Nemo's War is an outstanding solo game, probably one of the best, both tematically and in how much life it has.
As a cooperative though, it is a quite complex game that make it teaching a bit of an ordeal (IMO).
So joining someone's play makes you feeling as if you were dragged along an old sea captain through the complexities of a highly technical submarine.
Oh damn, thats a name I admittedly haven’t heard in a while. This guy had a huge impact on the games I played growing up. Still play the Master of Orion games every now and then. RIP
While playing the single player masterpiece which was God of War, I absolutely thought: “The only way to make this game better is if I had the luxury of buying a battle pass to grind for seasonal cosmetics along with a dozen other people.” 🤤🤤🤤🤑
Well, no.
Deep Rock Galactic has fully optional skin packs to make money and they're doing great.
Warframe has been chugging along for over a decade now and they're doing great. Beating the pants off of Destiny 2 for average player count.
The live service trick is that live service only works if the company actually cares about the product. Those two companies stand out because they legitimately care and have great communication with their communities.
So far Warframe has been the ONLY example of a good live service game. It’s the OG when it comes to the model, but it’s also the exception, and not the rule.
Destiny historically vasscilated between “fucking amazing” and “dumpster fire”. The problem has always been that it is near impossible to maintain that level of quality and entertainment consistently while also innovating on a regular basis. It is very difficult and very expensive.
They moved into “dumpster fire” territory significantly more than “fucking amazing”, sadly. Like one good expansion, three bad updates and two bad expansions, one good update.
“Live service” is a game that has an always online requirement. Just getting updates on the regular doesn’t make it a live service if the game works just fine without an Internet connection.
Single player Ubisoft games are all “live services”, due to some of them needing a constant connection to Ubisoft’s servers, and them having in-game shops that only work while online.
They’re the same thing. “Live service” is how Activision-Blizzard rebranded games that required to be always online. They also solidified the outline of things publishers at the time were already doing with their always online games, such as endless content players will have to buy.
Those documents leaked many years ago, and soon after that the moniker was changed from “always online” to “Live Service”.
I’ll try and find them, but first I heard from it was from Jim Stirling. “The Jimquisition” on YouTube, I think. Haven’t kept up with that guy in years.
DRG and Warframe also hit the critical requirement of actually being games that are fun to play!
I haven’t played a lot of WF, but I’ve got hundreds of hours on DRG. There is no grind. Getting holiday loot takes 5 to 8 matched total, and the Seasons are long and very relaxed. I maxed out XP for this season already and the next probably won’t start until at least this summer.
The community is going strong, the game is fun, Ghost Ship seems stable and like a nice place to work. It’s so stupid that more companies don’t see that they could run like this instead of chasing “get rich quick” corporate schemes that always alienate the fans.
Warframe’s MTX is so fair too. All of it can be earned in game, get items sell items for Platinum (paid currency) get the item from the shop.
The exception is the Fan made skins that are a few bucks. But those directly support the fan created skins.
Warframe is mostly pay-2-convenience.
The latest story expansion Warframe 1999 was phenomenal. If you havent played it yet, definitely follow through the main story it’s all tied together. One of the best stories that continue to deliver.
GoW as a live game isn’t the most out there thing. Tens of people liked the multiplayer mode in Ascension (?) and the reception to the roguelite mode was generally very favorable. And the core game already had gear based progression that could map to something like what Ghost of Tsushima has (that has hundreds of people who like it…).
But having frigging Bluepoint spend cycles on this? I am sure that the studio asked for something more than just remakes but… what?
I don’t think it at all matches “Never ask me about my past” Dad Kratos and nobody likes Atreus enough, but one could easily imagine an “open world” live service game where new gods and factions are added every few months and you do quests for or against them.
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