Dreamfall Episodes

[Noyb]

http://ragnartornquist.com/?p=291

Whoa. Dreamfall is going episodic. Hopefully there'll be some more compelling gameplay this time around, but I must say that I'm still looking forward to enjoying whatever stories Ragnar wants to tell.

[Kolzig]

I'm sure that Funcom will now how to do it right.

[elmuerte]

  Kolzig said:

I'm sure that Funcom will now how to do it right.

That would make it, what? the second company that managed to get episodic content right? (the first being telltale).

I have my doubts that episodic for TLJ will work out well.

[Kolzig]

But lets not hate the chapter games project before it's even started production, ok?

Better to wait and let them work on it.

[BlueSpawn]

Newsflash: "Funcom, the developer behind the adventure game classics The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, have announced their decision to stop producing traditional, offline PC games, reports the Norwegian newspaper E24. Funcom, who previously have mentioned MMOs and adventure games as their primary focus, blames piracy as the reason for the decision." -- Adventure Gamers

Arrr mateys, ever-body be blamin piracy!

[elmuerte]

well.. good luck trying to pull that off.. it's not like they are the only ones out there that are working on an MMO game.

[Our Benefactors]

Didn't Ragnar specifically state that the next project is not an MMO? Maybe the episodes thingshave an online element?

[vimes]

Just something totally out of topic : is it common in the US or UK for people to reference directors, designers and artists they never met by their first name ?

[Marek]

I think that's only because he has a blog and he's pretty well known at AdventureGamers.com, a community with some Thumbs overlap. E.g. Tim Schafer is often called Tim around here while Michel Ancel would be Ancel.

TLJ episodes are likely to be DRM-ed in a Steam-like way. TLJ MMO is only said to be a possibility at this point.

Makes sense for Funcom. They're making way more profit with their online properties than with Dreamfall, which showed up on bittorrent instantly. I believe their piracy concerns are genuine.

[nckrlf]

Having Steam or Steam-like DRM won't be sufficient to stop pirating, as evidenced by piracy of HL2: the DRM was the only online component of the game, so when that was broken there was nothing missing from the game.

Pirating a game like WoW, however, is pointless. If you can't authenticate with Blizzard's servers, then running around a world on your own won't appeal to many people.

The idea of an adventure game with an online, multi-player component sounds intriguing...

[Rado]

  vimes said:

Just something totally out of topic : is it common in the US or UK for people to reference directors, designers and artists they never met by their first name ?

I've noticed that too, even been guilty of it, but I believe it's mostly a stylistic choice, as to not repeat the same second name over and over again.

[lobotomy42]

  vimes said:

Just something totally out of topic : is it common in the US or UK for people to reference directors, designers and artists they never met by their first name ?

If it's obvious in context who you're talking about...yes. Ragnar, for example, is the only Ragnar I know of in video games...or indeed, anywhere. I suspect that even those of you who are cultured and sociable enough to know multiple Ragnars could still guess who was meant by simply "Ragnar." Also, it sounds better than just saying "Tornquist."

Also, I'm excited for Dreamfall. Unfortunately, I doubt these episode will be any better than the Dreamfall we already have, which wasn't fantastic. But, mediocre sequels to TLJ are still better than none.