The thing with expansion packs is this: the full retail game usually offered closure, if it didn't, people were dissatisfied and especially dissatisfied if it didn't offer closure by the next iteration. Expansion packs may have continued the story of the previous but you could still be satisfied with playing the original game on its own.
Not necessarily as much the case with episodic content. I won't bash them however, they have their pluses asnd minuses and we will see where the market takes them. I do think it's harder to market episodic games (people like hard copies of the title they are buying, not always purely digital versions). Even if they box the individual episodes in stores there's always more cost for extra packaging and advertising for *each* episode...that equals less net profits. I think episodic games have great potential but we'll just have to wait and see how the market responds.
Just my 2 cents.
After having played MMOs since the late 90s I found that I put less money into normal games when I was experiencing the throes of addiction. Eventually, the addiction would pass and I would buy every online/mmo I could possibly find to replace that 'special something' I experienced with my first. I wasn't really putting money into many normal games but I was putting plenty into less-than-satisfying MMOs. The purchasing of and subsequent subscriptions to MMOs became an addiction in itself.
I could never get into WoW because it was everything I had already seen before although I bought it and payed for a subscription for a while. In short, these games have been a black hole for my wallet. But I'm proud to say that I've been MMO free for a whole year now. Now I only play the occasional story driven single player RPG. I've started running since then and it's funny how that has replaced the grind of MMOs in a healthy way. I now use the grind mentality I had playing those games to run (gotta reach that next level;-)). It continuously presents me with new challenges and it's payed off quite well. At least I learned something from years of addiction. Oh, it's also funny how I was very introverted before I played MMOs and after years of playing I've become quite social while retaining my ability to reflect. So I suppose all those years of money 'wasted' into that black hole payed off after all.
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The thing with expansion packs is this: the full retail game usually offered closure, if it didn't, people were dissatisfied and especially dissatisfied if it didn't offer closure by the next iteration. Expansion packs may have continued the story of the previous but you could still be satisfied with playing the original game on its own. Not necessarily as much the case with episodic content. I won't bash them however, they have their pluses asnd minuses and we will see where the market takes them. I do think it's harder to market episodic games (people like hard copies of the title they are buying, not always purely digital versions). Even if they box the individual episodes in stores there's always more cost for extra packaging and advertising for *each* episode...that equals less net profits. I think episodic games have great potential but we'll just have to wait and see how the market responds. Just my 2 cents.
I think the two factors would negate each other
After having played MMOs since the late 90s I found that I put less money into normal games when I was experiencing the throes of addiction. Eventually, the addiction would pass and I would buy every online/mmo I could possibly find to replace that 'special something' I experienced with my first. I wasn't really putting money into many normal games but I was putting plenty into less-than-satisfying MMOs. The purchasing of and subsequent subscriptions to MMOs became an addiction in itself. I could never get into WoW because it was everything I had already seen before although I bought it and payed for a subscription for a while. In short, these games have been a black hole for my wallet. But I'm proud to say that I've been MMO free for a whole year now. Now I only play the occasional story driven single player RPG. I've started running since then and it's funny how that has replaced the grind of MMOs in a healthy way. I now use the grind mentality I had playing those games to run (gotta reach that next level ;-)). It continuously presents me with new challenges and it's payed off quite well. At least I learned something from years of addiction. Oh, it's also funny how I was very introverted before I played MMOs and after years of playing I've become quite social while retaining my ability to reflect. So I suppose all those years of money 'wasted' into that black hole payed off after all.