Would you stick with a game franchise for 10 years?

When will Gears of War end?

(Credit: Epic Games)

Gears of War 2 writer Joshua Ortega was at Comic-Con in New York City over the weekend and had some interesting things to say about the future of his popular video game franchise.

"You will not be disappointed in the next ten years," he said to those in attendance. "It's a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber."

If what Ortega said is really what the game's creator, Cliff Bleszinski, has in mind, that would mean the current Gears saga won't end until 2016, assuming the clock started when the first game was released.

Games lasting more than a decade isn't unheard of in the video game industry. Almost every major Nintendo franchise has been around much longer than that and the Final Fantasy series seems like it has been around forever. So there certainly is a precedent for a major franchise like Gears to last all that time.

But is there really a market out there for continuing one storyline for 10 years? The idea has been tried on numerous occasions--Yu Suzuki's Shenmue comes to mind even though Sega stopped development after two "episodes"--but so far, most (certainly not all) developers have decided that continuing one storyline for 10 years doesn't work, so they've changed things up.

Will Gears be different? I hope so.

As much as I love the Gears of War series and enjoy the gameplay, its story isn't all that great. It's too convoluted, at times it makes no sense, and when you really try to figure everything out, you see too many inconsistencies to get a full grip on what's happening.

The second game starts with locust attacks that we need to stop, but then we find out they're taking prisoners, so we need to stop that, too. Then, our team is swallowed by the Riftworm, which we manage to kill from the inside. After a while, we see that there's an evacuation underway and the Brumak is starting to mutate because of exposure to Imulsion. After we take care of the Brumak and the civilians evacuate, we're supposed to gain a better understanding of all this and prepare for future iterations when the Locust Queen starts rambling on about legacies and how things don't always turn out the right way? Yikes.

Sure, that synopsis is a very brief outline of the second game in the series, but I think it makes the point clearly: Gears of War is great, but its story isn't nearly as good as the gameplay.

Because of that, I just don't care what happens to Marcus, the Locust, and COG. It's nothing personal, but if Marcus dies in the third game or the Locust are totally wiped out, I couldn't care less. I don't play Gears for the story, I play it for the fun it offers and its intense multiplayer action. Everything else I ignore.

But it's not just Gears of War. I'm not even sure I would care about any game franchise that hangs on to a story for 10 years. I'm sure some would make the argument that the Super Mario series does that because Bowser is still the antagonist after all these years, but I disagree. There isn't one single storyline that continues to play out throughout all those games and there isn't a single goal we've known about since the first title that we're still trying to find.

Maybe it's just me, but I would get bored waiting 10 years for a game franchise to finally end; I need something new, something fresh. Maybe that's why I appreciate franchises like Final Fantasy that have lasted all these years. Their story lines are still rock solid, but they feature different characters and different plots. Square-Enix isn't trying to stick to one story throughout the entire series. Maybe that's because the game's developers know it would get stale and we would get bored.

Will Gears get stale? I have no idea. Maybe Cliff and Company can come up with something really compelling in the next game and we'll all be captivated, but I doubt it. The shelf life, for me, on a video game story is about five years. After that, I'm waiting too long to figure out what's happening in a particular world and I need closure as soon as possible. I move on.

I'm all for Gears of War hanging around for more than 10 years, but I want its story to end sooner than that. If the story isn't complete after three iterations, I can tell you now that I'll lose all interest and have no desire to pick up the fourth game in the series just to find out what's happening.

I can barely wait to find out what happens after two seasons of a sitcom How can I be expected to wait 10 years to find out what happens to Marcus Fenix? Sorry, but it's just not worth it.

Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

[ddhboy]

I hadn't played the first or second gears so I wouldn't know too much about that. I will say this though, I would NEVER stick with a story that is supposed to have continuity for 10 years, regardless of what medium it is.

[Penguinisto]

Meh - whatever... let the market decide. I played Quake from the original up until the earlier days of Quake 4 (which well... sucked), and went back to Quake 3, which I still play on occasion just for giggles. Not much storyline there, but it was damned fun to play.

Mario Bros. doesn;t exactly have a long and involved plot, nor do most of the other long-lived games out there. The trick is in whether or not the gameplay is fun, not in how compelling the plotline is (or isn't).

