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Do you have a points of comparison?

- .HACK uses episodic content in four episodes. How well would it work in a single edition, especially when you consider how well things can pack on a single disk? Also, why should a person be forced to read all the "prequels" to a given story to read the current one?
- Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross follow a different type of episodic content known as sequels.
- Doom 3 is the main game that is used as an engine demo. The developers released an "expansion pack" for the game.

Episodic content might not be good for gamers, but killing out all forms of episodes would leave too many people unsatisified - the result would be improvised fan fiction that sometimes conflicts with the "official story" and other fan-fics. We wouldn't want that, would we?

All right, raise your hand if you think the next headline about this virtual world will be "'Pluto Kiss' Virus Destroys World".

(for mods who don't get the joke)

For those that don't get the reference, it's from the Japanese anime/game series .hack

Well, because it's nothing like "The World" of course, though the games are a pale imitation of the game as demonstrated in the shows. The AI's don't even know how to do a good "Attack, dodge heal" cycle.

This is right out of .Hack where players in beginner areas are confronted with high-level creatures that shouldn't be there. I wonder if there is someone who isn't "bound" by the game rules, is not sitting in front of a pc while playing, and is currently in a comatose state. Of course, that last part could apply to a lot of people I know who play video games...

When I was watching the animatrix (ren. I i think) I couldn't help but feel the whole thing was cliched (got bubblegum crisis anyone?).

The truth is, it would be pretty much impossible for the Wachowski bros to come up with anything completely original, and many anime/sci-fi fans will have seen the same themes elsewhere. Still, that doesn't mean Matrix Reloaded (or The Matrix FTM) isn't original, it combines elements that hvave been part of other fiction in a new way, and I can safely say I loved both.

GTA:VC came out the same week I was laid off. I will admit that at 5pm the day I found out, I was at electronics boutique buying GTA and tony hawk 4. They managed to keep me amused until earlier this month, when .hack//infection came out in the US. I'd have to say it's probably the best video game I've played since Blaster Master on the original NES.