Valve could have likely gotten away with that with the Half-Life 2 episodes, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some studio ends up trying.

Releasing updates or new content every month for an MMORPG is not the same. It isn’t episodic, and it is already paid for through the regular monthly subscriptions (or whatever other revenue channels a MOG might have). Any developer that doesn’t support a MOG with regular content updates, doesn’t have a clue. Regular expansions are also not episodic content.

Your NWN modules also don’t classify as episodic content. Each module is relatively unrelated to the others, and they are different from the original storyline.

So, neither of your examples are appropriate, and they don’t offer a valid arguement that Rein might be wrong.

I should say though, that there are exceptions to the rule…episodic content may very well work for some properties, but Rein’s point (and I concur) is that the model in general is “broken”…it sounds good on paper (like in-game advertising) but in practice isn’t very stable or good for game developers and consumers.

The NWN digital distribution modules are an interesting idea, and it looks like that approach is perfect for NWN. I wouldn’t call it episodic by any means (because it isn’t) but I wouldn’t quite classify it as expansions either (expansions are generally quite large and substantial)…I think just calling them Story Modules is probably best.

Am I just splitting hairs here? What is the difference between a story module and episodes?

Story Module = self contained story.
Episode = Story *split* into pieces.

You can get any of the NWN modules and play them on their own, and in any order. It isn’t necessary to meet any prerequisites from playing or completing a previous one, and you won’t be lost trying to understand what is going on with the story because you missed something.

With episodic content, you are paying for a story or game, in parts. You need to get them in order to logically progress (would you read comic books out of order? What about watching LOST episodes in a random sequence?)

I am sure there are opportunities for releasing episodic content over the Internet…I’ve heard about a lot of experiments over the years with various media types (including web “tv” shows and so forth), but none of these seem to have had any staying power (wonder why?).

While you can make stories episodic, I don’t think it is a good idea to do that to a game. Stick with modules with new stories, or expansions with loads of new content.

Just my two cents.

Nicodemus

Asheron’s Call has been releasing fresh free content every month for years. That kept people subscribed for a long time. We never had as many subscribers as other MMGs, but 1999 to ~2002 we did have the lowest churn. People who subscribed tended to stay. Even if they were only popping in once a month to see what was new.

Neverwinter Nights Digital Distribution modules ($5-$10) paid for the last few patches by the Live Team. Which seems to argue the exact opposite of what he’s saying – in order to continue supporting the game, we used the profits from episodic content.

Buying Half Life 2 at the store was either $49.99 or at most $59.99. On that scale then the entire halflife 2 game would be three episodes. If there are six episodes your now paying $120 for the same package.

Let’s not forget that your downloading the game too, so no retail expenses to deal with. All in all, it’s got the potential to be a sweet scam. Time will tell if we consumers let it be a sweet scam.

Remember, you cannot run out of ink while blogging.

Your comments are really good, however.