Don't tempt them! (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 15:39 (3536 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I don't get why giving the consumer more options is a bad thing. It helped me out in this situation. :/

The answer is because games are art, and art is the product of the artist. Being able to mix and match what's in that art goes directly against the integrity of the work and the statement. Everybody should get the same game. I am sure you would be less than thrilled if someone only got a portion of your illustrations, rather than the whole thing as you intended it to be seen.

I don't think your examples line up with bonus skins. Exclusive levels or something like that? I'd totally agree with you. Bonus skins, to me, are more like coming out with alternative covers for your comic or something. You let the audience decide which one they like better, as people have different preferences, and it doesn't interfere with the actual comic inside. Some people don't even care about the cover - some see it as a commercial distortion of the true art inside.

I don't believe giving the audience options, as long as the core art is the same, is always bad. Referring to your example in a post above, some creators actually see 3D and 2D as different versions of the same thing, one not necessarily better than the other -just different- and thus offer both versions for whichever the viewer would best enjoy.

Personally, I don't go to the theater anymore because I rarely ever have a good experience. People are talking or texting, the film isn't in focus, it's so packed I'm in a shitty seat and hurting my neck the whole time, and so on. I usually leave flustered and wasn't able to immerse myself into the film. With Blu-rays and technology today, I have a better quality experience at home and don't have to deal with a distracting audience (other than my dog trying to figure out what the direwolves are saying). But if an author had absolute control over their film and say, never released their film on home video, I wouldn't be able to appreciate it as best as I could have if they had given me some options.

Connecting this back to my illustrations - I offer my comics in digital and print. I personally prefer print, but I understand a lot of people enjoy digital, and so I like having it as an option for them. As much as I want them to enjoy the same story, I have to draw a line somewhere. I can't sit and turn the pages for them or command them not to sit upside down on their couch and read it while monkeys dance around them trying to distract them. If my actual content is there, I'm fine with the audience choosing how they consume it.

Bonus skins, at least in a game like Destiny where we create our character, doesn't feel like it interferes with the core art. It feels more peripheral and up to the individual preferences. Really, none of our analogies work for this. It's a different medium with different aspects, especially a game where you play as 'your Guardian'.

If we were to somehow create a perfect analogy of this situation in comics, we'd have to imagine some futuristic online comic where the reader gets to customize the main character and then they appear like that in every panel. Let's say I was making this comic. I make a bunch of options for that character, make the rest of the story, and then release it. Later on I decided to make some more options for the character but don't alter the story at all. I don't think it would bother me at all artistically. It's just more options for more money, in addition to the options I already sold with the core book. It's additional content - not missing or interfering content, like new forward and cover in re-released novel. The audience can choose whether they want or need that additional content.