foreverware

Once upon a time in the dark ages, in the long ago, in the age before the iPhone and reliable high speed broadband there was the humble video game. You would play it, it would last for a finite length of time and then it would end. You'd move on and play another game, maybe read a book, watch a film, join a ukulele band. You'd cast that game into the realm of memories past, enriched by the experience in some way but no longer actively partaking of it. Now that time never ended as such, those games are still very much around but in the here and now they have been eclipsed somewhat by something else altogether.

Yes I'm talking about the idea of a game that never ends. A game that can be played in perpetuity or until it's service provider decides it's not worth the time, effort or money and shuts it down. Games as an ongoing experience, a lifestyle, a vocation overflowing with obligation. XP bars fill to the brim, online stores are kept fully stocked, the team chat is alive with the sound of jocularity and vulgarity and what closure exists is forever deferred. You can call them MMO's, you can call them 'live service games', you can call them general all-purpose everlasting game experiences/revenue streams. What you can't call them is finished.

Thinking back, my experience with these games began with the juggernaut of the MMO space: World of Warcraft. Fresh out of university I spent a good many hours in this game around 2006/2007. Impressed by it's scale, charmed by it's aesthetic and generally very much on board with the polished game play we associate with Blizzard games. Persuaded by a friend to give it a go, it was one of those rare instances where I found myself in the midst of a popular trend whilst it was still unfolding. I spent many hours in the base game and it's first expansion The Burning Crusade and then, for no specific reason that I can recall, I just stopped.

It was some combination of less free time coupled with more productive use of my limited disposable income I think. That and the possibility that as patient as I am, I don't think I can keep playing one single game indefinitely no matter how good it is. Back then it was a much simpler question too with less of these types of games in circulation. Now this category of games has exploded, they're everywhere, swing a cat and you'd likely hit one in your vicinity. More and more huge game experiences encroaching ever more on that limited pool of free time in an age where more things than ever are competing for your attention. 

In 2021, according to my PlayStation stats for the year my most played game was Apex Legends, an ongoing never-ending progression of shooty shooty bang bang. Well designed and fun to play yes, but perpetual nonetheless. Around 2016 I put a few hours into The Elder Scrolls Online but sensing a fearsome grind I unceremoniously put it down after a dozen hours and a few levels. In the first year of the COVID pandemic, I spent hundreds of hours playing Fallout 76 after the Wastelanders expansion came out. Those were good times but again I reached that same point with it. The point where I say enough and move on to the next thing. Failing to find a satisfying sense of closure in game I created one for myself with the completion of the then current season pass and its extensive chain of unlockables. I completed it, got my Soviet super soldier costume and I was done.

When I look back on my gaming habit, especially since becoming a parent, I think about time. As I officially approach the age of 40 next year, I think about time. When I think about the great multitude of things that always need doing every moment of every day, I think of time. It's limited, its finite with my free time being even more so. Time, always plenty and never enough. I think about all the games I've played in my backlog in recent years and I think about the sense of accomplishment and closure that comes with the end of each one. Some games do this more successfully than others of course but on the whole most games do eventually get done.

I prize closure in my popular culture is what I'm saying, a sense of an ending, a finishing point. So I look upon the current era of gaming with some mixed thoughts. Not all bad to be sure, these are vibrant, active, social games and they make large numbers of people very happy, that is not to be bemoaned. On the other end of this is the troubling notion I get whenever I think of a game that becomes more a lifestyle than simply a good time. Of convoluted systems designed to eat said time, of game mechanics orchestrated to create addiction not to mention the means by which these games play on players and their wallets. Never outright demanding money but never drawing a firm line between play and pay either. 

Obviously these games are money-making exercises, i get that. I get that these can be win-win situations for gamers and game-makers, at least in theory anyhow. Gamers get good games that they can play socially or competitively, the game makers get the money that will in part fund future game development when its not helping the bottom line. The issues arise when the practice of game development comes to be largely centred around these kind of games and you end up in a situation where some people are clearly paying more than they can afford for all the payable cosmetics et al.

It's a problem for game makers too, it was one thing when you could count these games using both hands but in a marketplace that's now teaming with them, a lot of good money is now going after bad. A whole slew of live service games are being shut down with little to show for it for anyone concerned. New games in this genre are struggling to make their presence felt and it all feels like more noise than signal in the fierce competition for consumer attention. The question invariably becomes: how long can it last? How long can the enticing prospect of creating the next Fortnite command so much priority? There is perhaps a turning point coming here and time will tell if the industry leans into it or goes crashing headlong into the curve.

But back to the other side of the coin and the players themselves. I could pontificate about all the time our games now seem to demand of us, of all the books that don't get written or read, of all the self-improvement activity that doesn't get done but I'd rather not, its a leap to assume we'd all go in that direction if we didn't have those very same games. Rather I wonder if we're approaching some form of critical juncture here. A point beyond which games get shifted to the side in favour of something newer, cooler or just less demanding of our time? 

It's unlikely I know but given how fast things change I can't rule it out entirely. Maybe a shift to more concise single player experiences is not entirely out of the question but again that feels like i'm underselling the capacity for change in the popular culture of the future. Whatever happens you can bet I'm not predicting it's exact shape and form here of all places, remember where you are now. Whenever whatever happens happens though, you remember where you read that first, or even second, or maybe a distant third. Now if you'll excuse me I think I might check up on Apex Legends for a round or two...

Until next time.

*The image at the top is brought to you courtesy of my toying around with Bing's AI image generator.