Do you like "Games as a Service"?

Games
21

Since I play these things a lot between the Battle Royales and FFXIV, yes, I absolutely like Games as a Service. It’s all about the fundamental gameplay quality and how they implement any rewards or costs associated with playing the quality gameplay.

With Warzone for example, I can play and play and play and never pay a cent. I have a blast, and every match is like popping an imaginary quarter into an arcade machine to have another go, but it doesn’t cost me anything. Every now and then I’ll get a Battle Pass, but even then those often result in enough CoD Points to buy another Battle Pass later. It’s a wash. I didn’t even buy Modern Warfare III this year to level guns faster.

FFXIV is pretty self-explanatory. I pay a monthly fee to play the game. They add content all the time, and only major expansions cost more money than the monthly fee. Cancel at any time.

Fortnite, Apex Legends… haven’t played lately, but both also just let you play for nothing. They’re both fantastic games with lots of different modes all built around excellent fundamental gameplay. Fortnite of course has added racing and LEGOs too. Oh! I forgot The Finals! That’s another fundamentally sound game where you can play as much as you like without ever throwing them a bone. Many people do of course, so that’s how they stay in business.

So yeah, nothing fundamentally wrong with these games if they’re great games and not nickel and diming you all the time. I’ve got countless hours in all the above since Fortnite first went free to play.

22

I’m still kind of confused as to what the seasonal model is exactly. I think I get it, but it seems like I must be missing something. The games I’ve played that have seasons are Path of Exile and Diablo 4. Every season, there’s a new gimmick or gameplay difference as you’re playing through the campaign in Path of Exile, or the main map in Diablo 4, though in the latter there’s no playing the campaign again. So I guess it’s ongoing new content for free? And that’s subsidized by people buying cosmetics in both of those cases.

But again, it still feels weird, like I don’t get the FOMO because usually the content of each season isn’t that great. So if I miss a season, like I missed season 2 of Diablo 4, who cares? The story content doesn’t seem that strong in a season compared to the main campaign either.

23

Depends on the game or the person. For battle pass type of games, the FOMO might be the battle pass rewards that can only be obtained until the season ends. For some games these are mostly cosmetics, for others they’re important currencies or crafting materials or items or whatever.

In the case of Path of Exile, there’s no battle pass or FOMO. The seasons add new features and ways of playing though and it gives everyone an opportunity to start fresh. Particularly, starting fresh with a new economy. That’s a huge deal to PoE players, where they will strategize and figure out a sequence of builds. Like they’ll plan out the build they really want to play but realize it will take a lot of currency to get off the ground, so they’ll plan out their starter build as well. Finding something like a Tabula Rasa at the start of the league is a much bigger deal than finding one towards the end of the league and that sort of thing, so there’s a buzz and excitement when a new league starts for that playerbase.

24

My experience with PoE is mostly in hardcore, so the differences in each season I played don’t feel all that different, and I can never finish the campaign anyway, no matter the character or season, so the economy never really comes into play anyway. So I guess all that stuff just flies over my head.

25

Yeah, that makes sense. I think the majority of active PoE players would tell you you haven’t even played the game yet.

EDIT: Sorry, I hope that didn’t come across as sounding elitist or “you’re playing it wrong”. I just have some friends that are really into PoE, and it’s all about league economies and that sort of thing to them. The campaign is nothing but a chore they have to go through to get to the meat of the game, which is the Atlas.

26

But a lot of times if you skip a season you completely miss out on the new mechanic. Not everything in PoE goes core, and when it does it’s usually in a modified form. And I don’t think D4 seasonal mechanics carry over at all, do they?

I’d like to see the new content. I’m just not interested in starting over every time to do so.

27

Yeah, not all the mechanics go core. That never triggered FOMO in me when I was playing, but maybe that’s just me. If it sounds fun I play, if it doesn’t sound fun I don’t mind skipping/missing a bunch of leagues. There’s no feeling that my progress or account is “falling behind” by skipping, which is what I consider the FOMO stuff that developers try to use to keep you logged in and playing.

Compare that to something like Lost Ark or Genshin Impact where you miss a lot of important resources if you’re not doing the BPs. Or at least that was the case when I last played.

28

No, gaas games are not for me at all. I’m mostly a single-player gamer and by the time I’ve played through the base content of a game, I’m ready to move onto something else. Mostly don’t care for expansions or DLC either. Too many games in the backlog.

29

“Yes”, but in practice mostly no.

There are some good GAAS examples already listed, and obviously there are many, many examples of live service stuff shoehorned into games where it doesn’t belong to sell you cosmetics, drive engagement with FOMO, or even monetize through nakedly pay-to-win approaches.

The bad games are bad!

The good games are good, but even those I find I just rarely have time for. I was a big fan of Destiny 1 and 2 (to a point). I think both of those—in my experience, I’ve heard bad things about D2 recently—provided awesome experiences driven by community and an evolving game that wouldn’t have been possible without the GAAS design, and I’m so glad I got to spend that time with the games, but without the same amount of time for gaming (or predictable gaming schedule) I had 5-10 years ago, I could never get into a game like that today.

NMS is the only one I still make time for because it’s a low commitment, and low barrier to re-entry. What I miss between forays into NMS doesn’t feel like it’s held against me when I return, it’s just that much more to explore at my own pace if I want to.

30

Well, the short answer is “hell no”.

In the blandest, most generic definition a “Game as a Service” is defined with a game that recieves support past its release date.
This is an incredibly wishy-washy definition that would make every game that ever released a post-release patch a GaaS. Which is bullshit, of course.

