I've noticed over the last few days that some people here seem to have a very different understanding of what this word means than I do, and I'm genuinely curious if I'm missing some baggage.
I keep seeing variations of "Spider-Man: Miles Morales is just a standalone game." Uhhh...what? Why is that being used as some sort of dismissal? From what I've been able to gather, it seems that some people think that a 'standalone game' is specifically a smaller DLC campaign that can also be played separately from the main game.
Whereas I have never taken 'standalone' to have extra meaning within the context of gaming. It's just an adjective that describes how a title can be played independently of other software, right? You can have standalone DLC packs, or standalone full-priced games. The word doesn't imply that a game is or ever was intended to be DLC.
I guess I can understand where the confusion is coming from, though. There's rarely ever a need to mention that something like The Last of Us Part II is a standalone game. It's just common sense. The term is not normally used to describe regular full-priced games, even though it is an accurate description of what they are. But the early miscommunication over whether or not Spider-Man: Miles Morales was an expansion is what forced Insomniac to clarify that it was indeed a standalone title. And again...that doesn't mean it is or was ever DLC. It just means it's a brand new game.
...right?
I keep seeing variations of "Spider-Man: Miles Morales is just a standalone game." Uhhh...what? Why is that being used as some sort of dismissal? From what I've been able to gather, it seems that some people think that a 'standalone game' is specifically a smaller DLC campaign that can also be played separately from the main game.
Whereas I have never taken 'standalone' to have extra meaning within the context of gaming. It's just an adjective that describes how a title can be played independently of other software, right? You can have standalone DLC packs, or standalone full-priced games. The word doesn't imply that a game is or ever was intended to be DLC.
I guess I can understand where the confusion is coming from, though. There's rarely ever a need to mention that something like The Last of Us Part II is a standalone game. It's just common sense. The term is not normally used to describe regular full-priced games, even though it is an accurate description of what they are. But the early miscommunication over whether or not Spider-Man: Miles Morales was an expansion is what forced Insomniac to clarify that it was indeed a standalone title. And again...that doesn't mean it is or was ever DLC. It just means it's a brand new game.
...right?