I mean, if it’s PVE then yeah, it can works. Games like Fallout 76, ESO, Warframe, all can be played alone, while PVP multiplayer only games will suffer significantly if the playerbase drop below certain threshold.
I keep trying to get into this game but there is sooo much base building at the beginning… I just wanna play the fun stuff!
Also co-op mission progress makes no sense when playing in a group (only one person gets the progress?)
Free content is always great news tho!
I haven’t played since 2021 and some BoS DLC came out. Wonder how hard it would be to get back into it.
Not only that, live service titles are absolutely tone deaf when it comes to respecting the effort of their players.
It doesn’t stop Steve from being right with his statement, though, but his understanding of what a live service game’s monetization model should be has shown to be two or three parallel universes ahead of what the “triple A” projects usually do.
Hell, paying real money can only skip you through the first dozens of hours of the tutorial. After that, paying effectively only allows you to get cosmetic options.
I remember when Warframe had Pay For Revives. Not sure if that was Steve.
But many things in Warframe are much more player friendly these days.
There’s an interesting interview by NoClip which shows the early development phases of Warframe. They were stumbling their way around many new mechanics that come with a live service game.
They don’t mention the daily revive system, but it’s clear that in the game’s progressive transformation from “tactical shooter” to “horde shooter”, that system had to go. I don’t remember if there were many complains about the system back then, though.
Love the guy, but he also misses over that warframe has monetizion that beats the pants off of all of the others.
You can buy weapons and prime frames, so I guess it depends on your definition of “win” but I’d argue that yes, technically it does. The larger issue of WF however are the layers of FOMO they have that turn the entire game into a job / chore that you have to attend daily, which is ultimately why I left it, even though the core gameplay itself is definitely fun. Frankly why I probably won’t play their other game either because it is almost certainly going to follow the same live service formula as WF.
It would be nice if games didn’t maliciously try to put hooks into players at every turn. But you can learn to balance it.
I have a Dojo with just my group of friends. We build it out with just what we need to progress. We play for like a month every few years, when the itch hits.
I agree with most of the stuff you’ve said expect the FOMO bit - there are three very specific items that are never coming back for obvious reasons, which are irrelevant to the overall story and hardly affect anyone’s enjoyment of the game. Every other item has eventually come back.
Edit: on a second read, you mentioned the game is P2W. That’s definitely a way to say you’ve not played the game, so now I’m angry I spent half a minute writing my comment.
FOMO is damn near gone from Warframe now, aside from Baro. I’ve been playing for over 8 years.
It arguably isn’t anymore, although it looks like it is. Yes, you can buy prime frames and weapons, but can’t buy the mods or arcanes directly from the game to outfit them. Even then, prime weapons on their own are not the best in the game by a long shot, and a prime warframe does not guarantee it being “meta”.
The weapons that are the best are locked behind story quests, and even once you unlock one of those vendors, only one of them that you can buy with platinum is any good.
They were considering adding a destiny style story skip, but when they asked for feedback it was so negative they immediately relented.
you can buy prime frames and weapons, but can’t buy the mods or arcanes directly from the game to outfit them.
How is this not the opposite of a pay to win mechanic? Either you play the game to find the mod or find someone to buy the mod from.
An even cooler thing is operator progress, whereby no amount of paying can take you through.
The end state of all live service games is to be thrown away.