I’m really frustrated with how almost every new game these days is being forced into this “live service” model. It seems like no matter what type of game you want to play—whether it’s an RPG, shooter, or even something traditionally single-player—you’re stuck with always-online requirements. And for what? It adds nothing to the experience for most players and, if anything, it makes the game worse.

Take Fallout 76, for example. You can’t play it offline, period. You’re expected to pay $100 a year for a subscription to play by yourself, but even then, you’re still online, and any slight hiccup in your internet connection—or their terrible servers—means you get kicked off. It’s absurd. Fallout has always been a solo game experience, but now we’re locked into an online system no one wanted. Who actually benefits from this? Not the players, that’s for sure.

Another perfect example is Once Human. This is a game that could have been incredible, but instead, it’s trapped in the live service model from the start. I’m sitting there playing, and there’s no one around. So why am I online? Why can’t I just enjoy the game offline? It’s not like I’m asking to avoid multiplayer altogether—just give players the option! If I want to jump into a server and play with others, fine. But the fact that I’m forced to connect even for big chunks of the game that should be playable offline just feels unnecessary.

One of the worst offenders in recent memory is Temtem. It’s like they tried to make a multiplayer Pokémon and failed miserably. The game is fully online, yet it’s a ghost town. Steam shows fewer than 100 players on at any given time, but they still force everyone to play online. And one day, the servers will go offline entirely, and what happens to your game then? It’s completely gone, and so is your money. It feels like a scam.

The worst part is, nobody seems to be fighting against this trend except for the EU. They’re already working on passing laws that would require games to be playable offline if the servers get shut down. Imagine that! A game company actually having to care about whether you can play the game you paid for after it’s abandoned. It’s crazy to me that this isn’t already standard everywhere. The fact that we even need a law to ensure you can still enjoy your purchase after the servers are gone is telling.

It’s just sad to see so many great games ruined by forced online connectivity. Live service works for some titles, but not everything needs to be connected 24/7. Developers need to wake up and realize that players want the choice, not a one-size-fits-all approach that makes everything worse in the long run.

    • mesamune@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Itch.io has some great games. Steam has an entire section. Totally agree with you.

      I just got Good Boy Galaxy. Awesome game.

      • Meltrax@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Steam is literally constantly doing showcase events for different genres of small games.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Literally on the front page right now there’s a turn-based RPG showcase. OP seems wilfully ignorant.

      • JovialSodium@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        Almost everything on my store page is AAA or liveservice trash.

        Very little on my Steam page is. This is just one data point but still it suggests their suggestion algorithm somewhat works for this.

        Just an observation on that specific thing not a disagreement with the problem. Live service is trash and needs to go away if it’s not an exclusively multiplayer game.

      • kboy101222@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Steam does an indie show case almost every week, to the point it’s almost annoying. Idk how you’ve apparently missed every single one of them

      • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 months ago

        I’m pretty dialed into indie games. What kind of games do you like? I might be able to recommend some. I get most of my indie recommendations through word of mouth or curators.

        The steam store page has an algorithm tuned to your preferences. If you’ve already been playing a lot of live service games, then it assumes you must like them. Once you start showing an interest in other games, you can probably just cruise through your discovery queue.

        To skip the algorithm, you can try looking at the steam store web page in a private / incognito window. But if most of the money makers are live service or free-to-play then that may just be the default offering.

      • rtxn@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Look at what pirate repackers like fitgirl and dodi are putting out. They have a much lower throughput and often focus on popular indie or small studio titles.

      • Phen@lemmy.eco.br
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        3 months ago

        That’s not my experience with steam at all. Only one or two options of the steam store tend to show AAA games over indie games. If you browse by category or using the dynamic recommendation you’ll see plenty of good games.

      • darthelmet@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s mostly just finding some reviews/word of mouth sources that you trust and which align with your tastes.

        On the review side of things Second Wind covers a decent spread of indie games. I also occasionally see some new stuff from streamers, but that’s more of a toss up since there’s a lot of sponsored coverage.

      • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I think this may be algorithmic. Like steam gives suggestions based on what you have already purchased, and what other people who purchased the same games also like. Additionally it’ll tell you what your friends are playing if you friend them on steam. This sort of gives everyone a different picture of steam suggestions that is tailored to them. It might be a good idea to find older non-live service games you like, add them to a new profile or wishlist, and then see what new information pops up for you.

        • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldOP
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          3 months ago

          It is algorithmic, for sure. I’ve played so many live games… TF2, Overwatch, Dota, etc. Now it thinks it’s all that I want lmao

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            I’ve played so many live games…

            If people stop paying for them they will go away

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    There are dozens of other very good games for every one live service. Find some you like and play them.

  • Grumpydaddy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I vote with my wallet. I don’t buy games that have scummy conditions or requirements. There are too many other choices out there to justify supporting companies who treat their customers poorly.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
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      3 months ago

      This is the answer. If you don’t like live service don’t buy live service games. If the majority have the same opinion there won’t be profit in it.

      Games publishers are businesses and they want to make money.

      Now in reality I think they make more money from those that are buying microtransactions and so long as that makes them more money than selling a plain single player game, it’s a no brainer they’ll keep making the.

  • Lojcs@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Plenty of new popular singleplayer releases: https://steamdb.info/stats/gameratings/2024/?min_price=0.01&min_rating=85&displayOnly=Game&category=2&sort=followers_desc

    Edit:

    If you want less popular games take these (collected from YouTube, !tycoon@lemmy.world , steam etc):
    Wild Bastards - roguelike strategy fps
    Arco - turn based rpg
    Nova Drift - bullet hell roguelike
    Scorchlands - city builder
    Linkito - puzzle game
    SCHİM - casual platformer
    Bō - 2d platformer metroidvania
    TerraScape - puzzle city builder
    Gestalt - retro rpg metroidvania
    GHOSTWARE - boomer shooter
    Selaco - boomer shooter
    Nine Sols - metroidvania
    Reus 2 - God game
    The Rogue Prince of Persia - roguelite
    Galacticare - hospital tycoon
    Synergy - puzzle god game
    Paper Trail - puzzle
    MULLET MADJACK - boomer shooter
    Gatekeeper - roguelike
    Ingression - 2d portal platformer
    ZAU - metroidvania
    Laysaria - city builder
    Children of the Sun - puzzle sniper
    Pepper Grinder - 2d platformer with dragon hills like mechanic
    Death of a Wish - 2d spectacle fighter
    Thaumaturge - rpg
    Penny’s Big Breakaway - 3d platformer
    Please, Touch The Artwork 2 - casual
    20 Small Mazes - casual puzzle
    Islands of Insight - mmo puzzle (can offline)
    Banishers - rpg
    Oblivion Override - rougelike
    Anomaly Agent - roguelike
    New Cycle - city builder

    If you want AAA/AA games from previous years, I can recommend:
    Hellblade 1 - action adventure
    Sleeping Dogs - gtalike
    Chorus - space dogfighter

    Also check out !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works , someone posts nice old games every other day there

    Edit 2:

    Plucky Squire - 2d+3d platformer
    Inkulinati - turn based strategy

  • barsquid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I am fighting this trend by not buying those games. Online connection for single player means I don’t buy it. Unnecessary third-party account means I don’t buy it. Packing a rootkit installer means I don’t buy it.

  • bbb@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    I’m confused. Are you running out of games to play? Do you only play on console or something?

    • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      No, I play on PC. It’s just tough to find new games for me. I use reddit’s gaming suggestions sub, sometimes they’re good. That’s how I first discovered things like Wasteland 2/3, and Deep Rock. But now, it’s challenging to find new games to play… people just play the same things or recommend “the hits” repeatedly. Can’t tell you how many times I have seen the same games recommended on Steam. I’ve started ignoring them now entirely. Idk how to find new games now :\

      • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This just sounds like you’re being kind of lazy, to be honest. You can browse Steam by tons of filters, narrowing down a genre with like a dozen subgenres and tags (including only showing single player/offline games). Then you can sort that list by rating, release date, cost, if they’re on sale and/or offer a demo, etc. If you’re just going to hate on people’s suggestions/recommends, then get to searching the long lists and find something that looks interesting. Steam lets you refund anything under 2 hours, so there isn’t much to lose.

      • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Google search for good games and read through various results and see if there’s something you haven’t seen. Or in Steam customize your search for what you’re looking for and crawl through the options. If you get off the front page of Steam the entire catalog is available to filter and search.

  • kboy101222@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Why’d you bring up tem tem specifically? It’s supposed to be “Pokemon but an MMO”. That’s the entire appeal. I had Pokemon loving friends that played it at launch and loved it dearly. It’s sad that it’s died, but if you want a single player version of tem tem, there’s about 22 Pokemon games according to Bulbapedia. Go play one of those.

  • 667@lemmy.radio
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    3 months ago

    Planned obsolescence hidden behind a “feature”.

    In ten years, when they want to pull the plug on this game, they will cite dwindling users and “exorbitant” per-user maintenance costs.

    They don’t want playable legacies. They want something they can leverage for nostalgia marketing in 20 years, and if you break out the original game, they won’t make any money. Production companies want you to buy what they are offering today, because it pays for new yachts.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      In ten years? If I had to guess the average life span of live services games I’d say about 18 months. Heavily skewed by the survivors. The shortest lived one only worked for 13 days. Only the very popular ones survive past 5 years and there are a handful of 10 plus. I know it’s hard to believe, the average gamer is oblivious to how over saturated the videogames market is. Despite executive’s delusions, time and money are actually finite. Not all games can demand all of it, at the same time.

    • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      In ten years, when they want to pull the plug on this game, they will cite dwindling users and “exorbitant” per-user maintenance costs.

      TemTem has been accused of exactly this. It’s nonsensical how they won’t allow people who bought the game to play offline. Here’s an example from 7 months ago on reddit where someone said: “they’ve literally said that they will keep TemTem playable one way or another, including if they need to make an offline mode”. The game has under 1k players now according to Steamcharts, about 700 today. It launched with 27k players. It’s virtually unplayable since it’s designed as an MMO fully online, but has barely anyone playing it. But they STILL refuse to develop an offline mode.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    yeah, I didn’t get into any live play games, and now I’m going to continue not getting into them.

    be the change you want to see.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Go for smaller studios and indies. Go for the nerd shit, too. Satisfactory just came out of early access, 1.0 is out, it does have multiplayer components but they do not host servers; you can open your own save file for friends to join or you can run your own dedicated server.

    Factorio is launching a HUGE expansion pretty imminently.

    Subnautica 2 is in the works (Below Zero is now officially an expansion pack of Subnautica 1).

    Go play a game called Perfect Vermin. Do not look up anything about it just go play it.

    • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      Wow, just read that… It’s so true. Look at games like Hoyo’s Honkai, Genshin, Zenless… So much gambling. It’s obscene…

  • Prox@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    We’re all sick of live service games, and that’s why new (copycat) games are failing so hard. Look at XDefinant, Concord, etc.

    Plenty of people have one or two live service games that they like/play, and the sustained success of those titles like Fortnite, Destiny, Apex Legends, Diablo IV is why we keep seeing so many clones and attempts to hit the next gold vein. But the creators of those copycat titles fail to capture the real source of others’ success; great gameplay.

    • yamanii@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Diablo IV is proof that a strong nostalgia brand is more powerful than a good game like Path of Exile, game spent the first year just fixing itself like everyone bought an alpha access.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I genuinely fault gamers for some of this too, though.

    There’s a very small indie game out called “Liar’s Bar”. It’s simple and fun. But, there were still people in forums savagely complaining that the game’s pointless XP system didn’t save correctly after a match - and that it didn’t have skins/emotes to earn for investing time into it.

    There’s also MP games I play that I find fun, where I see popular, level-headed streamers complain that there’s been “nothing new” in its past two months. For most players, this wouldn’t even matter because they’re not able to play it nearly as often.

    Then there’s games like Back 4 Blood, the late-grown attempt to reinvigorate Left 4 Dead’s magic. For those who don’t know; the game is still fully playable right now. It’s still fun. The developers just don’t add more to it anymore. Yet, as soon as they made this announcement that they were moving on to other games, there were conclusive, prophetic statements out about “Why Back 4 Blood DIED” as though the game is completely gone.

    It’s wrong to claim that publishers moved to the constant-update, live-service model forcefully in their own decision-making vacuum. People (maybe not even the people in this thread) asked for this.