The wild successes of Helldivers 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 send a clear message: Let devs cook
The studios behind these mega hits spent more than a decade iterating on their favorite design ideas until they went supernova.
You're viewing a single thread.
I expected Helldivers 2 to be good, but not "unforeseeable appeal that knocks out back-end servers and leaves players in a weeks-long login purgatory" good
It continues to boggle my mind that people will take this objectively bad thing built in to the game's design and turn it into good press. Being unable to play the game you paid for is a bad thing. They could have let you host the game yourself. Yes, even the dungeon master part that Joel does. That they don't let you not only leads to login problems with unexpectedly populous launches but also an expiration date that Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't even have when it comes to online multiplayer.
Agreed. This is one of the frustrating casualties of live service microtransaction games. Can't let people run servers or mod it because otherwise how can you sell them stuff?
Having launch issues seems to be the norm nowadays.I do lot think anyone expects complex software to be bug free.
But the response and speed of fixing issues from arrow head are very good, and an example for others to follow.
Dedicated servers are awesome tho. And all great games have that. Makes the game live forever if the community cares enough. Cnc renegade and enemy territory still have players.
Considering Helldivers 1 just finished it's 135th War cycle, I'm not particularly afraid about an expitation date from the DM/online play side. Heck, I'd imagine when Arrowhead finally pulla the plug on HD1, they'll likely update it so it works offline.
And the gameplay portion kinda already does.
I’m not particularly afraid about an expitation date from the DM/online play side
It's actually inevitable.
Heck, I’d imagine when Arrowhead finally pulla the plug on HD1, they’ll likely update it so it works offline.
I'm pretty sure I can count on my fingers the number of games that have actually patched their online-only functionality to work offline. Off the top of my head, it's just Knockout City, and I think maybe a Gran Turismo game somewhere along the line.
It is a possibility for sure, but HD1 is still going after 8 years, and because AH doesn't host the gameplay servers, I reckon the server costs aren't excessive.
L4D2 is 15 years also, and still going, and still played. I hope and trust HD2 will be up long time.
Left 4 Dead 2 has LAN, and it's entirely peer to peer when online. "A long time" is still worse than forever. It would be a damn shame if your favorite movie made before you were born didn't survive long enough for you to enjoy it. And the more expensive it is to build and operate a given live service game, the shorter its lifespan is. Games like Warhaven and Hyperscape didn't even last a few years.
It's Match Making isn't peer to peer, and requires a connection, though. I'd reckon the playerbase to wither quickly without Valve servers and/or Steam friend list, even though technically possible, and a 3rd party could devise a system of finding players.
Valve offers ubiquitous matchmaking services as a part of Steam. They operate as long as Steam does. They're funded by all the revenue that comes in every time anyone makes a purchase on Steam; these same services apply to third parties who choose to use them, too. Helldivers 2's servers are run by some function of Arrowhead and Sony, and they shut down when Helldivers 2, in particular, stops making money, rendering the game inoperable.
