A Half Life Series?

No, it isn't anything on the television. At DICE, Valve announced that the previously announced Aftermath expansion pack is now Episode One (actually, shouldn't it be Episode two?), as the game will now be episodic, as per Sin Episodes. This means that each pack will be shorter, but cost less and probably get into number of expansions that Sims 1 and Everquest has gotten. All of this, you guessed it, is online only.
I, for one, don't like this. I tend not to buy anything online, and don't like the idea of digital only media. It took four hours for me to download the Half Life 2 demo; one half hour for the entire game (plus Counterstrike Source and Half Life 1 Source) from a DVD. Also, am I one of the few people who actually like to go to the store to buy stuff. Then again, I just like walking/driving anyway; buying things is just a good excuse for me to do so.
Also, I prefer to buy one package. I tend to wait until the tail end just so then I can get every expansion and the main game in one package (although I did make an exception for Half Life 2 after playing it at a LAN party). I won't buy any series on iTunes because there's no packages. I will buy series DVD's, because I can get a season in one package. Television is only good since you're only paying the cable bill; you're not paying for each program. I doubt radio, television, or even podcasts, as a recent example, would have their respective popularity if they had subscription fees for them.
I do hope that Valve has two options: buy single episodes or multple/all episodes; if only so I can get the latter.