It's to prevent the game from being too large for people to easily download; if it was one large game, it'd be about 8GB, and a lot of people were getting annoyed at the size when the game was about 3GB. To fix the problem, Mr. Dots decided to split the game into smaller chapters. Is it a perfect solution? No, it is not. Is it a decent one? I'd say so. YMMV, of course.
It would have been the perfect solution if not for the fact that here on F95 you don't have access to each chapter in it's entirety. Take chapter 2 for example. It's missing the last part and can not be played fully because of it.
-Chapter 1 ends at 0145
Updates 17,18 ,19 ,20, 21 MISSING
-Chapter 2 ends at 0215
Updates 0220 and 0225 are MISSING
-Chapter 3 starts at 0230
This is what's pissing everyone off. Not the fact that he split the game in chapters. But the fact that there are whole chunks of the game missing. And there is no reason what so ever for doing that. File Size or otherwise. I have a MEGA subscription, I don't mind high file sizes. There's other games here on F95 as big as 16-20GB each.
Fine, you want to split the game and make the download size smaller? OK, but why cut chunks off from the game? Moreover, why not just post the individual update files? Why does everyone have to download all the game assets worth 3-4GB everytime instead of just a few hundred megas worth of, you know, actual updated files and new files? Everyone installs inc patches and knows how to unzip and copy into the base folder / game folder. If the size is such a problem and the main reason for mangling the game into tiny parts is size alone, then why not just provide individual links with archived / compressed files that can just be unzipped and copied over the base game files?
Very rarely does a game need a full redownload. Like when the game engine gets changed. Everything else in an update just replaces your already existing files with new versions of them that contain either updated data and/or new data. That means your only download for every new version would only be up to 1 GB. Nice and easy for everyone. UI changes only requires several files changed, not the whole game. Text changes only require 1 file updated. New animations can just be copied onto the already existing base game.
1. You don't need to download the whole game every time there's an update.
2. And you don't have to cut content off due to size limits because "see nr. 1"