The majority of games don’t have a lot of replay value though. You play them typically once, maybe twice, a few might do some special runs for a challenge but most people will play through it and then move to the next title. That causes a drop in active players and the troll claiming the game is dead and a failure. I think the perspective on active player numbers generally needs to change, both for single and multiplayer titles. Because the latter also just keep me artificially playing through dark patterns, such as daily login rewards, daily and / or weekly caps, loot rotations, battlepasses… etc. - but rarely because I actually want to play them. Or worse, I want to play them, but the former examples there are ultimately the reason why I quit those games, as they turn them into a chore, a job, except I’m not even getting paid for it.
If the games don’t depend on the publisher running a server for them to work, then there’s no “dead game” problem. We can play games until we’re done, then move on, and other people can play without us.
The majority of games don’t have a lot of replay value though. You play them typically once, maybe twice, a few might do some special runs for a challenge but most people will play through it and then move to the next title. That causes a drop in active players and the troll claiming the game is dead and a failure. I think the perspective on active player numbers generally needs to change, both for single and multiplayer titles. Because the latter also just keep me artificially playing through dark patterns, such as daily login rewards, daily and / or weekly caps, loot rotations, battlepasses… etc. - but rarely because I actually want to play them. Or worse, I want to play them, but the former examples there are ultimately the reason why I quit those games, as they turn them into a chore, a job, except I’m not even getting paid for it.
If the games don’t depend on the publisher running a server for them to work, then there’s no “dead game” problem. We can play games until we’re done, then move on, and other people can play without us.