No Episodes in the DVD-Version!!!

This thread is for all the people, that have the same wish like me.

I'm not an episodic gamer. I will wait for the DVD, anyway. Let have episode-fans their episodes.

But when TOMI will be released as a Full Version-Game, i think it would be better, if it would have more the old chapter-style, like old MI-Games, than an episodic-style like the latest Sam and Max.

When i bought the first Season of Sam and Max i expected one big game. Okay, maybe it was my fault. The thing was called "Season One", and there was not "the one big storyline" going through the whole game.
Anyway, i was disappointed. Not about the game itself. But it had no flow in my opinion. After each short episode there were closing credits. Then they send you back to the desktop. You have to start the next episode manually.

Telltale said that TOMI will be different. It will be realeased in episodic format, first. But it will have a big, epic storyline, going through the whole game. (If you would call it a whole game)

So i think there would be nothing wrong, if the full version of TOMI won't be splitted into parts. I think more of the classic Monkey Island - Games, which were based on chapters. With closing credits only at the "very end" of the game, and no returning to the desktop, after playing a few hours.

I think this is no big deal, but it will give more flow to the whole thing.

Thank you for your interest.

Lets discuss.;)
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Comments

  • edited July 2009
    I like the episodic release and format very much, but for this particular game, I think this is a very valid point that Telltale would be wise to consider. Just as we all want a DVD version of Kill Bill edited into one movie, the DVD has an opportunity to become a coherent whole in a way that makes sense, and will also help the game at retail when it inevitably goes that way.

    So yeah, something to think about, Telltale. It's not going to make or break anything for me, but it seems like a good suggestion.
  • edited July 2009
    Uh I kind of already assumed that with the final DVD release it'll be like every Monkey Island game and it will be one executable that is the whole game and the five episodes are the five chapters. I seriously hope they are not keeping the game split up with 5 different executables for the episodes.
  • edited July 2009
    Again, I personally love the format, but I do think it'd be very cool to have it strung together as one big game on the DVD. Hopefully that's something they can do :)
  • edited July 2009
    Uh I kind of already assumed that with the final DVD release it'll be like every Monkey Island game and it will be one executable that is the whole game and the five episodes are the five chapters. I seriously hope they are not keeping the game split up with 5 different executables for the episodes.

    I recognized, there are a lot people that think TOMI won't be splitted in the full version, cause they didn't buy the Sam and Max - DVD like me. So they don't know. I think a lot of people could be disappointed.
  • edited July 2009
    Yeah, the same wish here.
  • edited July 2009
    I have no problems with the game being released in episode format. But I agree with you the DVD should have all episodes combined into a "full game" without credits and such between each episode.
  • edited July 2009
    I don't really see how they can have seamless transitions between episodes and have cliffhangers at the same time - unless they open episode 2 with the chapter 2 starting screen rather than an intro, hm...
  • edited July 2009
    im no expert on programming but i think if they could have done that they would have allready. - i dont think they can link all the episodes separate exe files.
  • edited July 2009
    I don't really see how they can have seamless transitions between episodes and have cliffhangers at the same time - unless they open episode 2 with the chapter 2 starting screen rather than an intro, hm...

    I think this would be the smallest problem. :)

    I expect tellTale to be creative in that way. ;)
  • edited July 2009
    Damn... I'm new to episodic content and I too was expecting a full-coherent DVD release, not just all the episodes copied together. Please TTG adress this issue!
  • edited July 2009
    Spooky666 wrote: »
    I recognized, there are a lot people that think TOMI won't be splitted in the full version, cause they didn't buy the Sam and Max - DVD like me. So they don't know. I think a lot of people could be disappointed.

    Aye - but Sam&Max and Monkey Island are two very different beasts. The episodes of Sam&Max worked very well on their own because they were all so VASTLY different in plot (while still keeping an overarching story), but Monkey Island feels like just one game.
    The option to string them together once they've all been downloaded would be nice if possible too - even if it's just a massive download at the end.

    Cutting the credits out of each one when they're all together makes sense, in favour of a massive credit montage at the end (à la Sam & Max's ending to season 1)
    Have you guys considered also doing a fullscreen launcher? If stringing together doesn't work, put all the episodes linked to something that runs in fullscreen so you don't have to go back to desktop every time.

