10 Commandments of Game as Service

[Valkenr]

EDIT: This is intended to be a discussion about Games-As-Service and how to make them better, NOT a discussion about how much you hate Games-As-Service and how you think they should go away.

Games-As-Service (GAS) seem to be here to stay, at least in the AAA realm. To be clear, by GAS I mean any game that trickles out post-launch content and has MTX. I can enjoy games like Destiny, but when I take a break, my interest starts to waver and I find it hard to get back in when I miss an expansion or two. For Destiny 2, I was in from the start and played through the first DLC, but didn't stick around long, because it was just a huge grind with way too many time-gates and there were other games to play. Then I came back and was overwhelmed by new content, level caps, and disappointment that all of my gear was next-to-useless without a grind for expensive upgrade components that I have to postpone until I hit the new cap, as to not waste materials. So I thought I would outline what I would prefer in my GAS, and wonder what other people would like to see.

This isn't critiquing any game in particular, many games follow a few of these. They're just what I think is important, not just for ethics, but to have a game with long-term success. Some of this would be good advice for any game.

I. Thou Shalt Not Increase the Level Cap

Level caps just serve to make old gear useless (or a pain in the ass to maintain) and old content irrelevant. I think there should be a "leveling up" phase for starting a game. It serves to slowly dole out game mechanics so a player can learn the systems of the game one step at a time. But once you hit the vanilla leveling cap, you should not be leveling anymore. At that point, progression should be towards specific goals that are all equal to each other in power of their rewards.

II. Thou Shalt Not Make Old Content Irrelevant

Once a player hits the level cap, every mission they run or reward they obtain should stay relevant until the servers shut down. This was my main problem with Destiny, mostly because they increase the level cap with every expansion. It is disheartening to see old content be pointless, because the rewards are useless aside from a collection purpose. I enjoyed Destiny 1 and 2 at launch through the first expansion, then I took a break and came back to tedium and everything I worked for was basically useless without a serious grind. Innovate and create new mechanics and weapon types. Make sidegrades, not upgrades. Give rewards that expand the activity, like a weapon that opens an alternate pathway, and other things that increase replay value and make every drop relevant in some way. Yeah, this is a bit of a repeat with I, but its important.

III. Thou Shalt Not Package Premium Currency, Give Bonus Premium Currency or Have Premium Currency Sales.

I understand the utility for premium currency, it streamlines things. But, it should function exactly like any other real-world currency and be based on the USD. I should be able to buy a single unit of the currency, so I only have to spend exactly what I want. Packaging into 3-5 tiers is just blatant scum-tactics to force people to spend more money than they want. Put in a slider, and no bonuses. Remember, treat it like a real-world currency. As for currency sales, as I said previously, it should operate like real-world currency, just so you can't do scum-tactics with it. Mexico doesn't have a 'double peso for your dollars' week. If you want to give discounts, have a sale for the items, not the currency (a real sale with a start and end date, not a Bethesda Christmas "Sale").

IV. Thou Shalt Only Monetize Vanity, and Never Monetize RNG

In other words, all MTX are cosmetic only, and RNG is gambling. No XP boosts. No Potion packs. No Credit Boosts. No loot boxes. Even if the game is free, keep that on mobile. Nothing that remotely resembles Pay-To-Win, Pay-To-Advance or Pay-To-Revive/Heal. If you want to be super-cool, don't let players earn premium currency through tedious tasks, let players buy them from other players for in-game currency (Like EVE). Also, don't make the coolest stuff paid-only, like crazy holo-armor, fancy wings and such. Let players have cool character options, but sell more options, and do lots of cross-overs with other friendly developers. The coolest armor should come from the most difficult activities. If your retention rate is high, people will want to change up their appearance from time-to-time or work harder to get those awesome rewards.

V. Thou Shalt Free Beta, and Reset At Launch

Start with a few closed-beta events to test specific systems. Then, once the MVP is finished, increase the closed-beta pool to whatever your test server can handle. Two months before launch, you should have the launch hardware in place, with a copy of the game you consider ready to release. Start an Open Beta. If the issues that are revealed are not resolved, delay launch until they are. Once it is time for launch, delete all beta characters for a fresh start. No head-start. Don't under-budget, add a year of wiggle-room.

VI. Thou Shalt have PVP and Three Sides to Every PvP War

I like PvP. I like open PvP zones even more, but they often only have two sides and get unbalanced. Three sides just works well, games like DAoC and Planetside showed it. It is a self-correcting system for faction balance. If one gets out of hand, the other two can focus it down. If you are going to make the player pick a side, give them 3 options. I'm generally against guild-wars or clan-wars, because they give too much of an advantage to huge communities, and disadvantage the tight-knit group of friends.

VII. Thou Shalt Not Create Bullet Sponges

This is just lazy game design. Make good AI. Make boss fights that involve multiple steps, and precise targeting and timing. For example, give a boss a series of weak points that aren't always visible. Each weak point only takes a few shots to disable, but you have to dodge attacks and stay alive until all the weak points are hit. For another example, if you're making a Warhammer 40k game, and you have a Daemon Prince of Nurgle boss (fat and gross monster), you can make it have a lot of health by having its rotten body get ripped apart with damage, and the player has to expose some inner organ and destroy it. This isn't saying you can't have health bars, but there shouldn't just be one big health bar. Put small health bars on parts of the enemy. Do things like armor damage, or limb removal. Make there be a strategy more complex than "Avoid things and shoot at it." And Heatshots kill, unless there is a mithril-clad reason that they wouldn't in the game's universe. Its not hard to create justifications for things if you plan from the start.

