For almost a decade, live-service features have been de rigeur for most games – but with live-service projects being cancelled or pivoted to single player, it a
    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      I can’t read anything about this concept without hearing Liz from TrueAnon saying “Bee to bee SaaS” sarcastically

    • Adalast@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      This doesn’t even touch on the fact that nobody gets to own anything anymore. I am guilty of it with Steam myself, but I also recognize the inherent flaw with the model.

      Live service is a whole 'nother level above DRM though. You don’t even get to say you purchased a license with a live service game. You can’t install them and run them after the servers shut down. They don’t want us to own things, just keep paying them forever.

  • Korkki@lemmy.mlEnglish
    19·
    6 months ago

    It’s just the basic logic of maturing market. They couldn’t really increase the game prices that much more without affecting demands, nor could they improve efficiency of making games (the capital costs and team sizes have only gotten up) so they did the thing they could. Try to turn games from a product that the sell into a service they provide and can therefore lock people into their walled gardens and keep continuously charging fees and subscriptions. Too bad games are more of an art form than a news paper or a some tool maintenance contract is.

  • yermaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    18·
    6 months ago

    Games that are paid for with cosmetics are fine imo. I will never, ever, not once buy a virtual hat for any amount of money. That said, if a game wants to be free and provide consistent updates, and morons riding the meme-train want to subsidise me, that’s just gravy.

    Im shocked and appalled that game companies think people are stupid enough to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on pretend clothes and I’m exactly as shocked and appalled that they’re right.

    If games want to be free to play, but suddenly im coming up against a guy thats basically invincible because he spent real money, im out.

      • yermaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Im not happy about it either, its forced development to stop looking at how to make a game fun and start looking at how to maximise player retention. Which means hijacking weaknesses in our psyche.

        I like to think Im immune to it, but I still get turned off a game pretty quick when you load it up and you have to make it past 4 or 5 popups telling you what’s new in the store.

    • dil@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      Virtual hat made me laugh, as a kid I bought the first version of this back when this game was still semi popular, I fr wasted some of my birthday money on virtual hat

      • dil@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        idk it was funny af to me then tho lol, would just hit emotes and cause it to tweak out on the screen

        • daftaEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          AdventureQuest Worlds my beloved

    • Codilingus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      It does seem a lot of games pivoted from cheap enough so everyone will buy it, to whale hunting. They had people run numbers and found whale hunting paid off more, and how much $ they could charge for a skin combined with FOMO before driving the whales away.