    But yeah, MASSIVELY second the OP, this is something I'd very much like to see.
  • edited July 2009
    I guess we'll know how they're handling it when they release the next episode, but I'd love to see a bit of a recut version on the DVD to mesh it together as a single game. ToMI would also make more sense in this format, given that the series is really intended to be played in order; much more so than previous Telltale seasons.
  • edited July 2009
    Aye - but Sam&Max and Monkey Island are two very different beasts.

    That's what i said.
    The episodes of Sam&Max worked very well on their own because they were all so VASTLY different in plot (while still keeping an overarching story),

    I agree. I liked it, but i was disappointed first, because i had to get used to the episodic format. But i think TOMI with its big storyline has no need to be splitted.
    The option to string them together once they've all been downloaded would be nice if possible too - even if it's just a massive download at the end.

    This would be cool, so even I would think about downloading, too. :D

    But, no. I like it to have a real box, bought in the store, standing in my shelf.
  • edited July 2009
    Reposted from another near-identical and equally ridiculous thread:

    You can't take 15 seconds to close down a finished game and start the next one up?

    What the heck do you people do watching a TV Series DVD box set when the first one finishes and you have to get up to insert the 2nd disc? Go moan on the TV show's website about why they don't include a free robot arm to swap discs for you?

    Of all the trivial stuff to moan about, I think this one takes the cake (and I've read taumel's posts).
  • edited July 2009
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Reposted from another near-identical and equally ridiculous thread:

    You can't take 15 seconds to close down a finished game and start the next one up?

    What the heck do you people do watching a TV Series DVD box set when the first one finishes and you have to get up to insert the 2nd disc? Go moan on the TV show's website about why they don't include a free robot arm to swap discs for you?

    Of all the trivial stuff to moan about, I think this one takes the cake (and I've read taumel's posts).


    Win.
  • edited July 2009
    of couse you can take the time, but its an atmosphere-killer.

    so I am also pro-full-game :-) please link the episodes together. Imagine in the earlier games that you play on scummVM you have to go back to the game selection screen and start again. its just not as much fun, and fun is what MI is all about.
  • edited July 2009
    To jp-30: Not the same thing. A TV series is more like the S&M game series. I (and many more, I suppose) didn't have any problems with finishing an episode and then launching the next, in neither cases. Because (argumental arcs apart) they are autoconclussive episodes.
    And I won't have any problems if I have to do the same with ToMI.
    But I'm with josey, it's totally atmosphere-killer. And since Telltale have annonunced that ToMI won't have the same auto-conclusive episode scheme (I don't really know, I haven't played the first episode yet), I find quite logical that people wants to have all the game in a row, with its chapters just like all the previous Monkey Island games.
  • edited July 2009
    josey wrote: »
    of couse you can take the time, but its an atmosphere-killer.

    so I am also pro-full-game :-) please link the episodes together. Imagine in the earlier games that you play on scummVM you have to go back to the game selection screen and start again. its just not as much fun, and fun is what MI is all about.
    Win
  • edited July 2009
    I don't think it's likely to happen.
  • edited July 2009
    Reposted from another near-identical and equally ridiculous thread

    The reason why i reposted my wish, was because in the "Why Episodes?" - Thread, the specific discussion about an unsplitted full-version has not been recognized that much.

    I'm not against episodes. I don't like them that much. But I don't mind about an episodic Release. So i started this thread, for a specific discussion about an unsplitted DVD-version. This is my only wish. This has nothing to do with a discussion of the sense of episodes.
    You can't take 15 seconds to close down a finished game and start the next one up?

    Don't you think it would be annoying if you play SOMI, and after you bought Stans Ship, you will be send to the desktop?

    Or think about playing any other kind of game, and after each level, there are closing credits, and you have to restart? Different kind of thing? Maybe. But Monkey Island always has been very story-tellish, and i don't want the story to be interrupted. When i play an episode, its just an episode. When i play a full game, i don't want this kind of splitting.

    What the heck do you people do watching a TV Series DVD box set when the first one finishes and you have to get up to insert the 2nd disc? Go moan on the TV show's website about why they don't include a free robot arm to swap discs for you?

    Thats quite a different thing. TOMI is not an TV-Series. And i don't watch TV Series like Prison break or 24, because i can't stand it, to wait a week, after each cliffhanger.

    I prefer watching Shows like X Files. There you got standalone-episodes, and only sometimes a big plot, developing the background-story.

