Let me lay out a hypothetical situation.

[WeirdRaptor]

You saw a book sitting on a book store shelf that looked interesting to you, so you buy it. Then you read the four hundred page tome. Once you come to the final page, you realize that the story had several holes, did not make sense, and that the book did not finish the story. Then you find that in order to do make sense of the whole thing and to finish the story, you also have to play through a hundred hour video game as the second act, and then watch a three hour movie as the closing number. Your reaction?

[jansenov]

I wouldn't play the game nor watch the movie. I'd satisfy myself with what I know from the book, especially if only the book is to be considered canon.

[Petrie85]

I wouldn't do either. I hate to read and I don't have time to play a long game that is based on a book that I don't wanna read.

[WeirdRaptor]

I figured as much. As for what this is about, I'm currently in a discussion on another forum. You see, there's a web series that started out as a video series, but it's become a spread out over several videos hosted by other accounts, sites, and on twitter, and a blog. My argument is that the whole story should be self-contained in one place. The other who thinks otherwise thinks that telling a single story over several media can work. So I'm interested in what everyone has to say about that.

[vonboy]

If it was a good enough story, and it gripped me in whatever first medium it was in, I MIGHT try to get more of the story from another medium.

That does sound like a really strange idea, though :/

[Malte279]

The part about this that is hypothetical is the idea that there was no indication whatsoever on the book belonging to a larger franchise. The book would most likely sell better if its being part of a successful franchise was stressed on the cover.
However I am currently reading a book that is part of a larger franchise based on a pen and paper RPG. While the cover does clearly state its being part of the franchise it does not give a list of all the other books that contain stuff that is referenced to in the book. However, even without that I am interested enough in that franchise as a whole to read the book and go with the references I don't immediately understand because I know I am into that franchise and would like to learn more about it as time goes on.
It would likely be similar with that book you pictured WR. If I found it interesting, if I was into that franchise it was part of I would probably try to learn more. The quality of the story of the book would probably be a deceicive factor on whther I would take any interest in the other materials.

[WeirdRaptor]

Right, but don't forget the part about certain key elements of the story not being explained, leaving the experience confusing.

[Malte279]

To a degree one could say that the same holds true for the lord of the rings which includes many references to events of everlier history / mythology of middle earth laid out in more detail only in the later published Silmarillion.
I guess it is sometimes left to the degree of interest, the phantasy or the forbearance of a reader to decide how bad, tolerable or even good such holes, cliffhangers or incompletions are.

[Petrie85]

You know I'd give anything a shot once. If the story was good I might read it and if I really liked the story I'd might try the game out. The book needs to be worth reading to me. I don't wanna read a boring book series. Like the Harry Potter Series. Yes it's Fantasy based but it was a great series. Filled with action and it was worth reading. Hence why I bought all seven books.

[Nick22]

it would depend on how good the book was, if it was good I'd consider playing the game and watching the movie..if not, i'd just stick to what the book said even if it doesn't resolve anything

[Allicloud]

The other who thinks otherwise thinks that telling a single story over several media can work. So I'm interested in what everyone has to say about that.

That very reason is what turned me off EverymanHYBRID's Slenderman story. Most Slenderman stories take place either over a blog, or a series of videos, but this one was based around Twitterfeeds, Youtube videos, Ustream live shows, blogs, and all sorts. As if Slenderman stories wasn't cryptical and complicated enough. It just seemed way too much to keep up with.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against expanded universes through different media for a franchise, but they should make the effort to ensure people know whether something is from the original franchise, or an expanded universe story.

[Coyote_A]

You don't have to play through an entire game or watch the full movie, instead you can simply watch all the cutscenes from the game on YouTube or read the movie's plot on Wikipedia.
As for me, i tend not to read anything that was inspired by a movie, a game or a TV series. Because most of the time it sucks. And if some media's based on the book, i'll just read the original. Easy as that.

[Littlefoot1616]

It does seem a bit daft to have a story told over different mediums. It's almost making it a story exclusive to certain people coz I'm sure there are people out there who love to read and have never played a video game in their life. So you are effectively pigeon-holing certain parts of the story to a particular audience who may not have any interest in the other mediums it s being portrayed through. There have been instances of other stories doing that or at least semi-utilising the idea. The Matrix did it (kind of) by releasing the first part of plotline as a movie but the other half of the movie (i.e. what Ghost and Niobe are doing) are told through the video game "Enter the Matrix". The ploy didn't really work because most people weren't particularly interested in Niobe's side of the story anyway. Still, to have one story told in phases across different delivery mediums? Not the best idea I'd say...

[WeirdRaptor]

So the general opinion here is that a book should have a self-contained story that is perfectly understandable all by itself, but it is alright to have the story expanded on in a continuation in a different media.

[Campion1]

I'd rather you give the name of the franchise before asking the question. Otherwise you're reading a Halo book without even playing the game.