It is no exaggeration to say that the industry is saturated with live service games. at fortnite and call of duty to world of warcraft and marvel rivalsThese games cover a variety of genres. There are classic and multi-hero first-person and third-person shooters, ARPGs, MMORPGs, battle royales, gacha games, and more. Although these games are very diverse, they all share at least one thing in common. That said, it's incredibly addictive. As a long-time MMO fan, world of warcraft, final fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2And furthermore, I am not immune to this fact.
Between seasonal updates and limited-time events, live service games continue to waste time. Just one of these games is enough to fill your schedule, but playing additional live service games only makes matters worse until you get caught up in the daily grind that you can't seem to avoid. With more and more games adopting a live service model, FOMO continues to grow and you can't afford it in your free time.
A top-rated and multi-award winning game I couldn't enjoy.
Despite numerous awards and great player response, one game was never able to truly grab me the way I had hoped, until I finally gave up.
The inevitable vortex of live service games
Battle passes, seasons, limited-time events, oh my!
Live service games are games built for continuous, indefinite engagement through the development of new content. Most games these days receive post-launch support in the form of updates, bug fixes, and even DLC, but are never live. Unlike traditional games that have a defined lifespan, live service games are content factories that ideally can continue to make money. If a game has regular updates, seasons, events, or similar content, it is likely a live service game.
Now let's take a look at one of my typical gaming days. I start by running around through Hearthstone and clearing daily, weekly, and event quests (which have been pretty constant for the past few months) to make sure they don't go to waste. Then it's time to complete your daily tasks. overwatch 2 Complete the current season's Battle Pass and play events (there will almost always be more than one event running at any given time). After that AFK TravelYou can run loops of daily activities and even work your way through possible new seasonal stories or side quests.
Finally, it's time to boot up an MMORPG or two. final fantasy 14 Although we recently released the 7.4 content update, World of Warcraft: Legion Remix Since it started last October I have been choking. It will eventually end on January 20th and be replaced by: World of Warcraft: Midnight Pre-expansion updates are sure to consume more time.
Then, the time remaining for me should be divided as follows. dungeons and dragons This includes campaign preparation and homebrewing, single-player games, and “normal” activities like doing household chores, eating, exercising, sleeping, and spending time with loved ones. Plus, there were more games played in this rotation last year. i played Fate: Grand Order I worked for a few years until early 2025 and then quit until next time. warcraft rumble You have entered maintenance mode.
To be honest, I don't have time to do anything else. While I'm still in love world of warcraft and final fantasy 14 And everything else, at some point the content mill got so busy that it completely monopolized my schedule. Maybe it's because I have less time now than when I was younger, or maybe the game is cramming in too much content, or maybe both. All I know is that I felt relieved when the game reached a content drought. This is the opposite of what you would expect.
A look at my Steam Replay from 2025 highlights this issue. ignoring fantasy ground (I play D&D Twice a week, 5 hours each session, prep time included) You can see how little time is invested in single player games. Apart from brief and failed attempts to enter cyberpunk 2077 and Convergence: A League of Legends Storystill incomplete execution split novel A little while with my partner brightness The only single-player games I completed this year to achieve 100% of my pre-sequel achievements were:
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (180 hours)
- Claire Obsker: Expedition 33 (70 hours)
- Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 (12 hours)
- beyond the pale (12 hours)
I just came back in hades 2 3 months later again, now WoW: Legion Remix The end is approaching, Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles It's still waiting patiently in my Steam library. What's worse is that there are also other live service games that I haven't had time to catch up on. Diablo 4 and Guild Wars 2. I want to reach out to them, but other live service games are choking me and I'm not sure if that's a good thing anymore.
FOMO: A Real Problem with Live Service Games
Poison that reduces the fun of the game
The real problem with live service games is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Live Service Games Run on FOMO If you don't complete this battle pass or in-game event, you risk losing exclusive items, currency, progress, and more forever. This is a dangerous weapon and one that most live service games use indiscriminately.
FOMO is a predatory disease whose main symptoms are addiction and exhaustion. The more they expose themselves to it, the more they feel compelled to keep grinding. After all, what if you need that new one? fortnite X adventure Time Skin of the future? It's a cycle that repeats itself until playing these games turns from a hobby to a chore.
Unfortunately, this probably won't get better any time soon. take a look minecraft, call of dutyor fortnite That's all it takes to see how profitable live service games can be, and every business wants a piece of the pie. What's worse, I'm not likely to change my career path anytime soon either. Aside from the fact that I literally write about this game for a living, I still love this game very much. But like Sisyphus, I am chained to this hellish live service treadmill of my own making. All you have to remember is that you control the speed at which the treadmill moves.
In any case, you should start doing your daily tasks before you miss out on the chance to get more pixels you can't live without.
- released
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November 23, 2004
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood and gore, crude humor, mild language, suggestive themes, alcohol, violence (online interaction not rated)
- engine
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Unreal Engine