/P

[Kev_Orng]

I can't wait to find out if Pac Man will ever escape the eternal labyrinth!

[jgvillan]

Oh why not. I've been playing Street Fighter (all versions) since SFII first came out in 02. Lots of memories, and lots of good times. Thank goodness for emulation software. :-)

[Maarek Stele]

Frankly with Gears of War, I don't care. I would like to play Metal Gear Solid 4 since I've played ALL of the previous games including the Nintendo ones. RPGs have better storylines because 3rd or FPS games are just trying to get to the next level while you develop the character in RPGs. Like Metal Gear, it's going to be an expensive story.

[tekwiz4u]

There are games that are nearing that 10 year mark, and STILL popular. Take for example Counterstrike and Half Life. Yes.. the graphics might not look nice, but as long its fun to play, it will have my support.

[Kev_Orng]

I'm still trying to get an Amiga emulator working on my Mac so I can play "The Faery Tale Adventure" again (yes, I have all the disks). It's been almost 18 years since I played that. I know, it's not a continuing storyline, but the point is that there's nothing wrong with having an attachment to things that we enjoyed in the past, in new forms and old.

I'm a PC gamer and I don't play gears so can't comment on it. As far a 10 year series in gaming, I'm in.

The modern 3-d game is just now starting to have the influence to take things to the next level. With game sales out grossing movie sales we have seen a shift from games being made from movie towards movies being made from games.

Gaming is now attracting screenwriters who have the choice to pitch to a movie studio or a game developer first. We are going to see them pitching to game devs first more and more over the next 10 years.

Making the game first can be like writing a book before making a movie. You have more time with your audience. I think all of this will lead to more and longer series like we have in books, comics and movies. just like in those mediums these series don't have to be continuous. Their characters and story lines can be revisited and retold over time. And new characters and story lines introduced as well.

Not every series will survive but.. seeing how Mickey Mouse is still not public domain. And 007 is still on the job. I'm sure for the next ten years there will be those who answer the Call of Duty And if i am not mistaken, depending on how you look at it, Halo will be 10 years old this year and have releases planned.

So to answer your question, yes I have and will continue to and I'm glad to see the creators starting to think long term as well. Someone bring back the original Tribes in all its glory please. :-)

[egghead1619]

I was thinking along the same lines. When I read the quote:

"You will not be disappointed in the next ten years," he said to those in attendance. "It's a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber."

I immediately thought; they must be in talks for a movie. Also, we are currently seeing a shift in the main draw of games from gameplay to storytelling. This is not to say that games will lack the great gameplay aspects, it has just become so commonplace that nearly all games are reusing gameplay mechanics and finding it hard to find new ways to differentiate themselves. It could be the next Star Wars franchise following a similar route just flipping the movies and games; Gears games to Gears movies to simply the Gears universe.

The new focus has been on drawing the player into the story and giving them a reason to believe the game mechanics and become the avatar. BioWare has been a leader in this field and in my opinion is well placed to take the gaming world by storm in the next couple years. I envision movies will take the story from these best selling games and adapt them to screenplays, which should be simple as many games have been creating cinematics rife with story rivaling many movies I've seen produced recently.

Also, this article seems to show the viewpoint of only the FPS fanatic. "Man, what's up with this cut-scene. Let me shoot something." Nothing against this, the gaming world has all different types of gamers. I fall into the RPG fanatic category that could be identified by "Whoa, I wonder how long that ecosystem took to design; it's beautiful. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Mr. Riddles told me to solve this puzzle and the answer I seek can be found at the beginning of eternity and the end of time. Maybe I should head East."

[Grognard_The_Barbarian]

As Maarek_Stele touched on in the above comment, I think it definitely depends on what game it is. Game series like Metal Gear, with its long, complex plotlines that would put LOST to shame, are the kind of thing that gets a large cult following, and continues on for 20+ years. So yes, I think it is absolutely possible to have a game that makes people want to stick around for the story for a long, long time. The story just needs to take center stage, rather than creating the story based on the gameplay.

[Grifter02]

This article is written as though this is something totally new, but it's not even close.

