stonebro: That's a pretty loose definition of "episodic". Seems more like "games that end on a so far unresolved cliffhanger with vague intentions of following up" to me. Then I can mention lots too.
Whenever a whole story is told in several parts (in other words: episodes) the game can safely be called episodic. That is the case with all games I mentioned. Heck, most of them even have 'Episode X' in their title! So I don't think my definition is loose, it's spot on.
stonebro: I think the episodic format makes a lot of sense for a small developer to seek to "exploit" their consumer base's trust to get an advance on profits to improve cash flow, and I encourage people I know to buy into that trust.
That's certainly a call you can make for yourself. However, being an avid gamer since the early 80s I have been burned too many times by too many companies to put any trust into them at all. And if you read the thread more carefully you will see I am not the only one who dislikes buying trust. I'd prefer to buy a (finished) game.
stonebro: Of course, I expect an episodic game to come at a lower price point than a full retail release. Telltale have hit a good price point. I actually consider their games fairly cheap, at less than half of "accepted" retail price ($50-$60) for a "season" of one of their episodic games (pre-order price). Seeing as how they're expanding the episodic model to yet more games and licenses, it seems enough consumers agree with me.
Wow, you are
way out of touch with today's market prices. Let me quote prices for some new AAA games:
Battlefield 4 28.79 €, Batman Arkham Origins 18.00 €, The Night of the Rabbit Premium Edition (PC + Mac) 15.99 €, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 15.59 €, Watch Dogs (Pre-Order) 33.99 €
And we are talking about
physical products with
free shipping here.
If we consider the fact that Telltale delivers only downloads and the production quality of their games does not even come close to AAA games they should charge 5-7 € at best. Converted and rounded up that's around 10$. 25$ is overpriced. I'm not saying 25$ is unreasonable but compared to what you can get for that money it is simply too much.
stonebro: I don't understand why people get worked up about this stuff. It's a valid model that can be good for everybody when executed right, so there's no need to blankly refuse a game just because it comes in whatever number of episodes.
You are missing the fact that even when a developer is usually reliable there is never a guarantee. The company could go bankrupt or be bought up. Or key people on a project could leave the company. Or die of lung cancer (RIP Dani). And then the rest of the episodes either turn up missing or suffer from a massive quality drop.
When
anything goes wrong it's always the customer who gets screwed. That's why from my point of view episodic games simply do not exist until they are finished. And only
then am I going to decide whether the asked price of admission is worth it or not.
And that is just as much a legitimate opinion on episodic games as yours, whether you understand it or not.
Leroux: I never knew A Vampyre Story was an episodic game ... Haven't played it yet. Wasn't there two Bone games, or is The Great Cow Race just an "expansion" to the first game? Still unfinished though, in any case.
Yes, when the developer ran out of money Vampyre Story was split into 2 parts to enable the developer to finish the game with the money from the first part. Even though the game was quite fun it wasn't marketed very well and didn't see sufficient sales. As a result the second part was never finished and buyers ended up with an incomplete game.
Leroux: EDIT: Apparantly Winter Voices returned and was eventually completed, but only
re-sold on Steam, screwing everyone who had bought the first episodes from other stores?
That's exactly the kind of screwing I was talking about.
