First: I'm generally no fan of episodic gaming as due to the short production cycle (if you take episodic gaming seriously) it comes with genre related restrictions. So i always would prefer a full version instead.
But it's more likely to work out for genres where you primary only replace the content like with adventures like Sam&Max. Each month you get 3-5 hours new playtime. It's like watching a sitcom. HL2 production times are way too long to be taken seriously as an episodic format. In my opinion they should have concentrated on bringing out a full version instead as i honestly don't care if i have to wait two or five years. That's not episodic anymore...
The months cycle with Sam&Max is fitting quite well and Sam&Max has evolved in the riddle design for instance due to complains from the users. So feedback makes it earlier into the game. On the other side they reuse content too often and you only get small storylines instead of a big one which they cut into smaller pieces. But that's more a design question which they also could improve if they wanted to.
For TTG the episodic format is fantastic as they have much more distribution channels. As they release a full version for season one afterwards they get both the conservative gamers, the episodic gamers, the fans who buy both. They do get a lot more press as each episode gets attention in game mags no matter if they're off- or online, less risk, and so on...
For me i feel it is more a downside as great new ideas make it even harder into games and you spent a lot more time on waiting (waiting for e1, e2, e3, ...) than for one full game instead.
An advantage for the gamer is that the developer can react to feedback and fix things instead of screwing up a whole game and that due to the hard deadlines the developer really get things done.
Maybe the Duke should be in episodic format?! ;O)
But it's more likely to work out for genres where you primary only replace the content like with adventures like Sam&Max. Each month you get 3-5 hours new playtime. It's like watching a sitcom. HL2 production times are way too long to be taken seriously as an episodic format. In my opinion they should have concentrated on bringing out a full version instead as i honestly don't care if i have to wait two or five years. That's not episodic anymore...
The months cycle with Sam&Max is fitting quite well and Sam&Max has evolved in the riddle design for instance due to complains from the users. So feedback makes it earlier into the game. On the other side they reuse content too often and you only get small storylines instead of a big one which they cut into smaller pieces. But that's more a design question which they also could improve if they wanted to.
For TTG the episodic format is fantastic as they have much more distribution channels. As they release a full version for season one afterwards they get both the conservative gamers, the episodic gamers, the fans who buy both. They do get a lot more press as each episode gets attention in game mags no matter if they're off- or online, less risk, and so on...
For me i feel it is more a downside as great new ideas make it even harder into games and you spent a lot more time on waiting (waiting for e1, e2, e3, ...) than for one full game instead.
An advantage for the gamer is that the developer can react to feedback and fix things instead of screwing up a whole game and that due to the hard deadlines the developer really get things done.
Maybe the Duke should be in episodic format?! ;O)