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Saturday, November 16, 2024
I'm not sure I want a lifestyle game
I have played a number of 4X and grand strategy games this year. I enjoyed playing them, albeit some a bit more than others. Even Ara: History Untold, which probably was the weakest game of that style I played this year, entertained me for 50 hours. Now Ara has a major patch, promising to fix many of the things I didn't like about it. And there is a new DLC out for Age of Wonders 4, which is probably the best 4X game I played all year. I recently played Millenia to check out the Ancient Worlds DLC, but since then yet another DLC Atomic Ambitions has released for it. So all of these games want me to come back and play them again.
In the end, a frequent release of new content by DLC or major patch for a 4X or grand strategy game is the same tactic as live service games or MMORPGs: Game companies want you to adopt their games as a lifestyle choice, because they want you to give them money over and over. But I am far from sure that I want that. Not again. I played World of Warcraft for 10,000+ hours, and other MMORPGs for thousands of hours, so I have lived this "game as a lifestyle choice" already. I don't necessarily regret that choice, but do I want to do that again?
The fundamental problem of playing the same game (well, same plus added content) over and over is the opportunity cost. The kid who received Super Mario Bros. in 1985 for his Nintendo Entertainment System probably only had a handful of cartridges for his NES, no other console, and no access to dad's PC. He played the game for months, simply because he wouldn't get a new game before his next birthday or Christmas. But we don't live in that world anymore. Even kids have a huge number of choices for games to play, and several devices to play them on. As an adult, and thus larger financial means, my choice of games is even more huge. Steam alone added 14,351 games in 2023, and the projection for 2024 is higher than that. Epic wants to give me a free game or two every week, and there are plenty of new releases on the Game Pass for PC. I can play games also on my phone or tablet, and I do own a Nintendo Switch console.
I did buy the second expansion pass for Age of Wonders 4. The AoW4 DLCs tend to be exactly what I want: More options to create a distinctly new leader and race, to play another game with different troops, different spells, and different tactics. But I have already played this game for 400 hours, and I don't want it to become the only thing I play. I enjoy other genres of games as well, for example the RPG Drova that I am currently playing.
As a result, the flood of new DLCs and patches for games I already played caused me more negative feelings than positive excitement this month. There are too many games to play, and not enough time. Turning games into a lifestyle and playing them over and over is just aggravating that situation.
- posted by Tobold @ 10:02 AM Permanent Link
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It's a bit of a circular argument, though. If you have a game that your playing all the time because you're enjoying it enough to want to play it all the time you would, by definition, nmot want toplay other games so the "too many games, too little time" problem would not exist. If you are having that problem, again by definition, you cannot truly be playing a game that fully occupies your available game-playing time.
I think you already have to be feeling the need for something new for the lure of something new to tempt you. Satisfied people canonically cannot be tempted.
I think you already have to be feeling the need for something new for the lure of something new to tempt you. Satisfied people canonically cannot be tempted.
While I enjoy playing a variety of games there are disadvantages. One huge one is having to choose what to play next. Perhaps you are more disciplined that I Tobold but I regularly find myself vacillating between multiple games not giving any of them enough attention and not really enjoying any of them. At times like that I miss the days when I played one game for months at a time (or years in some cases) and totally immersed myself in its ecosystem. I think it is fair to say that a lot of us did that with MMORPGs back in the 00s but I have also done it with other types of games including the Total Warhammer series and even for a time FTL.
Tobold: "He played the game for months, simply because he wouldn't get a new game before his next birthday or Christmas."
If that was the only activity. But back in the day you would get on your bike and ride around the neighbourhood with your friends and all sorts of other things. But yes, in terms of gaming, that would be one of the few.
I think the "lifestyle game" does apply but you can take a step back and it's more a subscription style approach? I mean you have YouTube premium. Do you feel obliged to max out your time on there? Or game pass or the subscriptions you have or had?
So I think it's more a "I like this style of game and will come back to it whenever I like. Therefore I will keep up with the DLCs and give them my money but I don't need to play it all the time."
Even WoW has been doing seasons for a while now and you aren't really missing out when you take a break and come back later as there are catch up systems in place. Sure, you might forfeit some season reward if you are away longer, but it's so saturated with stuff that it will only sting a little (if you care).
It's of course more profitable for the company to pump DLCs instead of having to build a complete new game that might then not be as good as the previous game.
It does follow the general trend of subscriptions instead of stand-alone products for the same reason you have explored in previous posts already.
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If that was the only activity. But back in the day you would get on your bike and ride around the neighbourhood with your friends and all sorts of other things. But yes, in terms of gaming, that would be one of the few.
I think the "lifestyle game" does apply but you can take a step back and it's more a subscription style approach? I mean you have YouTube premium. Do you feel obliged to max out your time on there? Or game pass or the subscriptions you have or had?
So I think it's more a "I like this style of game and will come back to it whenever I like. Therefore I will keep up with the DLCs and give them my money but I don't need to play it all the time."
Even WoW has been doing seasons for a while now and you aren't really missing out when you take a break and come back later as there are catch up systems in place. Sure, you might forfeit some season reward if you are away longer, but it's so saturated with stuff that it will only sting a little (if you care).
It's of course more profitable for the company to pump DLCs instead of having to build a complete new game that might then not be as good as the previous game.
It does follow the general trend of subscriptions instead of stand-alone products for the same reason you have explored in previous posts already.
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