Poll Question 014 - Is the Concept of Episodic Gaming is Flawed?

To support the Prosecuter’s.. prosecution about development times, observe this research. Half-Life 2 was in development for five years (according to http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/p-3.html). Released at November 16th, 2004. Episode One was released on June 1st of 2006. If episodes follow this usual development time, thats 2 years per episode which means the episodic trilogy will have 6 years of development time Half-Life 2 it’self took, as said, 5 years of development. This means that the development time will actually be *slower*.

However, this is unfair since the development time will possibly be faster due to the team’s experiance in developing Half-Life 2 and their knowledge of the Source Engine already. This however, doesn’t matter since a Half-Life 3 on the same again would be the same, regardless of whether it was episodic or not.

As for the cost. Let’s do math.

Current price of Half-Life 2 (according to http://www.halflife2.net/hl2/purchase) is 30 dollars american (not including the special offers). Episode One currently is 15 dollars american. Thus, buying them all one by one as they come out would cost you theoretically 45 dollars american.

At the same time, there is the possibility of getting money off if you purchase all the episodes in a three pack (much like the other special offers). This would theoretically cost less then Half-Life 2, assuming it’s price doesn’t go down.

I will defend the.. defense on the response to criticisms. What about, say, if there was a large amount of players saying that they’d like Barney to practice Krav Maga on a squad of Zombies wearing Superman t-shirts. Not something you can easily put into a patch. So, Episode Two might feature Barney putting the physical smackdown on various alien species as a response to those criticisms.

Honourable members of the court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

The counsel for the prosecution has attempted to paint you a picture in which innocent, hardworking gamers are being cheated out of their rightful entertainment by a bunch of lazy, greedy, corporate development houses. What a heart-stirring tale of underdog oppression and woe!

However, do not be misled by this tear-jerking attempt to gain your undeserved sympathy. I put it to you that the very opposite is the case: game developers are working harder than ever before to deliver a quality experience that is entertaining, immersive and fresh. What you have heard, ladies and gentlemen, are the whining complaints of a spoilt consumer with unfair expectations.

Before going into this in greater depth however, I will first refute the prosecution’s arguments one by one.

1. Faster release times are a red herring.

The prosecution appears to be confused. Initially, the prosecution appears to complain that game development time has been increasing over the years, yet he then goes on too admonish the industry for wanting to make a quick buck.

It must be either the one or the other: either one believes game development takes too long (in which case one should welcome episodic content), or one should be prepared to wait. The fact that episodic content can deliver games faster, cannot of itself be held against it, surely? That would be like accusing a paperback novel of having a soft spine.

How long does it take to make a game anyway? The truth is, as any honest developer will tell you, “as long as it takes”. The great releases we all know and loved were delayed many times for this reason, and that’s probably why they were so great. Whether or not the game is episodic is beside the point.

2. Ability to respond to players’ criticism is either already present in legacy systems or is undesirable in any case

Again, it is unclear what the prosecution wants. On the one hand prosecution appears to see the ability to update and patch games as a benefit and a pretty straight-forward practice; on the other hand it questions whether such patches might be a good idea. This is again, utterly beside the point with respect as to whether or not gaming is episodic.

It also appears that this confusion on behalf of the prosecution has caused him to overlook the fact that the prime strength of episodic gaming’s ability to respond to gamers’ criticisms, lies in the aspects of character and storyline. Patches are generally used for technical or gameplay updates (making the player a little stronger or weaker, modifying weapons, baddies), but Episodic gaming means that developers can pay more attention to a particular character’s role in the story if it becomes clear that gamers particularly like that character. The classic exhibit here is Alyx in Episode 1, and of course Dog too.

3. The price for the consumer is disproportionately high

This is where the prosecution shows itself at its worst, and the outlines of the spoilt child become most apparent. Let us first compare a few prices:

Average price of a cinema ticket US$15 (90 minutes movie)
Average price of a dinner for two in inexpensive restaurant US$50 (two courses)
Average price of a CD of popular music US$12 (75 minutes of music)
Average price of a seat at the opera US$175 (3 hour opera including interval)

And the prosecution wishes to tell you that US$20 for four hours of intense, immersive, story-driven, kick-*** entertainment is a bad deal?!

Making a good game requires a big team of highly-educated, talented people to work many, many hours. Again we see the spoilt child raise its ugly head from behind the prosecution’s argument.

Furthermore, it may well be the case that Half-Life was 12 hours long, maybe Doom II was even 20. This however is utterly beside the point. In the old days, when graphics were poor and AI quality was low, developers compensated by providing quantity instead. Unfortunately, as a result, large sections of these games were mainly filler and often painstakingly boring.

The counsel for the prosecution himself has on several occasions publicly complained of this fact:

[Exhibit 2:
http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/can-i-skip-the-boring-driving-parts/

[Exhibit 3:
http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/over-used-features/

But the most telling way to illustrate this point is by the simple words:

“On a Rail”

Those members of the jury who are true-born gamers will need to hear no more.

4. Lower start-up costs for the developer have not yet made themselves apparent in a sudden increase in new games

The prosecution should be more patient. Rome was not built in a day. The argument is utterly beside the point as to whether or not episodic gaming is a good thing.

Episodic gaming means stronger story telling

Honourable members of the court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I shall now turn to the prosecution’s remarks on storytelling and game mechanics, where again we shall see confusion and a misplaced sense of entitlement on behalf of the prosecution.

Let us first consider the question of “the story” in some popular FPS. If one was in an uncharitable mood, one might summarise the plot of a few popular FPS as follows:

Doom: A portal from hell has opened and you have to shoot all the demons
Half-life 1: A portal from hell has opened and you have to shoot all the demons and the soldiers who have come to shoot the demons too.
Half-life 2: The portal from hell is still open and there are still plenty of demons and soldiers to shoot.

