Even more on the idea of episodic games: Going mid-core

Every gamer is potentially a mid-core gamer. At the very least, we can invent a term like that to contrast between the hard-core and soft-core types of gamers. At its very best, the idea of making games that are “just right” for all types of gamers could be the next logical step for the growing gaming populace. Over at CNN Money (You know it’s big when CNN wants to talk about it), Chris Harris gives his take on the episodic game culture that’s slowly making its way into the mainstream.

Harris says that we can expect a rise in the number of episodic games that’ll eventually come out for a variety of reasons. For the most part, he cites the episode downloads you can introduce for Half-Life 2 as a prime example of episodic gaming’s benefits: user feedback.

Click on “Full Article” to read Harris’ take on mid-core gamers.

Every gamer is potentially a mid-core gamer. At the very least, we can invent a term like that to contrast between the hard-core and soft-core types of gamers. At its very best, the idea of making games that are “just right” for all types of gamers could be the next logical step for the growing gaming populace. Over at CNN Money (You know it’s big when CNN wants to talk about it), Chris Harris gives his take on the episodic game culture that’s slowly making its way into the mainstream.

Harris says that we can expect a rise in the number of episodic games that’ll eventually come out for a variety of reasons. For the most part, he cites the episode downloads you can introduce for Half-Life 2 as a prime example of episodic gaming’s benefits: user feedback. “Steam gives us a real time connection with our customers,” says Gabe Newell, founder of Valve Software. “Rather than guessing how people are playing our game, we can watch and see them navigate through the game. We can see them get stuck at various points and say ‘oh, that’s not what we designed’ and work to correct that (in our next installment).” Episodic gameplay also opens up a venue for different types of gamers to converge in experiencing the same world and the same content, allowing a game world to grow on a player who’s not used to getting immersed in a game.

At the same time, Harris also notes it as a polarizing kind of force. If you think of it, whether or not episodic gaming takes off will be dependent on the gamers of today, and whether game episodes turn hard-core and soft-core gamers of the world into mid-cores or make them splinter into even smaller subsets. It can definitely work for shooters, and even certain RPGs like .hack (though a 40-hour game couldn’t be called an episode). The problem will be keeping people from finding episodes from being a waste of cash.

Luckily, it also seems Take-Two Interactive will be offering additional chapters for the next version of Grand Theft Auto on the Xbox 360 as downloadable content. It’s definitely a good sign that gaming companies are trying to keep gaming fresh. It’s only too bad that we can’t give them a piece of our mind as well.