Milking a Universe

[Drago-Morph]

So I was considering the idea of "milking" a franchise, and I kept thinking about how some properties, despite having an abundance of media in them, didn't feel like they were getting milked. I realized what those properties shared when I was watching an IGN news video on Assassin's Creed; they're set in fully fleshed out story-telling worlds.

I think there's a big difference between wringing out a story and a universe. For example, House, as much as I love the show (and that ending, yum), I think it most certainly could have ended a few seasons earlier. Meanwhile, the Star Wars universe I think can keep going for as long as there's stories to be told there.

I wanted to have a discussion on the difference because in the comment section of that IGN video, I saw people claiming the AC franchise was being milked. I disagreed; I think the AC franchise has a rich setting full of story-telling potential, and can bounce around between multiple different stories. So I think that it can stick around for as long as there's interesting stories to be told, without necessarily needing to have an end. I was wondering if anyone else shared my sentiments; if a universe can go on, theoretically, forever, or if even open worlds need an "end" in order to not be considered getting milked.

 

[Harpalyce]

While milking a franchise may be seen as udderly despicable by some, atteative gamers may behoof themselves to beef up their tolerance for such things, stop having such a cow, and demonstrate the milk of hu-moo-an kindness and - NO NO SORRY WAIT LET ME TRY THIS AGAIN

I think what makes this hard is that it's so variable and subjective, but I do think you're on to something. The things with the most ability to keep on going are more of a setting and broad universe in which new characters and new developments can happen and be explored. That's why SW and AC seem to be here to stay, even while I can say that some Star Wars games felt like the series being milked. Basically the feeling of exploitation comes in when the new material doesn't respect a *character's* story being complete, and tries to shoehorn things in, as opposed to taking a relatively background character - or a new character altogether - and elaborating on them. To use a broad analogy, the problem comes in if a tree tries to make a branch as thick as its trunk; then it just topples over. But if the tree uses a branch as a point to grow more branches, it grows bigger without a problem.