I just want a game without the time pressure of seasons. I want to play games in my own pace. It’s hard to maintain an attachment to the character when the character “expires” once the season ends.
I haven’t played D4, so I’m not sure how seasons are implemented in that game, but this was a problem in D3. Once the season ends there’s little reason to continue playing with the character.
Warframe is kinda cool in that regard, almost all content remains accessible… in some form or another. Save for a rare few time limited events, all quests and such have remained accessible.
The one major caveat to that is “prime” versions of weapons and frames, you will have to get into player trading if you want certain ones and don’t want to wait for the rotating “unvaulting”. But, thanks to that unvaulting, most primes aren’t ridiculously expensive to trade for. Even when you get back into the game years later and are missing a bunch (me).
There’s a completely free battle pass-like system too, but that also will return items from previous passes.
There’s a lot of systems… one issue of keeping so much around I guess. There are more technicalities, some weapons become less viable with time and power creep, yet a new mod or update may revitalise them! Same goes for the frames themselves, the devs have gone back and reworked older ones to bring them up to par with more modern ones.
Warframe is an absolutely excellent game and one more devs should look towards. Nearly endlessly entertaining, genuinely F2P with virtually no strings attached (as long as there’s a solid playerbase), lots of room for creative expression and exploration, care from the devs, great stuff.
Pretty much the only thing wrong with it is the endless bugs, but like, what game doesn’t have bugs? Okay maybe Warframe has a few more bugs lol
It’s even worse in D4
There is a permanent league no?
The game is mainly designed around season play. You’ll miss out on content if you don’t participate in seasons. The game won’t be as enjoyable either, because it’s not designed to be played that way.
This reads like a case of game design by spreadsheet to me. Instead of the lead designers being creative persons making creative decisions, these are accountants that are designing a game by ticking boxes. They didn’t try to make a game that they would like to play, they tried to make a game that they think others would like to play.
Huge difference between gaming and marketing. In gaming, you make things that you enjoy, hope others enjoy it too. In marketing, your opinion is worth jack shit. Only engagement counts. That makes for shitty games imo.
Ik it’s only anecdotal, but I played Brawl Stars when it was in beta and witnessed almost all its updates until global launch (and have caught up with some more recent updates here and there). It went from a genuinely fun mobile game with character and potential to a plastic husk primed for whatever monetisation and “engagement” strategies analytics says needs to be shoved into it next.
At the time I couldn’t fathom how all those updates that often made gameplay and progression less fun could ever be more “engaging” (the change from portrait to landscape in particular felt like straight up poor game design, trashing its unique mobile control schemes in favour of digital twin joysticks and “autoaim”), but in hindsight it’s clear what that really meant.
I don’t understand the point of seasons. I don’t want to start a new character every 90 days.
It’s mostly to maintain user engagement. It’s a way to bring players back every now and then.
Did the opposite for me. I quit before season 1 lol
Well it works best if the game is actually good.
A game that does seasons very well is Deep Rock Galactic. Each season comes with fresh new content. Old seasons can be revisited if you missed them, so no stress. The new additions to the game are permanent, which adds great variety to the missions. Progress follows between seasons, so no need to create new characters from scratch.
Most importantly: the game is really good as well.
I don’t mind an option. Some people enjoy the start more than the finish. “Alt-itis”
Fair, but there’s also the permanent league.
Sure, but does the season content get added to the permanent league? As far as I know, it doesn’t, but I could be wrong.
Guess not.
For me the first two-the weeks are the best anyway. Everyone starts fresh, the economy is fresh, activity is happening.
Gives the game new life
Diablo bores me, but with PoE it’s very exciting. And with every league you pay you become better at the game, so the next league you know more and you’ll make stronger characters and farm better items
So don’t play seasons then? Thats what the eternal league is for
Say it with me: Nothing that Activision Blizzard ever makes will be ever good again.
They sold out at least a decade ago and they have produced nothing but skinner box bullshit since. It’s all 100% trash and I expect zero from them.
I, for one, was never a fan of the grind. I played Diablo 2 online for years because the people and interactions made doing the same old runs more fun and exciting. These days it almost seems like games are intentionally made worse because success is measured in units sold and not cult followings or individual experience.
I got into the mood of some ARPG goodness with all the Path of Exile 2 news. Diablo 2 really was the only viable one for me. Even PoE 1 isn’t right for me either. It feels too claustrophobic.
Maybe try Last Epoch or No Rest for the Wicked? They aren’t perfect and nothing will ever be Diablo 2, but I feel like they’re decent.
Yet nobody comments on how these bastards used always online as DRM before realizing that they now had a captive audience to cram microtransactions down the throats of. Assholes.
I’m pretty sure the always online drm was used to justify transactions in there first place due to the real money auction house.
Fuck live service games, I’ve played enough for a lifetime. No more
