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Tawmis wrote:

Collector wrote:Though it is not necessarily a deal breaker for me, I detest episodic releases. I probably will wait until all are released before buying.

Ditto.

Roger (Wilco) that.

This is one reason why I grit my teeth whenever someone goes on about how games like World of Warcraft or The Sims are so wonderful, etc. As far as I'm concerned, they're both nothing but cash cows for Blizzard and EA, respectively.

Rath Darkblade wrote:

Tawmis wrote:

Collector wrote:Though it is not necessarily a deal breaker for me, I detest episodic releases. I probably will wait until all are released before buying.

Ditto.

Roger (Wilco) that.

This is one reason why I grit my teeth whenever someone goes on about how games like World of Warcraft or The Sims are so wonderful, etc. As far as I'm concerned, they're both nothing but cash cows for Blizzard and EA, respectively.

World of Warcraft and The Sims don't use an episodic format. You get the main game and then can buy expansions if you choose.

Episodic format is the main game broken up into several segments, so if you don't buy all of them, you don't get the full story.

BTW, for many people MMOs are wonderful. The main draw is the social factor, which for many includes working in guilds together and playing alongside friends or family.

That said, I wouldn't pay a subscription fee for an MMO nowadays, which is why I play Guild Wars 2. GW2 doesn't charge a fee. You pay for the game itself and then can play without ever spending another dime. The only time you might spend money is if you want certain items off the trading post, nearly all of which are cosmetic (such as various armors or hats or whatever).

As for The Sims series, they can be fun provided you're in the right mood. I got The Sims 3 with two expansions as part of a deal on the Humble Bundle quite a while ago. I've played it and it's not bad. I wouldn't have bought it by itself, but since it came in the packade deal with a ton of other really good titles, I didn't mind.

Episodic format is the main game broken up into several segments, so if you don't buy all of them, you don't get the full story.

Which is why I won't be buying until it is finished. There is also the possibility that the game could go belly up before it is finished, whether Activision pulls funding for future episodes, The Odd Gentlemen go under or whatever. As to expansions, I don't mind that, at least for an RPG, but I don't see how it could work that well for an adventure game.

Collector wrote:

Episodic format is the main game broken up into several segments, so if you don't buy all of them, you don't get the full story.

Which is why I won't be buying until it is finished. There is also the possibility that the game could go belly up before it is finished, whether Activision pulls funding for future episodes, The Odd Gentlemen go under or whatever. As to expansions, I don't mind that, at least for an RPG, but I don't see how it could work that well for an adventure game.

Same here. I will not be purchasing it until all the parts are available.

Fender_178 wrote:

Collector wrote:

Episodic format is the main game broken up into several segments, so if you don't buy all of them, you don't get the full story.

Which is why I won't be buying until it is finished. There is also the possibility that the game could go belly up before it is finished, whether Activision pulls funding for future episodes, The Odd Gentlemen go under or whatever. As to expansions, I don't mind that, at least for an RPG, but I don't see how it could work that well for an adventure game.

Same here. I will not be purchasing it until all the parts are available.

Which is worrisome, right? Several of us (myself) included; waiting until it's "completed" - which may mean initial sales may be pretty bad if others follow the same ideas as us. Which may mean it doesn't get finished. Odd catch-22.

Which is why I think episodic is potentially not as good of a strategy as some marketing people think. I wonder if this is a strategy formed for a younger demographic than what this game will have. I think that the bulk of the audience will be the adults that grew up with the King's Quest games and perhaps their children, not so much the teens and early twenty somethings for whom an episodic release would be a more effective gimmick.

Collector wrote:Which is why I think episodic is potentially not as good of a strategy as some marketing people think. I wonder if this is a strategy formed for a younger demographic than what this game will have. I think that the bulk of the audience will be the adults that grew up with the King's Quest games and perhaps their children, not so much the teens and early twenty somethings for whom an episodic release would be a more effective gimmick.

I totally agree with you there because if sales fail of the other episodes then the game and story of the game might not get completed.

Tawmis wrote:

Fender_178 wrote:

Collector wrote:

Episodic format is the main game broken up into several segments, so if you don't buy all of them, you don't get the full story.

Which is why I won't be buying until it is finished. There is also the possibility that the game could go belly up before it is finished, whether Activision pulls funding for future episodes, The Odd Gentlemen go under or whatever. As to expansions, I don't mind that, at least for an RPG, but I don't see how it could work that well for an adventure game.

Same here. I will not be purchasing it until all the parts are available.

Which is worrisome, right? Several of us (myself) included; waiting until it's "completed" - which may mean initial sales may be pretty bad if others follow the same ideas as us. Which may mean it doesn't get finished. Odd catch-22.

Yup is is worrisome because there is always a risk of the game not being completed due to poor sales.

Episodic starts smelling like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don't develop a full game because you are risking a larger investment, so you minimize the risk by releasing in episodic, but in doing so, increase the likelihood of failure.

Collector wrote:Episodic starts smelling like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don't develop a full game because you are risking a larger investment, so you minimize the risk by releasing in episodic, but in doing so, increase the likelihood of failure.

Also to me that Episodic style games remind me of some console games where the developer forces you to purchase a DLC style ending if you want the best ending.

If you wait until all episodes are released, there's no significant difference between an episodic release and a non-episodic release. The difference is just that people who are okay with partial (and likely cliffhangery) games can start playing earlier. Personally, I'm not one of these; I prefer to have the whole game available when I start playing (and that same thing carries over to book and television series), but I'm fine with other people having a different opinion.

Of course, there are shifty things possible with episodic releases, like not actually planning the whole story through before releasing an episode, or selling some episodes at a significant discount while charging full price for others, or just not completing the story. But not every episodic game will do any of those, and it's certainly not clear that this game will be one of the shifty ones.

There will almost certainly be a Season Pass so you can still pay upfront and not play until after the last episode is out. Of course that's too much like preordering for some people, which is a dirty word (it is to me). Yet we know sort of what we're getting here.

I'm not paying until the full product is out and on a flash sale.

MusicallyInspired wrote:I'm not paying until the full product is out and on a flash sale.

Unfortunately, that's a major reason why Activision wants the game on consoles as well. PC gamers expect their games to be insanely cheap, mostly due to the sort of sales we've become used to by digital distributors like Steam and GOG.

Compare that to console gaming where gamers pay full price for their games.

Even "used games" are almost as expensive as their brand new counterparts. I remember seeing Wii games on the "used title" shelf that were, at best, five dollars less than buying them new.

For the record, I'm not attacking MI for this. I do the same thing and wait for good Steam sales before buying games unless it's a game I know I really, really want and/or I want to support the developer. Otherwise, I usually wait for at least 50% off, if not more.

Regardless, PC gaming's cheap buying habits, combined with software piracy, likely lead most publishers to view console gaming as more worthwhile.

Under any other circumstances I'd pay full price but my financial situation is dire. It's not a matter of wanting to skimp out on paying, it's a matter of 'I'm really not going to be able to play this unless it's insanely cheap because I just don't have the money'.

I hear that. You are not the only one going through tough times. Under better circumstances I would want to pay top dollar to any company doing a good job reviving the genre, especially these games. It has to be profitable if we want more and the more profitable, the bigger the budgets they may have to do it right.

I think you guys are missing my point. I wasn't saying "people here are cheapskates."

I'm saying that, in general, PC gamers demand super-cheap games, and that in comparison, console gamers don't have a choice about the price, so developers and publishers stand to make more overall.

BTW, Maia and I are having some very difficult financial issues too, so I understand that situation.