See title, end post.
But seriously, I have to say I’m gotten very much over these “Live Service” online video games, that get churned out by greedy development houses year after year, when we all know what we will be getting: Broken. Ass. Games… with a side of MICROTRANSACTION HELL!
I am convinced these developers are so keen to use the title “Live Service”, because they know, in a very legally-binding way, the products they are shoving out are not games, not really. They look like games. They are marketed as if they were games. But they are not games.
They are gambling clients, which the user has to pay for the privilege to use, and literally cannot win anything but pixels.
But worse still, as I said before, these products are – more often than not – broken. These companies have launch targets to meet, and they will make those dates… even if it means putting out products that couldn’t even really be called in a proper beta state, let alone release standard. Quality Assurance? What’s that? Oh yeah, you mean the department we cut to the bone last year, and have been driving into the ground with forced Crunch ever since?
Never heard of them.
But it isn’t even just titles like “Battlefield”, “Assassin’s Creed”, or “Call of Duty” that are a problem here… This is an issue with many, if not most Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, too.
“Final Fantasy XIV”? Sure, but you can do better.
“Star Trek Online”? Them, too.
“Black Desert”? “World of Warcraft”? “New World”? Every other MMORPG? Fucking Tuesday.
Look, I get it. Game development is hard, and these companies are in business to make money. Online, multiplayer games make a ton of cash (especially when full of microtransactions and lootboxes), so it only makes sense that “Live Services” would be a model these companies gravitate to. Honestly, I’m fine with that.
No, really. I am.
My problem is not that “Live Services” or MMORPGs exist. No, my problem is that these developers not only chase the easy money these products provide, but that they can’t even launch with a working game, nor provide anything even close to the value their customers are paying for.
Instead, they just push out broken, half-baked products, squeeze whatever money they can out of it, then cease support or further development, and move on to the next years’ edition. Which is, frankly, absolutely unacceptable. MMORPGs may not be as bad as most “Live Services” are in this regard, but they stop support and further development of expansions quicker than you can say “Shadowlands”.
… or they just let the MMO drop into Maintenance Mode. But hey, they will still keep selling those cash shop items, right? “Secret World Legends”, is that you?
Thought I recognized that Funcom smell!
Anyway, enough of this shit. I am through throwing good money after bad, on “games” developed by companies that only see their players for the money to be taken from them. Want my money in the future? Actually put out a game that works, with a decent value for the money. Considering all of the money that these types of games bring in, this shouldn’t be all that hard to do.
