So I finished chapter 1 of the Tales of Monkey Island and it made me rethink episodic gaming and how it should be implemented. Did I have fun with Tales? Sure, it was an enjoyable couple hours, but I can’t help but feel a little apprehensive about the way the game is being handled. Telltale’s previous forays into episodic gaming are like sitcoms – stand alone situations tangentially related to a grand story. For example, you could download and play any Sam & Max or Strongbad episode and could (for the most part) get though it with little knowledge of the previous chapters. To make the TV comparison, if a non-fan watched an episode from the most recent season of The Office or 30 Rock, they may be oblivious to the high level stories that the series has built, but could understand the comedy in that particular episode. Tales of Monkey Island on the other hand feels like a drama – an in-depth character/story arc building chapter to chapter. Again with a TV comparison, try watching an recent episode of Lost without any previous knowledge of past seasons and you would have no clue what is going on (well, I suppose Lost is a bad example, since I’ve watched it from the start and still have no clue what is going on).
So a couple months down the road, could someone new download episode 3 of Tales and really grasp all that’s going on? Granted this is a lot of extrapolation on my part but I look at King’s Quest 7 as a benchmark for “drama-type” episodic gaming. In KQ7, you could start the game at any of the game’s 6 chapters. While this was great to skip past sections you might have been having trouble with, many important things could be lost by doing so. How did I get this item? What does it do again? Who’s this guy and why do I need to blast him with the scepter? Part of the enjoyment in an adventure game like Monkey Island is the journey, finally using that seemingly useless item you got at the beginning of the game, seeing the jokes build and build to their ultimate conclusion. Being able to skip large chunks of the game would take away from what the game wants to be.
So what do ya’ll think? Would games like Tales be better suited as a full release so you could get the whole story or are you OK with the episodic nature?
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Isay Isay's blog
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I dont have a clue what the hell is going on that island in Lost... but Im very pissed at the fact that they wont be releasing the new season until 2010.
Telltale's research has shown that the vast majority of people start at the beginning of a series and go sequentially to the end, most of them buying the series package (which is the only option available, currently). So being able to jump in halfway through isn't really an issue for almost all players. In fact, they have stated that the reason they kept the episodes so separate in their previous episodes is because they expected there to be a lot more picking and choosing, and much less playing-through-in-sequence.
Having standalone discrete chunks of game isn't the only reason episodic gaming - for Telltale it's a whole way of writing. The impact of the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter would be lessened if you played them all back to back, for example. Also, it lets Telltale get detailed feedback on how the game is turning out as they are making it, and as a company they are very good at knowing when and when not to listen to advice.
To me it's exciting watching this saga unfold. If it had all been released at once I would have already finished it 10 days ago, no doubt. It's exciting to think I'll still be involved with this game and waiting to see how the overarching plot turns out over 5 months.
All good points. I'm apprehensive now just based on the nature of Monkey Island, but would also love to see this work out well for Telltale. If this works, I think it'll open up a lot of opportunities for other adventure game series.
I'm excited to see what Blate Blapsize (secret code ;) ) does to get their revenge and whatever else the writers have up their sleeve.