HITMAN (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, May 21, 2017, 21:53 (2833 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

By releasing new maps episodically, they almost forced players to engage on a deeper level and replay maps, learn them intimately, get excited about Elusive Targets, be a part of the ongoing conversation about that game.

The flip-side of this coin is that an episodic release schedule forced the developers to treat each level as a piece of content that needed enough depth to be intensely replayable. Another reason why going episodic more than likely improved the quality of the final product.

Right.

I also think forced periods of waiting can be helpful in other ways. For instance, the two month-ish waits between the episodes of Life Is Strange combined with that game's excellent cliffhangers to enhance the tension at the end of each episode and the anticipation as each new episode drew near. In my opinion, anticipation like that evaporates if you are just able to binge something all in one sitting.

But it's also true that too long of a delay can be harmful. For example, the episodic iOS game Republique had good gameplay and a neat storyline, but the releases were so far apart that I got tired of waiting and never even started the 5th and final episode. Where Life Is Strange was spread over a year, Republique was spread over three! And that was just too much.