect to leave the player gagging for more and this way a successful game can be priced far cheaper because you would be guaranteed people will buy the next episode in the title if they enjoyed the first!
It would be one game obviously but a big one at that. Instead of today’s 4-5 hour campaign trekking through 8 countries with an arsenal of guns, episode gaming could be solely story based with particular elements borrowed form other games of the same type to keep everything highly interesting. I particularly like Deus Ex's style of conspiracy theory and free roam to some extent of the game mechanics so you choose your own way. Somewhat like the way user-created, Half-Life mods was released? I think it could be good, but how big is the market for downloading 100mb every few months on a 56k? Not huge I'd think, so it’d have to be marketed, and if not enough people bought into it, we’d be in big trouble.
Episode gaming would work rather nicely for adventure games. Check out these sites for examples:
http://www.fahrenheitgame.com/
http://www.ladystar.net
Not just adventure gaming but other genres too, you might for example have an FPS game where in one episode you are in one country doing a mission over several districts and the next episode takes you to another country or a plot twist sends you on a rollercoaster ride needing you to go back to the previous episodes and recheck things and/or speak to old people to get more info needed to get past the latest episode, it all would kind of fit in place like a jigsaw where each piece of the game is vital to get along. At present, few games are noted for putting their plot first. And that’s the most important hook in order for any next episode to become 'must-have'. And it does not appear to be practical at our current rate of game development. It just takes too long to make a game; the graphics would probably look outdated the moment its out, etc.
Surely this kind of thing would be much more feasible online, where every week or so, the games staff would add a new event or something. For example, say it was a game where you played the part of a New York detective and you were investigating a murder case. Perhaps every week a new murder could occur, complete with new clues or a new suspect? If it was done offline, would people actually go out week-in, week-out just to buy the next short instalment of the game? The prices would sky-rocket, both for the publishers, having to churn out a brand new short game every week and for the consumers, having to buy a new computer game every week. Perhaps if you initially bought the full game and mini add-ons were released free on the Internet, or came with magazine cover-disks, maybe that would work well.
Think about the chapters of cack games like "Blair Witch" etc! This will lead to developers (marketers?) releasing all kinds of bugged up cack in the knowledge that they can include a patch in the next chapter, never mind selling a complete game, sell another add on like "MOH Spearhead" which other than nine new levels was simply the multi player stuff which should have been included in "Allied Assault". What if MOHAA was sold in nine level "chapters" for £30 a hit? Spearhead has sold and is selling well, so don't say people wouldn't buy it, remember EA are in it for the money as they are a business first, and if they thought releasing chapters was the way forwards that is what they will do, think of "The Sims", anything new in the add on packs by way of originality?
You just know software publishers would abuse the idea if it were put into practice. I remember they tried that once with the Steven King novel, "The Green Mile". It was cut into six parts and released every few weeks or so at a price of £1.99 but as the experiment was never repeated again, I doubt it was a success. All six parts were paperback meaning collecting the whole series would set you back just under £12, double the price of a full paperback novel. Fact is, I can read a book in a couple of days; I can also complete a game within a week. Being made to wait a week or so just to continue the story/game and be charged extra for the privilege would not entice me to invest in the series.
I think that it’s basically a good idea, but there's not money in it. So it’s not going anywhere.
Thanks for reading,
Flux.
We always watch series programs on TV like a hawk and patiently await the next chapter of the story or the next misadventure of our hero/heroine.
So, question is, would series/episode gaming work?
If my memory serves me correctly I do remember a game previously being released in episodes but I can't remember the name of it - I think it was in the US only for the time but may be wrong. It was not my sort of game though, so that may be why it's long forgotten in my mind, but what if say one of the most favoured genres in gaming, FPS games, was to be made into a series of episodes each one ending in a cliff-hanger effect to leave the player gagging for more and this way a successful game can be priced far cheaper because you would be guaranteed people will buy the next episode in the title if they enjoyed the first!
It would be one game obviously but a big one at that. Instead of today’s 4-5 hour campaign trekking through 8 countries with an arsenal of guns, episode gaming could be solely story based with particular elements borrowed form other games of the same type to keep everything highly interesting. I particularly like Deus Ex's style of conspiracy theory and free roam to some extent of the game mechanics so you choose your own way. Somewhat like the way user-created, Half-Life mods was released? I think it could be good, but how big is the market for downloading 100mb every few months on a 56k? Not huge I'd think, so it’d have to be marketed, and if not enough people bought into it, we’d be in big trouble.
Episode gaming would work rather nicely for adventure games. Check out these sites for examples:
http://www.fahrenheitgame.com/
http://www.ladystar.net
Not just adventure gaming but other genres too, you might for example have an FPS game where in one episode you are in one country doing a mission over several districts and the next episode takes you to another country or a plot twist sends you on a rollercoaster ride needing you to go back to the previous episodes and recheck things and/or speak to old people to get more info needed to get past the latest episode, it all would kind of fit in place like a jigsaw where each piece of the game is vital to get along. At present, few games are noted for putting their plot first. And that’s the most important hook in order for any next episode to become 'must-have'. And it does not appear to be practical at our current rate of game development. It just takes too long to make a game; the graphics would probably look outdated the moment its out, etc.
Surely this kind of thing would be much more feasible online, where every week or so, the games staff would add a new event or something. For example, say it was a game where you played the part of a New York detective and you were investigating a murder case. Perhaps every week a new murder could occur, complete with new clues or a new suspect? If it was done offline, would people actually go out week-in, week-out just to buy the next short instalment of the game? The prices would sky-rocket, both for the publishers, having to churn out a brand new short game every week and for the consumers, having to buy a new computer game every week. Perhaps if you initially bought the full game and mini add-ons were released free on the Internet, or came with magazine cover-disks, maybe that would work well.
Think about the chapters of cack games like "Blair Witch" etc! This will lead to developers (marketers?) releasing all kinds of bugged up cack in the knowledge that they can include a patch in the next chapter, never mind selling a complete game, sell another add on like "MOH Spearhead" which other than nine new levels was simply the multi player stuff which should have been included in "Allied Assault". What if MOHAA was sold in nine level "chapters" for £30 a hit? Spearhead has sold and is selling well, so don't say people wouldn't buy it, remember EA are in it for the money as they are a business first, and if they thought releasing chapters was the way forwards that is what they will do, think of "The Sims", anything new in the add on packs by way of originality?
You just know software publishers would abuse the idea if it were put into practice. I remember they tried that once with the Steven King novel, "The Green Mile". It was cut into six parts and released every few weeks or so at a price of £1.99 but as the experiment was never repeated again, I doubt it was a success. All six parts were paperback meaning collecting the whole series would set you back just under £12, double the price of a full paperback novel. Fact is, I can read a book in a couple of days; I can also complete a game within a week. Being made to wait a week or so just to continue the story/game and be charged extra for the privilege would not entice me to invest in the series.
I think that it’s basically a good idea, but there's not money in it. So it’s not going anywhere.
Thanks for reading,
Flux.