[Akalabeth Angel]

Let's see if I can get this poll right, but anyway, the question I had is do people prefer campaigns and the like given to them all at once? Or in pieces, often referred to as chapters?

The Pros:
Whole - obviously you play the whole story all at once, which is important if there are a lot of missions to bring the player in.
Piecemeal - after the first release, a person can generate more interest in the campaign, perhaps garnering additional help. Also, players get to play _some_ new missions sooner.

The Cons:
Whole - people have to wait a LOT LONGER to play anything. This is assuming that it's every finished, which is often not the case with large solo campaigns.
Piecemeal - players cant play it all at once. When new chapters come out, they might forget what happened in previous if they don't replay them. Players also get anxious for new missions, which may be months in coming. Consequently they eventually lose a lot of interest in the project . . .

What do you guys think?

[Kie99]

Originally posted by Akalabeth Angel
The Cons:
Whole - people have to wait a LOT LONGER to play anything. This is assuming that it's every finished, which is often not the case with large solo campaigns.

I think there's nothing worse than having a campaign released in "Piecemeal" form and then one of the chapters doesn't get released.

[Goober5000]

On the contrary; in that situation you at least get to play something.  I think there's nothing worse than making an entire campaign whole and then never releasing anything.

*glares at United Space*

[Black Wolf]

You put a smurfs option in and expect an accurate poll?

I laugh and occasionally chuckle at you! Loudly!

[Nuclear1]

Piecemeal. That's how we're releasing GTI Rebellion. It also allows campaigns to be divided up into different sections (different points of view, etc.).

[Grug]

Piecemeal.

That's how TAP is going to be as well.

Its the best way for a small team to attract some attention and gain additional help for a project. If the first 'chapter' gains enough attention, then perhaps there would be a big enough team to release the remaining chapters in one go, no?

[TrashMan]

Piecemeal.

that's how mine is going to be...

[Akalabeth Angel]

Originally posted by Black Wolf
You put a smurfs option in and expect an accurate poll?

I laugh and occasionally chuckle at you! Loudly!

I put too many poll options in there by accident, I think the default was 4 and I forgot to change it to 2

[pyro-manic]

There are things going for both types. It's great to be able to blast through a whole campaign to the end, but having episodes or chapters means that you get anticipation built up about where things will go next, and you can generate an appetite for it in the community.

From a creation standpoint, a whole campaign is a lot of work, and as you said many never get finished, and all the hard work is wasted (OTT and Reci are prime examples). An episodic campaign allows the community to play your missions, even if you don't finish the whole thing. There's also the opportunity for different styles of storytelling/mission design etc, and you can create specific moods and atmospheres for each chapter if you want.

I personally would use the episodic approach (if I ever get round to serious work on my idea ), because I have a few separate but linked storylines, so I'd have separate episodes to deal with each one. But it's best to go with the way that matches the way you work.

[RED DIAMOND]

I like the way I did it for FS1 and Nubian Conflict Episode 1, which consisted of four missions. To bad I got side tracked with other stuff to do more episodes

[TopAce]

I prefer releasing campaigns in whole.

[Rson]

I prefer peice-meal mainly because I'd rather wait a relatively short period of time to play a ten-mission 'episode' and wait for the next than wait a lot longer for a whole thirty odd mission campaign.  Then again, by the time the next 'episode' I would have forgotten the first.

[Slanker_MT]

Snuffleupagus?

I think it depends on the campaign... not every campaign works well when released in episodes. In general I prefer completed work, though, but some things really work nicely when released in smaller episodes

[NGTM-1R]

I intend to release my next campaign in two parts, but on the other hand it's closer to two seperate campaigns then one.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Ideally I'd like to have my own campaign released in one big chunk, but because it's so damn big and it's unlikely I'll ever finish it, maybe I'll release it in chunks instead. Heck, if I do a few missions before I leave for school maybe I can even release a "chapter 1" of sorts. I think I have a good mission in mind where to cut off the first arc.

[TopAce]

If the campaign is too long, then shorten it.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Nah, I'm the overly ambitious type.  The campaign is set out at around the same size as the FS2 main campaign, which of course is pretty long. Though there'll be more mission files to do, as there will be many red-alerts (it sounds worse than it is, I assure you).

And all of my missions tend to be pretty detailed, with a bunch of fluff all over the place which has little bearing on the mission to try and make it 'real'. And there all already mapped out, at least in the general sense of what's happening in each mission. To finish the first arc I'd need to do another 8 missions, which won't happen before I leave for school I'm sure

[Deepstar]

I prefer the release of whole campaigns.

[DarthWang]

I say whole campaigns as well

[Col. Fishguts]

Originally posted by Deepstar
I prefer the release of whole campaigns.