Interesting. (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, December 10, 2023, 10:58 (139 days ago) @ EffortlessFury
edited by Cody Miller, Sunday, December 10, 2023, 11:01

But you're right, if one were to approach the game with as much of a classic, single-player, one-time game attitude and just look at updates as much faster, bite-sized releases than sequels tend to be, it's suddenly the best shit ever, IMO. As I've said before, it feels like the fulfillment of the promise of episodic narrative; the ability to partake in an on-going story that updates several times a year rather than having to wait years for a chunked release.

Critical Mass.

I think we've seen in general how frequent 'bite sized' releases are lacking. Look at Destiny. What are the most highly praised parts of the game? The big expansions. Taken King. Forsaken. Witch Queen.

It's because when you drop little pieces at once, there isn't that critical mass for that cohesive experience. If I'm telling you a joke, and that joke requires 60 seconds of setup for the punchline, then I can't tell you the joke in 6 separate ten second chunks. It doesn't work like that.

Does this argument also apply to television? It's not like they've chunked out one episode across multiple updates. Each release tells a relatively self-contained part of the story, with a "to be continued" to varying degrees depending on where in the major patch cycle you are.

Yes, but that's the key. Each episode is supposed to stand on its own. You're given a complete story, that is part of a larger one.

You see this fail with lots of streaming shows. They drop all episodes at once, and it's pretty insufferable because it's expected to be binged, and each episode is just full of filler and not really a complete experience on its own.

But what's required for critical mass in 22 or 44 minutes of TV is vastly different than in a video game, because video games contain what TV does and more.