Former BioWare executive Mark Darrah, who was a longtime producer on the Dragon Age and Anthem series, says many live-service games have suffered the same doomed fate as his exo-suit shooter because companies forget they're competing. with games like World. of Warcraft as they are today, not as they were at launch.
In his most recent YouTube video, Darrah talked about some of the drawbacks that plague new live service games (games that aim to continue growing for years after release). “When I'm trying to get you to pick my forever game, what I have to think about is the fact that I'm not going to compete against that other forever game on its release day,” Darrah says. “I'm not competing with World of Warcraft the day it came out; I'm competing with WoW at the last moment the potential player played that game. That game got better after it was released for that player. Even if they…” We'll play it, that experience got better for them, hopefully, as they played it.”
The Secret Advantage of Non-Live Service Gaming – YouTube
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Keeping up with a game that's effectively been in development for decades, such as World of Warcraft, is one thing, but Darrah also highlights that, from a player perspective, switching between games isn't just about quality. “You compete with the inertia of the fact that people have already integrated this game into their daily lives,” Darrah denounces. Many gamers include live services in their daily routines and may “already have a social circle built” around these digital worlds, so games that have been racking up millions of players per day have a built-in advantage.
“You have to be better enough than that game to make it worth the trouble to switch. They need to buy this new game, they need to convince their friends to join them, they need to relearn this.” game, they need to level up again; There are many barriers to switching between two live services. But, even if I've already moved on from that other live service, the fact that I played it for much longer has anchored me. a perception of what this type of game is supposed to be that this new competitive game has to overcome,” he continues.
Darrah says that many live service games have failed “so dramatically” because “companies have forgotten or didn't know about it in the first place and think this live service just needs to be comparable to this other live service.” [and] “You don't need to top it dramatically.” I would also add that there probably aren't enough hours in the day for people to be able to endure the dozens of live service games that come out every year forever, so maybe we'll hit the brakes.
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