Now I can understand if milking a game absolutely meant lower quality, but that's not the case. There are many instances where a franchise is 'milked' and stays high quality, sometimes it even increases in quality. So why is milking met with hatred all time when milking does not cause diminished quality all of the time? It seems like a franchise is considered 'milked' if it has a new installment every year. Or if it has a new installment every two years, then the franchise will be labelled as milked if it has say... four installments in one generation.

Games like Halo, Ratchet & Clank, Assassin's Creed are considered milked by gamers whom wishes the gamers had longer release schedules. Even though the quality of those games are always high barring a rare title. Though every franchise has a did every now and then. If the quality stays high, then why become upset?

Some people say that they become bored of a franchise if there are too many installments within a certain time period. This mentality has always confused me since A.) If you love a franchise, how do you get bored of it simply by playing it?, and B.) There is no mandatory time that you must play the games, so you are free to play each installment after you no longer feel bored of the series.

If you really like a franchise, then I don't understand why you feel bored of it because of milking. The most extreme cases of milking involves games being released once a year for several years. To a lot of people, this is too little time in between releases and they claim they grow bored with this schedule. But how is an entire year not enough time for your 'boredom' to erode? Im pretty sure a lot of gamers have played entire franchises back-to-back. You know, when you first get into a series and decide to consecutively play every installment. Boredom isn't a factor here. its obviously not the time in between playing games that's the problem. It's the time in between the game's release. But why?

How is a full year (or two years in some cases) not enough time for you to get ready for the next game? And even if one year wasn't enough time for you, you could always just wait however much time you want to play each installment. You don't have to play the games when they come out. You could pretend the franchise is on a two-year or three-year schedule.

So what's the problem with annual releases and milking in general?

And again, I'm not talking about when milking causes a quality diminish. Obviously its okay to dislike those cases. I'm talking about milking in general. Gamers tend to absolutely hate milking as if it absolutely causes a quality drop in every case. Of course, that's not true, so why do gamers absolutely hate milking, even when the quality stays high.

quality is such a subjective term and I think it's just people hating on a franchise,just for the sake of hating on it. It's only bad if the quality is lowered and it's an obvious cash grab,but you already made that point. I've had assasssins creed revelations for along time. I got through the first four chapters and got bored with it and haven't played it for months,but I plan on going back to it soon,since there's no games I really want to buy for a couple of months,so you make a great point,in that aspect.

It's at least partially a "stop liking things I don't like" argument

The sort of argument that merits being struck by lightning

I don't even know. Some games have large intervals and development time between them.. But then when you get them eventually the quality does not justify the time spent. Duke Nukem springs to mind as a perfect example.

Release time/milking is a pretty shoddy way to write off games and pass judgement just because the game is mainstream or whatever, yes I am talking about COD. MW3 was a let down, but BO, MW2, WaW and COD4 is a good enough streak in 4 years.

Assassin's creed is another story, I think that the quality of the story has dropped, and the graphics have become quite aged in comparison to when they were first introduced.. Bottom line is, give the game a fucking chance before passing judgement.

I guess I kind of agree. I'd also add that if you don't like a game you can just not buy it. The most milked franchise in my collection is Assassin's Creed, but ultimately I decided to buy all the games (Brotherhood and Revelations after price drops) and I enjoyed them. I did think think the quality dropped with Revelations though, or at least it felt stagnant..

BTW, Christmas and New Year have had a yearly release schedule for centuries now..They're supermilked and I'm bored of them, once a year is too much.

milking is not good, but sometimes changing turns out being a disaster
its about gameplay mechanics getting repetitive and uninteresting
thats why Wii series became so popular, it was new, now that are on every casual game every company releases they are no longer interesting to most gamers

uh, because coming out with the same game over and over again stops progression.
play COD2 then play COD4 and you see a massive change in everything, the game feels different, plays different

PLay MW2, play black ops, and MW3... games feel the same.

I have a problem with milking. Almost every game that has been milked, I have lost interest in them, Assassin's Creed, Halo (haven't even played any other than 3, will probably get 4 since it looks finally a bit different), Call of duty.

Usually milked games DO NOT retain their quality, they just use the same template and a different story. Fallout New Vegas was the only exception, I preferred the level design in that game over fallout 3.

Dead Space 2 is a good example of a well done sequel which introduced some good new concepts without removing older ones. Most CoD, Assassin's creeds, all have similar concepts and none new ones so it does get boring after a while. I got bored while playing both MW2 and AC Brotherhood.

I also haven't got a single FIFA game since ages.

Funny talking about "milked" games, I still think it's ridiculous people think Luigi's Mansion is a "milked" game from the Mario franchise. I don't care if a game is "milked" as long as if it's good. Why care?