Elemental is a bit different than most games that get released.
I think Brad has this organic idea about the game where what was released is more like a starting platform that is intended to grow over the next year into an epic release. Other game companies can't do this due to the game being their primary income stream. In Stardock's case, they get their revenue from other areas and it funds the development of this game.
Think of it this way, you pay once, and you keep getting a bigger and bigger game but without the monthly fees.
I guess I just don't quite understand the logic behind Brad's 'organic' idea.
A game that is this low on content is simply this low on content. This isn't an MMO that is expected to have new stuff added fairly frequently, it's a regular game, 'organic idea' or not. What this really says is more that they didn't finish the game and released it anyway with the intention of possibly adding onto it as time goes by, but that simply means they didn't finish the game before release.
To expect the gamer to buy the game, play it for 8 hours or so and then shelve it until the next episode comes out is a strange and way out there idea, it makes no sense to me what so ever to tell the gamer they must wait until the next episode.
If that is really the organic idea of it, that it will 'grow' over time, then charge me appropriately for what is done now, and then I'll pay some more as the game grows. Giving all the money up front only says, we're charging you full price for an unfinished game with a promise that there will be more to come later on down the line. Promises are all good and well, and some people (like Mr Wardell) we trust more than others, but they are still nothing more than promises, if even that.
Yah, sorry but to me all this organic idea means is they didn't have the full content of the game ready at release. If Stardock is doing so well that the other areas that they operate in are footing the bills for their gaming development, then there would be no reason to release the game without more content already included. No matter how Mr Wardell would try to spin it, it still boils down to a game being released with less than enough content.
The only way that I could see this episodic type of system working might (*might*) be if the 'episodes' were released at least one per week, so as to keep the player interested and having the next episode by the time that the average gamer is done with the first one. Obviously there is no way to try to produce new episodes at the rate that some gamers are able to burn through the content in one afternoon, but work for the average gamer, that might only play 2 hours a night means having the next episode ready by the next 7 days.
I like Stardock, I always have, even way before they ever decided to do Impulse, but this just sounds like some indie company put this together and couldn't finish it by a deadline release date and released it anyway with the promise that they would be adding onto it to make it episodic by the time they were finished.
When I pay $40.00 for a game, I expect it to be full, and complete, and then I'm not opposed to giving them more money to buy future episodes or expansions, or DLC if you wish to call it by another name, not something that is only going to give me 8 hours in a campaign out the door for $40.00
Straight up, they should have charged appropriately for what was delivered, and then charged more for the new content for those that want it, but I imagine that works out in the favor of the gamer and not startdock, for when they take too long to deliver on that content people stray and they don't return. So it behooves Stardock to get the full price now and maybe give more content later on. To expect the gamer to wait until the Fall (beginning, middle end?? only time will tell) isn't episodic, it's imbicillic, most gamers will long have since moved on, and left with a really bad taste in their mouths.
Sadly for Stardock and Elemental, other forums are full of people that are spouting off how the game had one of the most failed launches and content in the last decade. Seeing those kinds of posts don't make people want to run on down to Impulse and pick it up, which in turn means less sales, which in turn means less desire to work on it to add on to it in the end.
Sorry if that ruffles anybody's feathers, that's just the way that I see it.