How many "forever" games can one person play at a time?

There's your problem.

Razumen wrote on Feb 6, 2023, 01:10:
Well, that's a problem with multiplayer games in general, not just live games. I'd say the problem more inherent in these types of games is that players expect there to be a constant stream of content. compared to some multiplayer games where you might take a break and come back to it once in awhile, these players want to play it ALL the time.

When your game not only lacks that content, but also lacks core features of any online game, in addition to missing systems and bugs, then it's even worse.

Well the very definition of GaaS is that they deliver content both paid and updates for at least a few years and not have huge gaps between updates. The problem is most developers get bundled as a GaaS even though their entire pipeline doesn't support this. Or they have noodle code based on spaghetti code (ie. Warhammer 3, Dark Tide) where even making small changes takes forever.

Wouldn't really be all that bad to get less GaaS and more GAME - although Anno 1800 for example was certainly a decent GaaS game 4 years of content, 12 expansions, is pretty neat - but yeah, launching as GaaS half-assed is a recipe for disaster.

Well, that's a problem with multiplayer games in general, not just live games. I'd say the problem more inherent in these types of games is that players expect there to be a constant stream of content. compared to some multiplayer games where you might take a break and come back to it once in awhile, these players want to play it ALL the time.

When your game not only lacks that content, but also lacks core features of any online game, in addition to missing systems and bugs, then it's even worse.

the problem with live games is that they want them to be forever games. the issue with that is there are only so many players playing live games. when a new live game comes they are not going to create new players, they have to steal those players from other games. if they can't get traction at launch, they are pretty much dead, because its only going to get worse. SP games are different, people will spend 40 or 100 hours in a game, no big deal, but if you have 2000 hours in a game and spent big money on cosmetics, that new live service game would have to be very compelling to get you to even look at it.

From Halo to Darktide, it seems like everyone wants to make a GaaS game, without actually making a GaaS game.