There’s an ever-increasing trend in today’s movie and video game industry of announcing projects are “intended as a trilogy,” before they’re even released. I can’t really think of any marketing advantage they’re leveraging by saying “I’ve got this really great story in mind, go watch/play 1/3 of it, you’ll really be fulfilled!” Even if they do manage to pull off three complete stories that form an overall larger epic, why in the hell would you want to announce it’s a trilogy until it’s done?
Remember Back to the Future II? Pirates of the Carribean 2? That’s what I want to sign up for… incomplete stories that will cost me more money in order to see the true conclusion. Let’s face it, announcing a trilogy virtually equates to saying “We’re going to have at least two blatant cliffhanger endings trying to rope you into the next game.”
Let’s have some fun here, I’ll make up an absurd (but alarmingly accurate?) analogy. You go to buy a new car and the salesman shows you a really awesome car. The car has everything you’ve wanted in a car and more; it has all the bells and whistles. Right before you’re about to sign on the proverbial dotted line, he happens to mention that the car is part of a three vehicle plan and it’ll only get you one third of the way to wherever you’re going. Next year’s model will be able to take you the second third of the way. Finally, two full years from now, you’ll be able to complete your journey when the third model of the trilogy is released. I know it doesn’t make sense, but stick with me here…
Do you still sign on the line, knowing that it’ll cost you three times what you originally thought it would and triple your trip time, causing your journey to take years to complete instead of hours or days? Mind you, it’s one hell of a nice car and that initial third of the way may be fun as hell, but ultimately you KNOW from the start that you’re not going to get to the end of your journey with it alone. Heaven forbid there’s a problem in the future and they don’t make the second, or third model… what will you do then? You will have wasted a lot of time and money for an incomplete experience.
What’s the real purpose in announcing a game is a trilogy in advance anyway? Is it supposed to impress us knowing that the developer has more imagination than development throughput? Is it supposed to somehow be “epic” and indicative of quality? I know I’ve been accused of droning on and on, writing articles that could have easily been split into thirds forming a trilogy. I don’t think it does a single thing to improve the quality of my work though, so I’m still at a loss for why developer’s seem to love bragging about having ideas for a trilogy. What games have been announced as trilogies before the second (or even first in some cases) game was released?? Let’s see… God of War was apparently planned as a trilogy, Mass Effect, Halo, Resistance, Too Human, Heavenly Sword, etc. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a rant against game trilogies per se, but against the necessity to announce a game (often in advance of the first installment’s release) as a trilogy. There have been some damn fine game (and movie) trilogies released.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Anski // Feb 14, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’m not usually a fan of trilogies or multiple-game-stories for the simple fact that if I never started in on the ground level, I don’t feel like I would be getting a full experience unless I played all the precursor games.
Metal Gear Solid is a good example… I played the first one, but not 2 or 3. Now that 4 is getting it’s hype on, I’m not even the least bit interested. I’d feel like I was missing out on something (even if the game was excellent on it’s own, I would still have something in the back of my mind questioning if I would “get it” more had I played the other releases).
So you say, “Hey Anski, why don’t you just play the other games then?!” Well, because there is just something about playing older games in a series for me… I just usually can’t bring myself to do it for some reason. :/
Of course, if I do play continuing story games from their conception, they have a real chance of keeping me buying their sequels. I’ll use Assassin’s Creed as an example here again… despite whatever gameplay issues it might have had, the backstory really sucked me in. Not even the “immediate” story that you play through. Maybe I’m just weird, but I am really looking forward to the rest of the story there.
Speaking of series of games, Roth… should I get Resistance before #2 comes out?
2 thesenderof8 // Feb 14, 2008 at 5:39 pm
good rant! i also agree very strongly. in my opinion theres no benifit 2 gamers of announcing a triliogy but i can certianly understand how it makes a game developer’s job easier if they can say 2 the publisher “hey look weve got another 40,000 pre orders! or somthing like that.
In the end though i feel that you need to look at ratings and so on to decide if, in the end, that 180 dollars is worth it just as any other game. if its not though then look on the bright side, in this day and age we have a wonderful new invention called game rentals! or if the game sucks ass and you only want to watch cutscenes then theres spoiler geeks on youtube!!
3 Bahamut Dragons // Feb 15, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I don’t think I’m a very conventionnal gamer, so perhaps this doesn’t apply to me. I never played Halo nor Mass Effect. I thought about this whole trilogy thing and realised that it doesn’t really annoy me, as long as I get to play the first game and that it is good. I tend to take games more individually. For instance, I didn’t really wonder about God of War 2 that much, even with the story snippets at the end of 1, and I don’t mind not having a PS3, making me miss out on the third game (eventually). Unless I get REALLY addicted to the story (Metal Gear Solid), it doesn’t bother me too much. If anything, it’ll just lose them a sale since I’ll be less inclined to go for the sequels rather then buy the whole set.
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