this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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"Constantly updated games" is a ridiculously disingenous description of live service games.
Isn't that literally what they are though? Fortnite, WoW, Runescape, Warframe or Hearthstone are all vastly different genres of games but they are still live-service games at the end. What else could the term mean besides "constantly updated", they are a living, evolving long-term service?
Yeah that’s literally what live service games are 😂. Would love to hear what they would call them, but doubt we’ll get a response.
You're listing games that many would call, and I quote "ass".
A game being "ass" is subjective and irrelevant to the definition of a live service game. These are just examples.
Live service = always online.
It means once the servers go down you will no longer be able to play the game.
A game doesn't need to be always online to be constantly updated. See: Project Zomboid, No Man's Sky, Minecraft etc.
What are you basing this definition on? A rudimentary google search for a definition gives more than one answer and yet none of them have "always online" as a requirement for something to be live-service.
Hitman 3 for example is an example of a singleplayer live-service game, Paradox games like Stellaris are basically that as well, and Minecraft and NMS are often used as examples too. Nobody claimed that a game needs to be online to be updated, that's ridiculous, so not sure who was that clarification meant for.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_as_a_service
"In the video game industry, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service.
[...]
Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called "living games", "live games", or "live service games" since they continually change with these updates."
GaaS monetization can't be achieved without a central online service. Even with Hitman 3 a lot of content is locked behind the online requirement.
You can bend the definition as much as you want but this is what most people mean by" live service games".
Your quotes just support my statement, the defining points are continued revenue and updates, not an always online requirement.
Where in there does it say “always online”?
Connecting to the internet and downloading new content when you are online doesn’t mean the game doesn’t work offline.
That’s not true at all. No Man’s Sky is a live service game, as is minecraft.
Is it? What’s yours then?
"Microtransaction Hell" is my description.
OK cool so you’ve never played a live service game. Just say that next time.
I have played several, and the vast majority have been Microtransaction Hell, and many games that are not live service are still consistently updated.
The fact that there are one or two games that do live service without intrusive and annoying microtransactions that are frequently barriers to progression or end up being pay to win doesn't make the description invalid. They are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The vast majority of Live Service games have zero pay to win microtransactions or barriers to progression. They’re almost all purely cosmetic microtransactions because that’s been proven to be what people want.
There was a bit of a learning curve for devs to see what people would put up with and what they wouldn’t, and stuff you describe was left on the cutting room floor years ago. Even games like COD now give you all actual content for free and just sell you cosmetics, and it’s wildly profitable for them. Selling map pack dlc got abandoned because it split the player base, whereas cosmetics don’t.