What is considered "milking" a franchise?

[Alphachris]

I still don't think that story-driven games like Final Fantasy XIII or Assassin's Creed were really milked. There was put much production value in the story and the characters.

AC1: Altair - Crusaders theme - great Story and dialogues
AC2: Ezio- Renaissance theme - great Story and dialogues - great representation of Firenze and Venezia
AC Brotherhood - Still Renaissance and focus on the Borghia - great representation of Rome
AC Revelation - Ezio and Altair - Constantinople and Byzantine theme
AC 3 - again good Characterization and dialogues - US History theme

So although they put out a game every year I found them all entertaining and they felt different enough for me. But I am playing the games with a focus on the story.

The handheld games however, they can be seen as milking. Bloodlines and Liberation did lack the polish and production values that the console games had. They were not bad, but the console games were simply better.


Final Fantasy is the same thing. There is put a huge effort in the story of each game. Final Fantasy is "the" measure for story-driven RPGs and in my opinion they follow a very serious approach with the franchise. Square is not simply copying the core mechanics of Final Fantasy and reuse them. Man, part of the critics come from taking away elements of former games like the summons (Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut,...), trying to make a battle system without MP, etc.

For me, the best example of milking are gaming trends like online multiplayer. Even games like Uncharted, God of War or Tomb Raider have added multiplayer modes... and for me they all feel like playing the same game over and over again. Resistance, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed... Sometimes these modes were even made by a different studio.

Or DLCs... Most DLC have only little production value and were not really a good experience for me. They feel tacked on, or worse, removed from the game just to be able to charge extra.

Bethesda feels like Milking. Releasing a game in an almost broken status just to keep the desired release date... and then be patched weeks later. That is especially nice for people with no internet connection.