The above, of course, would only be true if technology and creativity hadn’t developed to allow better and different means of in-game storytelling. It is only understandable that as the intensity and quality of the storytelling increases, that the overall length of the experience is somewhat reduced. Again, it is a matter of getting rid of boring filler and offering the gamer and experience that is unique and fresh in every moment. Nobody would seriously summarize Episode 1 with its intensive plot and the characters as “Yup, it’s still open, still more demons”, would they?

Again, the prosecution is unreasonable in its demands. Of course we would all like an epic episodic frag-opera that released itself continuously in 2 hour episodes every evening, but for the time being, we’re going to have to wait. Diddums.

Closing Statement for the Defence

The constraints and focus of episodic gaming have given us more detailed storytelling and strong, well-developed characters like Alyx and Dog. The price is more than reasonable when compared to other forms of entertainment. Everyone wishes that games would be released faster, but unfortunately games take time and money to make. The prosecution is acting like a big baby and the defendant is most surely innocent of all charges. I rest my case.

You say patches can be used to better the game? How can it? You can’t put major gameplay changes into a patch or update. Take this example:

In Episode One, you were originally going to have the Gravity Gun for a longer period of time. This is explained in the Commentary track. Testers said they wanted to have weapons instead of running around with the Gravity Gun. They couldn’t suddenly have you pick up the Pistol and Shotgun after an update. Like one poster said, patches/updates are only used to correct technical errors. Some major gameplay features may require entire maps to be rebuilt, which would result in a jarring effect for those who have played through that map previously.

Another example is the very beginning: Again, the Commentary tells you that the intro was more focused on special effects than storytelling. Testers said they thought it was cool, but didn’t really have any idea what was supposed to be happening. VALVe then tweaked it so they could have a middle ground between storytelling and the psychedelic look they were shooting for. If they released the intro they first had, then changed it to the one they have now, when playing through it again, I’d be wondering it was the same game I was playing as last time.

About the cost: You’re making it sound like you have to shell out the total cost of all the games at once. No, it’s a small amount every so often. I’m sure that in the time it takes for the release of each Episode, you can scrounge up a few bucks for the game…?

Also, Zockopa, how can they make money off of something they haven’t released, yet? Your wording is pretty confusing and it makes it sound like you’re accusing VALVe of somehow managing to get money off you by simply developing the game. I’m pretty sure that they’re spending more money than they are making while producing games.

Defense: “On a Rail”

Picking out On a Rail is helping your case how? It wasn’t the slightest bit filler: lots of big (multi-way) shootouts, several exploration opportunities, and cool set pieces like the rocket launch. It also helped that it was around shorter, more linear chapters and therefore varied the pace a little.

Anyway, I choose “not guilty” simply because episodic content is too new for any sort of judgement yet (of course the first uses of it are not going to show its advantages much; a lot of new ideas take a while to refine), so I’d rather just give it a chance.

I can’t disagree there .

4&8 ? Where did that number come from?Last I heard episode 3 will be the final HL.Unless they change thier minds and make a 3 or 4 full game but last I heard episode 3 is the end.

Forgot the question about SiN - reading the above comments, I can see it’s already been answered.

I voted guilty, and I’ll tell you why:

1) 6 years to make a sequel? That’s buggy?

2) 2 years to release “episodes” that are buggy and outstrip the hardware 90% of the gamers out there use (because not everyone is rich enough to change hardware every 6 months).

3) Steam, which is not only buggy but prevents the user from playing the game in offline mode more often than not.

4) Cost. Every post I’ve seen so far has the number way off. For one, average movie prices in the US outside of El Lay or NYC are around $7-$10 per person, half that during the day. HL2, when released, was nearly $60 in WAL-MART; the price has since fallen, but the super-duper-combo package is still nearly $60. Retail cost of EP1 is $15, but to get it online (which is problematic for those of us without highspeed connections) is still $20. And if the pricing of the next episodes fall in line with EP1, we’re looking at a minimum of $30 and a potential maximum (including inflation) of $50-$60 for the next two. And the kicker is that the “episodic” content isn’t really worth more than $10 per episode. And I have to agree with Philip, three short episodes separated by 2 or 3 years really ruin the experience. Once you get them and can run thru them all in one shot, it’s nice; but waiting that long is like waiting 2 years for the next Battlestar Galactica episode, you forget way too much, and if Valve is true to form, they’ve made the new stuff for hardware that didn’t exist when you got the game, and there we go with the po’ folk gettin’ screwed again.

5) Restrictive/impossible DRM: part of Steam, but still valid, because it kills a major portion of gamers, those that don’t have highspeed internet access. If the game works well, it doens’t need constant “updates” and “patches”–we should be allowed to turn them off if we wish; we should also be allowed to run the game in SP mode without any form of internet connection at all. DOOM3 did it, why can’t Valve/HLx??

Conclusion: Valve is making very questionable decisions in how they made, marketed, and maintain the game. It’s just one step away from “subscription-based computing”, where they charge you per play or per hour or per minute. They aready break Steam and the games when they update them; they already make playing in SP offline mode nearly impossible; and they are overcharging for content that is, at best, no better than a decent mod (and, if compared to Leon’s CtA mod, pretty damned lacking).

So, I say to you, the jury: Find them GUILTY. And off with their heads!!

What if your gaming PC is not connected to the internets? I’m a wee bit screwed, aren’t I?

(Before anyone asks - I have an external hard drive full of mods and other assorted ****)