    But you can't compare this.

    I don't think the full version of TOMI will have an "Season" in the title.
  • edited July 2009
    josey wrote: »
    of couse you can take the time, but its an atmosphere-killer.

    so I am also pro-full-game :-) please link the episodes together. Imagine in the earlier games that you play on scummVM you have to go back to the game selection screen and start again. its just not as much fun, and fun is what MI is all about.

    OWNED.

    I actually liked the demo very much (the fact the interface is entirely mouse-driven is neat, I was worried it would be like in Wallace&Gromit), so I'd like to buy the whole game on DVD. The whole game means NO INTERRUPTIONS, it's one story, just like in previous games. After one chapter, the other begins.
  • edited July 2009
    Spooky666 wrote: »
    I don't think the full version of TOMI will have an "Season" in the title.

    You're right there because it's called Tales of Monkey Island. If they're is a 2nd 'season' then it'll be called something else.
  • edited July 2009
    Of all the trivial stuff to moan about, I think this one takes the cake (and I've read taumel's posts).

    I think discussions about the bad graphic are much more trivial, i can't imagine what would be more important, than a discussion about TOMI to be splitted or not.
  • edited July 2009
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Reposted from another near-identical and equally ridiculous thread:

    You can't take 15 seconds to close down a finished game and start the next one up?

    What the heck do you people do watching a TV Series DVD box set when the first one finishes and you have to get up to insert the 2nd disc? Go moan on the TV show's website about why they don't include a free robot arm to swap discs for you?

    Of all the trivial stuff to moan about, I think this one takes the cake (and I've read taumel's posts).

    That's not really fair, nobody here is really moaning about it, they've only said it would be better if it could be done, to create a more seemless experience for those who want and play it all at once.
  • edited July 2009
    of couse you can take the time, but its an atmosphere-killer.

    Exactly. That's it.
  • edited July 2009
    I'd like it to be a full game on dvd too.
    I like the episodic format and all.
    But just installing and playing through a full game is a lot more fun than constantly looking at the credits sequence after you finish a chapter.
  • edited July 2009
    Spooky666 wrote: »
    This thread is for all the people, that have the same wish like me.

    I'm not an episodic gamer. I will wait for the DVD, anyway. Let have episode-fans their episodes.

    But when TOMI will be released as a Full Version-Game, i think it would be better, if it would have more the old chapter-style, like old MI-Games, than an episodic-style like the latest Sam and Max.

    When i bought the first Season of Sam and Max i expected one big game. Okay, maybe it was my fault. The thing was called "Season One", and there was not "the one big storyline" going through the whole game.
    Anyway, i was disappointed. Not about the game itself. But it had no flow in my opinion. After each short episode there were closing credits. Then they send you back to the desktop. You have to start the next episode manually.

    Telltale said that TOMI will be different. It will be realeased in episodic format, first. But it will have a big, epic storyline, going through the whole game. (If you would call it a whole game)

    So i think there would be nothing wrong, if the full version of TOMI won't be splitted into parts. I think more of the classic Monkey Island - Games, which were based on chapters. With closing credits only at the "very end" of the game, and no returning to the desktop, after playing a few hours.

    I think this is no big deal, but it will give more flow to the whole thing.

    Thank you for your interest.

    Lets discuss.;)


    It IS the old Chapter style. Each episode is one chapter. You even get the chapter screen like in old games. Only difference: you have to start the next episode for the next chapter.
  • edited July 2009
    Only difference: you have to start the next episode for the next chapter.

    This is exactly what i don't want. And unnecessary, if it has the old chapter-style anyway.
  • edited July 2009
    While I have no problems with it remaining separate episodes, I do think it'd be a neat feature if they had an option to link all the games into one big one and cut the credits out, and just use the episode start points as a "scene selection" type of feature.

    I also agree that it makes a lot more sense for TMI to do so than it did for Sam and Max, since TMI is a lot more focused on "the big picture" than Sam and Max.
  • edited July 2009
    Corv wrote: »
    It IS the old Chapter style. Each episode is one chapter. You even get the chapter screen like in old games. Only difference: you have to start the next episode for the next chapter.

