Topic: Live Service Games

I don't care for them, you hate them. Let's converge and have a discussion on what we'd like to see from them as it is clear that they are going NOWHERE.

I don't really dislike them, just like most people I don't want to play the same thing forever and after one or two instances of getting into and then dropping off a live service game it can become difficult getting back into it. Of course, not all live service games are made equal so I would not tar all of them with the same brush. I am optimistic Diablo 4 will be a good live service game - one that I can get heavily into, then move on when I've had enough before being able to easily revisit in the future.

That's fair. I used to love them, I've grown tired in recent years. I think that when you have a really fun game with good mechanics, you can play it any amount of time today, tomorrow, or next year. Like RDR2.

I think when devs have a deep understanding to what appeals to players, it will always work. See: Fortnite, Ultimate Team, Overwatch, Diablo, Rocket League, many MMOs. I think what a lot of devs of disliked live service games (Anthem, Avengers, Gotham Knights) are missing is the game. Fortnite is not very deep but you have a pretty good pvp shooter at its core, the quick abilities to craft, mixed with the looted weapons that don't stay on you for more than a game. You have a really fun game there, and then boom end the match it all goes away, new chance to win.

The thing with Suicide Squad, Avengers, Anthem, Gotham Knights I think is that it really wanted to be a single player game. And the thing that drives those games forward is heavily story + some gameplay nuances. Ultimately what gameplay you have in the 5th hour of a SP game, you will have in the 50th hour but what brings it home are the cinematics and story.

In that aspect, those games have already failed at being good live service games. They try to be a single player game but then try to convince you to sink 200+ hours whilst offering nothing new, just the same movement and combat and missions and story as the first 90 hours. Or they try to offer you all the same fun weapons but that doesn't flow with the chosen characters in the game. Or they'll try to sell you a million cosmetic items which doesn't appeal to you at all because you're in a lobby of 2-4 friends or randoms and it just doesn't feel like it'll change anything. Or they'll sell you a 20% completed game and slap live service on it and charge full price. Ultimately, none of these things are appealing to anyone, let alone gamers, let alone people who have seen the same trick a million times.

I think when those elements work are when you have a fun game with engaging gameplay, a system where you don't keep in-game loot (see Fortnite), differing modes with differing amount of players present (not just 2-4 players, I'm talking MODES with different types of lobbies), an actual effort for it to look nice (so many games have these dark dingy menus where you use R1 / L1 to scroll and you see stats of weapons and armour plastered everywhere, so uninspired), replay value (since the gameplay is not going to change much, use seasons to drive forward the narrative and story), and lastly just a market that doesn't affect people that don't use it, unless they want nice outfits.

I think this makes a decent live service game and its wild to me how so many devs make the mistake of taking their cool looking concept into the wrong format, just keep it SP if you don't have what it takes to be live service.

Really confused on what a live service truly is nowadays ; first i thought it was just another and new word for online multiplayer , but i think it means a game that needs an online connection for you to access servers and play regardless if it’s single or multiplayer .

personally i don’t care if a games live service or not , we’re all always connected online or to some sort of service anyway . i haven’t been “offline” on a console since 2008 .

the only downside i can really see for live-service is if your internet is down or you’re in a situation where u can only play without an internet connection. but that doesn’t really affect the game itself .

@nomither6 I guess a live service game is a game that continues to release content that isn't just DLC over its life cycle. So like GTA Online, Destruction All-Stars, Destiny. I don't think they have to be multiplayer, but all the live service games I know of can be played in multiplayer and few have single player options but they are generally online games.

Think they need an evolving content landscape such as seasons or battle passes or how the game at launch looks so much different to the game a year later like NMS. So does that mean that single player games like the new Hitman games of late are also Live Service as they drop content that isn't really DLC post launch.

I guess these days almost 50% of all releases are a live service game huh. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, just devs and publishers need to not be lazy about it. So I don't think it should be all doom and gloom when it comes to this but realistically if publishers are greedy so who knows