Episodic Adventures Killed the Group-Player Adventure Experience
Just thinking about this today. When we were young my dad used to play games like The Journeyman Project, Riven, Sam & Max, Monkey Island and such with me, my brother, and uncle (in various combinations). One thing that was so great about it was that the game was long, difficult, and we had more than one mind working on stuff. It was a really fun experience. I just realised that with episodic adventures it's not as fun. The games are shorter, easier, and less satisfying when you're playing in a group. Not near as fun as a full-length harder title.
I guess in this day and age people mostly play games by themselves. This is evident in the way games are made nowadays right down to the way the gameplay and interface are designed. Any multiplaying capabilities are approached by simply adding an online multi-playing feature. And even then each player controls his or her own character or interface. There is no concept of multiple people playing on the same computer controlling the same character/interface/or whatever anymore.
That's a little sad to me...
I guess in this day and age people mostly play games by themselves. This is evident in the way games are made nowadays right down to the way the gameplay and interface are designed. Any multiplaying capabilities are approached by simply adding an online multi-playing feature. And even then each player controls his or her own character or interface. There is no concept of multiple people playing on the same computer controlling the same character/interface/or whatever anymore.
That's a little sad to me...
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I've heard from a surprising number of friends who played through Tales, Wallace, and Strong Bad with their kids (generally their kids are 5-12). They say their kids are excited every month that a new one comes out and it becomes an event. I think that's pretty awesome. I haven't played through an adventure game with a friend since a Grim Fandango re-play we did in college, 6-7 years ago, but that doesn't mean I assume nobody does it anymore.
We've talked before about the idea of supporting "multiplayer" in our games, where friends could connect to the same game, over XBLA or PSN, and "pass the controller" between players, with everyone connected on voice chat. We're mostly joking when we talk about that though. That would be a lot of work for a pretty weird feature. It would be cool though!
It's a cool idea, and one that people should think about.
This is true for me at least. Age and the episodic format have nothing to do with it.
Video games, movies and television were usually a family bonding event until I moved out of home. My bros would play the action-oriented games while I watched, and I'd play the puzzle-oriented games while they watched. I greatly prefer the shared experience - things are still much the same whenever I go back to visit.
I guess a lot of families have moved away from the "home hub" model of one TV and one computer, and towards greater isolation (a TV in every bedroom etc), so there is less shared time. I think that's sad, but then I'm lucky enough to get on really well with my family and recognise that not everyone is the same.
Pilot Program candidate?
My family didn't have a computer until I was in 8th grade. By then my brothers had moved out, and my parents were never interested in games themselves, so it was just me. That said, I did used to play with my cousin (my age) at his house, because they had a computer before we did. But, I don't miss those days, mainly because it was usually me watching him play.
Long story short (too late); episodic doesn't bother me.
I never played it, but didn't Uru the Myst multiplayer game have certain puzzles that were multiplayer only?
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/8/7/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/9/11/
Probably not the sort of co-op solving being discussed, but cool nonetheless.
Ooh, do! Brings back fond memories of Shivers 2's "live hint" system. (tangent: There's a license for you guys to secure. A 5 part horror adventure anthology under the "Shivers" title would be glorious.)
This being said, I played the Penal Zone with my husband and it was great. First, he could explain the jokes to me, and even for those I understood, I don't tend to laugh when I'm alone, so with him next to me the game was funnier in a way.
And with his busy schedule, we could never get around to playing a game together if we didn't know we'd finish it in a couple of days.
So I find the episodic format perfect for that, personally.
A multiplayer funciton like that on the XBox would actually be neat. I wonder how many would utilise it, though. And it would only do well if you were all playing it for the first time. After that there wouldn't really be any point.
And Shivers is a Sierra title so I doubt TTG would pick it up since they seem to be so against Sierra IPs. But you never know.
Imagine if you were watching a film, and had to pause it, and wait for an indefinate period of time whilst you tried to figure out the plot so far. It just doens't happen, as it would hinder the experiance. The same applies to some extent with games, for me at least. To prove my point that it's not just Down to skill level increasing, go and play a game from the 90's you haven't played before, or even one you have: Still difficult.
As for the episodic nature: You could try waiting for the full game to be released (i.e. chapter 5), before downloading. That way, you can play the whole game fluently (kinda), and you wouldn't be waiting any longer for the full game than you would have been otherwise.
Uru Live (it's back up now, and free, if you didn't know) has only one or two puzzles in the main quest that required a second player, and quite a few that were easier or went more smoothly if you had more people. It also has a couple of multiplayer-centric minigame-type puzzles designed for large groups, plus a couple of rather large-scale puzzles that seemed to be designed for the entire community to figure out as a group, which was pretty cool.
One thing that you guys could do, at least for Wii versions, is to enable a second player cursor. Off the top of my head, I know Mario Galaxy, LostWinds, and Zack & Wiki do that. In the case of a Telltale type game it would probably make the most sense if the second cursor could just point at stuff and not interact directly, but it could work either way.
Here's what I have noticed: go back and play Secret of Monkey Island or any of the old Sierra or LucasArts games. They actually only take 2-3 hours to beat too. It is just at age 31, I am way better at solving puzzles than I was when I was 12. Plus, all the adventure games today have the past as a back-drop. We have grown up playing adventure games and we "get" the way they work now. Back then, it was a relatively new thing, and you had no paradigm for how to play in your head already.
Though as much fun as it was with adventure games, I feel it was slightly more productive with action games where there was usually a definitive point we would switch off (when someone died). There were a whole lot of arguments over how long a turn lasted with adventures.
Alas, only one of these games had international distribution, the other two are Spanish only.
You could more complain about less complex puzzles and smaller worlds but when there is time, of which we have less these days, we still come together and play a game together. One person plays and the other person(s) watch from behind and think about solutions or discuss certain things. Adventuring from behind can be very rexaling.
Still looking for the special edition DVD which you can use to watch the movie in chronological order.
Hey, an adventure game like that would be neat...
Now i'm playing season 2 of S&M with mum. It's good.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think having the game be episodic affects playing in a group.
Played Mario Kart on the SNES in Ninety Two
Throwing banana peels on the road to get through
If I was young it... Oh, I can't keep this up.