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A couple things bothering me...

posted by Anonymous on - last edited - Viewed by 1.3K users

As you know, we've all been waiting for a long time for this, but now I'm reading things on the front page that are making this game sound almost experimental and unappealing, and I'm hoping some answers can be cleared up.

1. It sounds like instead of playing a big full-scale adventure game, we instead get little tiny episodes that we could probably finish in ten minutes each. This sounds almost like "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" and "Victor Vector" which were both royally disappointing in both the short and long run. Personally, I prefer my games to have at least fifty "advertised" hours, so how big is this going to be exactly?

2. This whole webisode thing sounds like pay-per-view, where you play a bit of the story, and then have to pay for the next bit of the story. Personally, I'd rather have a whole game on a nice store-bought disc that I can even install on computers that aren't connected to the internet. I don't to want to pay $20 for something I'll have to burn onto a crappy CD.

Yes, I've been waiting forever for Sam & Max to come back out and yes, beggars shouldn't be choosers, but why does there HAVE to be a catch? This is the equivalent of finding out Final Fantasy XI will be multi-player only - it just ruins everything you've hoped for.

Anyway, if someone could make everything clearer on the detail of this game and how it will be distributed, I'd probably feel a lot more at ease.

23 Comments - Linear Discussion: Classic Style
  • [quote][quote]And perhaps if everyone would stop seeing online distribution as some wretched replacement for buying the game in the store you might discover that the idea has, gasp, some pretty exciting possibilities. [/quote]
    Such as what? Getting the game a day or two faster?[/quote]

    A day or two? Games go gold a month before they actually reach stores all the time. Plus with online distribution everyone gets the game at the same time; Europe doesn't have to wait any longer to get the game, for example.

    [quote]Having the games chopped into mini episodes?[/quote]

    What are you talking about? Nothing's being "chopped" here. Where do you even get this idea that there's one big game being chopped up into little parts? That's insane. Each game is being made on at the time, as a complete experience however short.

    [quote]Having horrible copy protection that puts an expiration date on the game?[/quote]

    Want to give me some details on this? You know, since you seem to know all about it. The game doesn't "expire." You pay for the game, and then you are licensed to it, just as you are to a game you buy at the store. Once you've downloaded the game you have it - all the resource files are there. The only time you'd have to re-activate is if the game gets deleted off your computer or you want to install it on another machine. In that case it's a matter of going to the web site and having it re-activated. Oooh.

    [quote]Having to backup all games yourself?[/quote]

    Hey chief, you've got to do that with any game you buy if you want a back-up. Except in the case of Bone you've only got fifty megs to worry about. And that's if you have this fear that the internet will blow up and you'll never get a copy of the installer again.

    [quote]Getting no box or manual or nothing?[/quote]

    How about the game? Is that part important maybe?

    I've said this before: Why does everyone care so much about the box? I mean, it'd be one thing if the boxes we get these days are any good or had any cool extras in it, but this isn't the early 90s where you get this awesome box with endless junk in it. The best case scenario would be a small, cheap cardboard box and a jewel case (or even just a paper sleeve) with a tiny manual. In the UK, DVD cases are standard. What exactly are we missing out on here? Sure, a box is nice, but so what? Telltale might not have the money to distribute its games to stores anyway, and if they spent all kinds of money on getting their games to stores, would they sell? I'm serious - imagine the kind of stuff you see on your local game shelf, and tell me if Bone would sell like hot cakes in that sort of environment.

    Also, there's an official Bone manual online. If you have to touch it, print it out. Find a new complaint.

    [quote]Getting games at the same prices (a few measly dollars doesn't matter, they should cut the prices by at least 40%, they'd still make more than before),[/quote]

    The game was released at twenty bucks. That's hardly a fortune. And they're already offering discounts. And 40% off a $19.99 game out for two months is a little extreme. Wait a while.

    [quote]having to have a connection to the net every time you install/play a game, etc? Gee, that sounds great![/quote]

    You really don't know what you're talking about, do you? Once you activate it that's it. There's no need for internet connection.

    [quote]Also, DVDs and CDs ARE more convenient.. you can just make an image and play them anytime you want without any hassle. That is not piracy in my eyes.. a backup for personal use is not piracy.
    I do that with all my games.. and I know I can have these games for as long as I want, there is no expiration date on them.[/quote]

    Same thing with Telltale's games.

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    So what kind of length are we looking at for these episodes? One hour? Two hours? At least longer than your average fan-game?

  • Don't know. I guess we'll find out next year.

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    a lot of people seem to be missing the key point about episodic releases.. IT KEEPS TELLTALE ALIVE! previously the company would start work on a game get about a year into a 2 year out of money go out of business..we'd see nothing.. the episodic releases..give telltale a revenue stream to keep making the games! get that in your heads people

  • Yes, there's that, and that's just the reason from a business standpoint. But it's silly to only consider it as something that has to be done because of, well, "marketplace realities." There's definitely some creative stuff that could come from Telltale and other developers that they could never do otherwise. If you only see a service like Telltale Now as something that you're just going to begrudgingly have to accept, well, there's no help for ya. :)

  • I'm hoping we'll also see other short adventure games that aren't necessarily going to have sequels or be related to a popular license where Telltale can just go crazy and let loose. Something that most publishers would just laugh at, but would have a bigger chance of success with online distribution.

  • Yeah I hope so to. I'm guessing they'll start doing that after they've achieved enough success.

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    yeah im looking forward to an original telltale title too :D

  • Ditto. Some of my favourite YouknowWho adventures were originals (Grim, Zak, Monkey, Dig, Throttle etc).

    You know it could be a sly way for Telltale to test ideas - use Dank or Dudebrough in a free downloadable minigame (or as an in-browser flash game), and gauge the fanbase reaction.

    Refine and tweak for similar use in a future Bone or Sam & Max episode...

    I guess Telltale aren't adverse to that general concept, considering Hold'em was kind of a character test and distribution test. :D

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    I felt I needed to reply to this, pronto.

    The speculation of 1-3 hours of gameplay for a $20 episode I think isn't giving enough credit to them. Adventure games always take twice and sometimes three times as long to get through the first time around, I think we all know that.

    My first playthrough of Grim Fandango took me probably a month of playing three or four hours a day. Nowadays I can zip through that game so fast it's like an interactive movie, but I hardly think I was ripped off because of it.

    There may be 3 hours of content in these episodes assuming you already know what to do... but beyond that, I seriously doubt it.

    At any rate, if people are serious about wanting to see Sam & Max and adventure gaming live, I believe the whole genre's success is hinging on Telltale's successfulness, so we need to do all we can to help them out.

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