Episodic Gaming

Slate features a look at episodic video games, which have intrigued me ever since I first heard of the concept. You the player buy "installments" in a game's story, frequent updates that wouldn't take long to play on their own. The article makes the point that the average gamer, now about my age, has little time for the tens of hours of gameplay required by the best modern titles.

I'd add that we also pick them up less frequently. I took my DS, fitted with A Link to the Past, onto our European plane flights, but because I hadn't played since, well, my last big plane flight, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. I had to look up a walkthrough when I returned to try to piece together my mission. That's probably why "quick games" have done so well on XBox Live. It's easy to play Tetris for a few minutes between household tasks.

The common wisdom says that games have become more like movies, but I'm looking forward to an era where they're more like TV shows. Perhaps game companies need to start hiring TV's best writers. After all, the Slate article asks, "And how do you distill a game about a war against a demon horde that can only end when you slam shut the gates of hell?" without noting that Buffy the Vampire Slayer did just that. Several times, in fact.