Valve and Ritual did a perfectly fine job of embarrassing *themselves*, actually. These guys just make them look even worse.
The problem w/ their episodic content is not the quality of the content -- since both HL2: Ep One and SiN Episodes: Emergence turned out good -- it's just that they take too long to make such a short episode. I mean, shit; it's not like these guys are making new episodic RPG content here!!! It's not like they are overhauling the graphics engine or game code too much probably, either!!!
By the time the next episode comes out, the gamers who bought Ep One might've lost interest by the the time Ep Two comes, by now....I was all pumped for HL2: Ep Two, but now a lot later and still waiting, I really don't even care too much now...
On the other hand, Telltale is pumping out new episodes every few months. Game will be fresh in your mind, if you pump out episodes that fast, since it's storyline dependant.
And for Oblivion, BethSoft seems to be churning out new DLC content here and there. What makes theirs work is all there content is not story-line dependent on each other. It all finishes, like its one quest. And, they got a real full expansion coming soon! Another company that seems to understand what episodic content is all about.