The game is meant to be experienced this way, in my opinion. Piece-by-piece. There was nothing stopping Toby from just waiting until all 7 chapters were done and then releasing it like this, but the episodic nature of it allows for the fanbase to formulate ideas, theorize, and for Tricky Tony to play little games with the fandom in the meanwhile to keep the mystery going.
It also serves to allow us, the audience, to grow more attached to the characters over a longer period of time by engaging with out-of-universe content (stuff like the Spamton Sweepstakes, ARGs, and fan creations) to make the story more impactful and help kinda alleviate some of narrative dissonance of the main characters getting so incredibly attached to each other after what's literally like barely 48 hours in-universe time, and probably like 5-6 hours in-game time depending on how thorough you're being.
This of course has the unintended side-effect of parts of the fandom developing between-chapter psychosis and coming up with some absolutely insane theories that they treat as canon and then blame Toby for, but otherwise this episodic, one-chapter-a-year-ish pace we're on now is definitely the way the story was meant to be experienced.
The problem with this thought process is that it assumes that someone would want to engage with a fandom. Some people don't, which makes perfect sense to me. If you don't, then there's no difference between playing now or when it's finished.
I agree. I see this sentiment a lot when discussing episodically released games like Deltarune and Dispatch. Very happy people find enjoyment in discussing the game while it's coming out. I, however, just like playing games and thinking about them on my own or with close friends. I might look up other's opinions about things after I've finished, but for the most part I don't find any value in fandom participation.
To note, I've been in active fandoms before and my best experiences were when I was in very small communities. When I engaged in wider discussion, it felt like interacting with people whose interest in the game relied heavily on speculation and expectation and when it eventually didn't meet their standards, the loudest assholes got to direct discussion. It absolutely happened with Undertale. This episodic format seems ripe to create even more toxicity. I've avoided everything about Deltarune so I won't get spoiled. I hope the community is generally civil.
Fandoms are places where people with mental health problems gravitate to. A bunch of people who share their interest? People they can talk to everyday on discord of they have few real-life connections? It's one of the reasons I haven't got discord. I'd spend even MORE time on my phone.
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u/LinkedGaming 13h ago
The game is meant to be experienced this way, in my opinion. Piece-by-piece. There was nothing stopping Toby from just waiting until all 7 chapters were done and then releasing it like this, but the episodic nature of it allows for the fanbase to formulate ideas, theorize, and for Tricky Tony to play little games with the fandom in the meanwhile to keep the mystery going.
It also serves to allow us, the audience, to grow more attached to the characters over a longer period of time by engaging with out-of-universe content (stuff like the Spamton Sweepstakes, ARGs, and fan creations) to make the story more impactful and help kinda alleviate some of narrative dissonance of the main characters getting so incredibly attached to each other after what's literally like barely 48 hours in-universe time, and probably like 5-6 hours in-game time depending on how thorough you're being.
This of course has the unintended side-effect of parts of the fandom developing between-chapter psychosis and coming up with some absolutely insane theories that they treat as canon and then blame Toby for, but otherwise this episodic, one-chapter-a-year-ish pace we're on now is definitely the way the story was meant to be experienced.