A more realistic definition would be either a game that extensive support in the form of added content after after the point of sale, rather frequently with continued monetization.

Look, I like my games as bug-free as possible, so I wouldn’t bitch about patches, and some added love after the main course can be a good thing. But there’s a time and place to call it quits.

Allow me to elaborate in the shape of a few examples:
Warframe has had content added since its release back in 2013. Since then, pretty much every system in the game has experienced several overhauls and extensive changes. And so much stuff has been bolted onto the basic game that a newcomer cannot hope to comprehend or navigate it without either help (and thank goodness that the community of the game is among the more friendly tribes out there) or without digesting about 2 wiki’s worth of content.
Also, while the monetization is amongs the least obnoxious examples out there, it’s still present, and it permeats nearly every aspect of the game. A newb and his premium currency are soon parted. Trust me, I’ve fleeced about 6 grand worth of platinum from others.

Final Fantasy XIV is held up as one of the shiniest examples of what a MMO can aspire to be, and is lauded for it’s friendly (well, some would say passive-agressive) community and exquisite storyline. However, in order to get to the late game content your friends probably want to play, you need to complete the entire main storyline of each expansion in sequence, OR buy a skip. That used to be okay when it was 2 expansions. Right now, you’re looking at several months of playtime just to get to the current stuff.
Not to mention that the engine is creaking, suffering from spaghetti code issues and database limitations.
And since the class abilities have a hard cap (number of abilities assignable to a controller), they get either stretched out to the degree that classes feel incomplete 3 expansions in, or suffer from having a stale rotation with minimal upgrades.

And for a non-monetized example: Stardew Valley
Since release there’s been a slew of updates that added some (comparatively minor) gameplay elements and QOL features. Which is nice. And it’s free.
But let me be honest: Most games are played once or twice with today’s amount of new stuff rolling in. It’s totally nice that there’s a new romanceable partner and that I can turn my kids into doves now, but does that justify a new 40+ hours playthrough, slogging through the same elements I’ve done a crapton of times before?
There’s not even the mercy of procedural generation, most of the elements are exactly the same every time around.

And that’s the “good” examples.

If you use this ruthlessly, you get World of Warcraft, where hopelessly addiced people grind happily ever after without even considering how shitty their favorite pastime has become compared to newer entries.
No time for other games, monthly sub, in-game shop, cheating, botting, toxic community, and a publisher that could probably eat babies on prime time TV without their customers considering NOT giving them money for a change.

And those guys don’t hold a candle to the inherent cuntishness of the mobile game market and the wallet abuse that is gatcha gaming.
If getting the entire content of your game requires me to mortgage my house and sell my firstborn, in addition to involving gambling and pychological hooks that would make a drug pusher pause, then there is something inherently wrong with your game design and your perceived value as a human being. Full Stop.

I don’t mind an expansion pack. Hell, I don’t mind 3 if we really must. But at some point it’s time to leave stuff be and think about a sequel or something new, not constantly re-treading the same tired game until the heat death of the universe.

In Conclusion:
The concept of “Games as a Service” deserves to be gently lead behind the shed and mercilessly clubbed to death like the abomination that it has become.

It’s all fun and games until “how addictive can we make it” becomes a defining feature of the design process. Sequels instead of in-game shops. Not “in addition to”

31

I enjoyed The Division games, which sound like they would qualify as GAAS. So I guess my answer is yes, I like them just fine.

32

I have yet to see a game in which the GaaS angle made the game better. And I think MMOs or subscription-based games are quite different from what is usually called GaaS.

NMS is not GaaS. Just a game with long, free support. Same is true of Stardew Valley. Paradox games get close enough to the line to make things a bit blurry. And I hate the current trend of turning fighting games into GaaS.

So, do I like Games as a Service? No, for many reasons, but mostly because I don’t think it makes any game better - if anything, it makes games worse.

33

The game runs on an online service that is required to play the game with no local option available. They’re pretty much the definition of a service game, IMO.

Semantics, though, I’m sure we could all talk in circles all day about what it is and what isn’t. :)

34

Fair enough, but there’s a reason people say MMO when refering to MMOs and GaaS to speak of things with battle passes and microtransactions.

35

Nope. I don’t do multiplayer, and prefer my games to be discrete chunks of content. Occasional bits of DLC is about as far as I’ll go, but even then I usually only play them if they’re available when I’m going through the base game.

36

I’d argue this is one of the strengths of GaaS, making improvements to the game mechanics over time along with a steady stream of new content. Arguably the same with the community aspect, though it’s easy to ignore in Warframe if one prefers.

I started playing in closed beta so I can’t speak to the new player experience, but I’ve heard it’s been a problem for several years. Maybe there’s no easy solution. I think part of the problem stems from the open-ended nature of Warframe, with fewer explicit goals and consequently less hand-holding than in most games.

In any case, I’ve played Warframe off and on for 11 years. In that time I’ve spent about $120, with the bulk of it going towards weapon & frame slots. No pay-to-win cash shop, no gacha mechanics, no battle pass FOMO crap. I think Warframe is a great example of how a F2P live-service game should be run.

37

Ok, Warframe is a good example indeed, of GaaS done right. I had a great time with it, and the way it handled microtransactions never felt unfair.

38

GaaS is a hard no.

CCGs included. I could abide Fantasy Flights LCGs due to it’s control (and for Netrunner, the greatest card game ever produced).

39

I’d rather not.

40

I’m not opposed to them in theory. Making continued improvements and having a reasonable way for players to pay for that development time is fine.

But in practice, there are plenty of bad or abusive examples that push people away, and my tastes lean more toward single-player stuff anyway.