    Which is a bad thing, because it also means that at the end of each chapter there's the credits.
    Perfectly alright when they're standalone games, but not when they're put together at the end.
    I reiterate what I said before - it made sense in the Sam&Max games as there was quite clearly a time difference between each (Like the start of 4 mentioning the exorcism that you never see) - these flow directly on from one another, so flow-breaking is not great.
    I like the analogy someone else put forward - if you were playing through, say, Halo and had closing credits every time you completed a level...
  • edited July 2009
    This question came up in the Q&A thread in the Private Pirates Forum, and nothing has been decided yet, and there are different opinions about it among the Telltale guys:

    For example:
    http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=140830&#post140830

    And:
    http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=141213&#post141213
  • edited July 2009
    It kind of depends, I think. On how the story of Tales ends up flowing.

    This could be solved on the outset by planning each episode to "flow into" the other, but then that might ruin the episodic experience. No matter whether or not you play it all at once or separately, you are playing five episodes. So these are meant to be contained experiences, and it may take some working around that to make it work(perhaps filling in some sort of buffer content between epsiodes).

    I'd say that, should the story turn out to be a singular, epic tale...that a "Full Adventure" option may actually be an interesting idea. Many modern DVD Season Sets for TV shows have a "Marathon Mode" option anyway, where they cut out the credits until the very end and play the episodes back to back.
  • edited July 2009
    I'll just put my opinion on here as well. 1 big game on the dvd.
  • edited July 2009
    I don't really see how they can have seamless transitions between episodes and have cliffhangers at the same time - unless they open episode 2 with the chapter 2 starting screen rather than an intro, hm...

    They'd have to cut out the closing credits credits for each episode and rework or condense the opening credits for the later games. It would require a bit of effort for it to work smoothly, and that's why I'm not expecting them to do it.

    But I still think it'd be a smart move, because they'd win over the "I hate episodes" crowd, especially at retail, and I think it'd be worth the effort. Even if they don't do it for the Telltale bonus disc, they should absolutely do it for the retail version.
  • edited July 2009
    Spooky666 wrote: »
    When i play an episode, its just an episode. When i play a full game, i don't want this kind of splitting.

    Then consider that you'll never be playing a full TOMI game, you're playing 5 episodes. It's TOMI's nature. Even when you'll be playing all the five episodes in a row, you won't be playing a full game but five episodes.
    So, if you decide to accept episodic gaming or to just DEAL with it, you can't expect to play a full TOMI.
  • edited July 2009
    P.s. I'd love it too, anyway!
  • edited July 2009
    I, for one, disagree - I think it kind of messes up the cliffhangers by removing the mental space between the episodes. (Sometimes you notice a similar effect when you watch a TV show designed to have commercial breaks after those breaks have been removed.) The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

    Just my opinion, mind you.

    See, if Dave Grossman is against it, we probably won't get it. But I have to say, while I agree with what he's saying, I think what he's missing is that the very point of the bonus DVD is to give players a way to revisit the experience AFTER the episodic run is over, so tailoring it to that purpose makes sense to me. Yes, you lose part of the experience, but by the time the DVD rolls around, that experience is over anyway.
  • edited July 2009
    josey wrote: »
    of couse you can take the time, but its an atmosphere-killer.
    So is having to go to the toilet. Don't tell me you never do this while playing a game...

    np: Tim Exile - Family Galaxy (Listening Tree)
  • edited July 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    See, if Dave Grossman is against it, we probably won't get it. But I have to say, while I agree with what he's saying, I think what he's missing is that the very point of the bonus DVD is to give players a way to revisit the experience AFTER the episodic run is over, so tailoring it to that purpose makes sense to me. Yes, you lose part of the experience, but by the time the DVD rolls around, that experience is over anyway.

    ^^
    What he said! =)

    I also think it may be confusing for players that are new to episodic games.
    For example if the player saves his/her game and then takes a break from it a couple of days, He/she might be wondering which of the five episodes the saved game exists. It's such an unnecessary and totally avoidable problem.
    The most optimal is to start the game with one shortcut on the desktop, and then load the game wherever the player was throughout the episodes.

    Anyways, I think that at least the episodes must be unlock-able as the player progress through the whole game.

    I hope mr Grossman & co realize that this is not such a bad idea.
    Mostly because most fans wants it so, but also it will stay true to the "chapterized flow" of the previous MI installments! =)
  • edited July 2009
    I have always loved episode-gaming but it would be nice with a "whole-game-experience" on the dvd.
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