Halo is already coming up on 10 years for it's continuing storyline. Metal Gear Solid took 10 years to complete the current storyline. Resident Evil has been going strong for 13 years. The Legend of Zelda, admittedly a bit of a stretch as far as "continuing storyline" goes, had it's latest installment come out 20 years after the original and sold boatloads of copies.

Those are some of the biggest selling franchises in history, so clearly the author is in the minority.

[Dylan_Wisor]

Resident Evil doesn't have a continuing storyline either. Everything takes place in the same story arc, but there's no serious continuity. For the most part, you could play all of the RE games out of order and wouldn't miss much other than the interesting little references they're peppered with. MGS is better off, but not by much.

Every single successful video game has gone from point A to point B in less than a decade. The Gears of War universe might still be active, but people will have stopped caring what happens to Marcus long before then. There's just no connection with the character. That's not what Gears is.

[Grifter02]

This article is written as though this is something totally new, but it's not even close.

Halo is already coming up on 10 years for it's continuing storyline. Metal Gear Solid took 10 years to complete the current storyline. Resident Evil has been going strong for 13 years. The Legend of Zelda, admittedly a bit of a stretch as far as "continuing storyline" goes, had it's latest installment come out 20 years after the original and sold boatloads of copies.

Those are some of the biggest selling franchises in history, so clearly the author is in the minority.

[Waam]

Let's see if Microsoft can hold up it's end. We don't know how Microsoft's new console will fare, and major exclusive franchises switching formats haven't had a banner history, outside of Metal Gear and Final Fantasy.

[smilin:)]

Who needs a storyline to last 10 years. Sometime the original game does it.

Quake Live ( www.quakelive.com ) is set to launch. It is essentially the same game as it's predecessor, Quake III Arena, from 10 years ago.

[d--keller]

I agree. Gears can't pull 10 years off right now. The story is not engaging what-so-ever. When Gears cuts to a story sequence, it's usually followed by a "what? so what are we supposed to be doing? why?". It just seems like an endless mess of random, let's get the locust! now we've got to kill the worm, now let's go save Maria. It's fun, but it doesn't make a darn bit of sense.

I can see that dragging on for 10 years. I can't really see anyone caring though.

[kelmon]

No, not really. Franchises annoy me for the simple reason that there is an original game that has simply been rehashed multiple times. Once I have played a game I am not particularly interested in effectively paying for the same game again. I largely feel the same about movie sequels - they tend to represent a lack of originality and are just a means of making more money on the back of a successful original title.

Expansions for a modest price are acceptable, however, as odd as that may sound.

[Kakarote26]

Metal Gear did it. What you do is make solid game play, like gears, that people will come back to again and again. The story doesn't have to make sense and you can make random games even ones out of the current story line and then just collect them all up and jigsaw puzzle them into the last epic game of the series, like MGS4.

[epross]

Why not, I remember playing King's Quest games from about 1985 (?) till about 1995. I mostly enjoyed every one. But it really depends on the franchise and the quality of the games.

[Inconnux]

It all depends on the quality of the games. They need to build a 'universe' that is compelling, just look at the warhammer 40k universe, they have been basing games of it for many years.

[nowimcool]

I have to agree with Don. Gears 1 story was non-existent but it was forgivable. But when they can't get it right in the second one there is something wrong.

But, IMO - forget the 10 year lifespan (at least for a single story) - it could be done but gaming evolves too quickly. Most 18 year olds are NOT going to play the games they missed when they were 8!! It's just not going to happen. And we're talking about story here, so that 18 year old is going to miss 3/4 of the story.

This is a case of the gaming industry thinking like the movie industry. The problem is people watch movies that are 20 years old and enjoy them - that's not the case with (most) games.

Here's how the gaming industry needs to work:

They need to put out their major releases but they also need to start putting out episodic chapters in frequent releases (like every 6 months). Make a lot of shorter episodes that tell a compelling story for 1/3 the price (probably through DLC). Each release can tweak the MP and add some bug patches. Then every 2 years release another major title. But they need to make the major releases major enough so that the DLC doesn't feel like penny-pinching, and they need to make the DLC big enough that the $20 feels like a good deal (and still tell a compelling story through it).

If this sounds like I'm referring to GTA IV - I am. But I don't think that it can work just with the 'sand-box' games - developers need to move into the art of storytelling and that is something that simply has not happened yet.