Series doesn’t seem quit right, need to look that up. However, you may have noticed it’s 2 blog posts this week so I must have lots of free time!
The purpose of this post? My thoughts on game series.
I have favourite games series like anyone else, for example Ratchet and Clank, Legacy of Kain, Grand Theft Auto and so on. Loads of people have favourites and in a way they are some games studios main business. However there comes a point where a series creates a problem for it’s self. I’m the sort of person who likes to know the background, know whats happened and try to understand it. It doesn’t always work but atleast I try! And some series don’t have a problem with that.
Lets take a look at Ratchet and Clank. Each game is a standalone story, you don’t need to know the background behind it although it does add to your understanding (for example looking at the recent games, you’d never guess that Quark was an enemy in the first game would you?). You can pick a game up and off you go, with the exception of what the US call the Future series, where you have a mini trilogy.
Grand Theft Auto has the same advantage, each game is a sepertae one, all falling under the same banner. You then come to a series like Legacy of Kain, like Killzone, where the story is a huge part of it. I’ve no idea what happened in Killzone 1, who some of the characters are and so on. Legacy of Kain, a huge part of it is the backstory, while the backstory is in a state of flux to an extent with paradox’s altering history, the understanding is required to make sense of certain parts.
Time moves on, technology moves on and parts of that story become legend in effect. The game starts to vanish in availabilty, it’s discussed by long term players, archived on the web for reading but you never get to experience the beginning. That causes a huge problem for a series if you need to keep the story alive with the likes of Legacy of Kain. It’s spanned 2 console generations now, I’d love to have a new game to tidy up the story ends and finish it off and have huge hope for it (certain knowloedge I have from over a year ago now and a recent thread on the Eidos forums) however the longer the delay, the harder it is to continue the story while continuing to capture a fresh audiance who can keep up with a story. Games like Ratchet and Clank have a little problem with this, but not to the same level.
While I love series games, there is a point I suppose where you have to decide to finish it, or atleast leave it in an area where you can go off in a new direction with it without upsetting your long term fans.
The tough truth of business while sustaining loyalty, I wouldn’t want to be in that position….