VIII. Thou Shalt Give Free Review Copies To Reviewers With No Strings Attached

One of the biggest factors of a game-budget is the marketing cost. In this day and age, classic marketing tactics are largely a waste of money, the biggest successes spread by word-of-mouth. You can get much more bang for your buck if you send free copies of your game to every YT creator with over 100k subs that you identify or asks for one (a tip: seek out as many of you can, make them feel special, and they'll be in a better mindset when they review your game). And when I say "free copies" I mean infinite PrC too. Let them showcase everything as it appears in-game (and you get the added envy of their followers, and increase their odds of spending). You aren't paying for manufacturing or any shipping costs, so there is no reason not to do this unless you are trying to hide something. For channels like Rooster Teeth, that aren't just one talking head, let them have as many as they want to give to their employees. Free advertising is good advertising.

IX. Thou Shalt Never Copy-Strike Content Creators and Make Sure Game-Audio Cannot Get Auto-Flagged

You make money through game-sales, don't try and monetize what amounts to free advertising.

X. THOU SHALT HAVE DEDICATED SERVERS FOR EVERYTHING MULTIPLAYER!

Shard it up. Seriously, if you're going to drain my wallet with MTX, you can at least spend that money on servers instead of having peer-to-peer and a bloated marketing budget. This is probably the most requested feature for games that don't host their own online gameplay.

[Valkenr]

"If the are cosmetics I don't much care buy if it is pay to win a few that game."
Playing the auto-fill game?

[Henry09376]

II prefer games that are co-operative more than PVP but on occasion I get the PvP itch. Micro transactions in a game I already paid $60 for is bull crap. If the are cosmetics I don't much care buy if it is pay to win a few that game. Also if the game is free already I figure the developers need to make some coin somehow and then it doesn't bother me for a free game..

[Cosmocalypse]

And in my example, you wouldn't be equal, each raid would be self-contained in its expansion, so if you are at the top tier of the newest raid in the new expansion, a person who just runs the first raid over and over again would be at the same place you started the expansion. The raid rewards increase your power for activities related to that expansion, so being top tier of the first expansion wouldn't help you in the 4th expansion.

Well based on that we agree. What games don't follow that design?

[Valkenr]

We can just agree to disagree. I would rather developers put all their effort into new content, not making old content relevant again. I still do the Leviathan on Destiny 2 sometimes just for fun and nostalgia. I'm happy with that raid staying as-is. Leave it alone and work on new stuff for me to play. I want to feel powerful as a long-term player in endgame content - not equal to someone who just runs the first raid over and over.

I'm fine with agreeing to disagree, but I just want to be clear. I'm not talking about working to make old content relevant. I'm talking about making sure new content doesn't make old content irrelevant. I want the end-game to expand, not just move forward. And in my example, you wouldn't be equal, each raid would be self-contained in its expansion, so if you are at the top tier of the newest raid in the new expansion, a person who just runs the first raid over and over again would be at the same place you started the expansion. The raid rewards increase your power for activities related to that expansion, so being top tier of the first expansion wouldn't help you in the 4th expansion.

But, I'm a person who likes soft-resets. They really increase the longevity of a game for me. Having expansion-specific mechanics is a bit of a soft-reset, where you have to start back at the bottom, as it pertains to the new mechanic. Games where you just become a god, then get even more powerful god powers that are even more god-like get boring for me, after a while.

[Baron Baldric]

Never.
Look what happened with Fallout 76 a Fallout Online.

[Cosmocalypse]

I don't know about you, but I generally don't raid on a constant weekly basis. By the time a new expansion comes out, I still have work to do in the old raid, but there's little point to do it. I don't see how it still makes old content irrelevant. Everything has a baseline usefulness for new content, as you trickle in new mechanics and swap out the gear specific to that content. And a good dev will revisit the old content with events to keep the old gear relevant, and maybe even expand the old content a bit. Like how during this last Halloween, Destiny 2 revisited the Infinite Forest (1st expansion). Just to reiterate my example, the new content provides rewards with extra mechanics associated with that content. For general gameplay, all content provides equal "power" its the specialized content that requires specialized gear from that content arc. Instead of a sequence, you have parallel paths, and if you have some talented minds, you can find fun ways to make the paths cross (Like you have to equip rewards from multiple paths for some special mission). You don't have to water down anything, you just have to take time to map things out.

I disagree about catering to long-term players, and so would the shareholders. You never stop trying to bring in new players. Why else package all expansions in new editions of the game? For a GAS, each expansion also serves the purpose of re-igniting old-players interest and bringing in new players. Both Destiny games lost a lot of people with the first few expansions, then finally worked out the kinks, many players returned and new players joined.

We can just agree to disagree. I would rather developers put all their effort into new content, not making old content relevant again. I still do the Leviathan on Destiny 2 sometimes just for fun and nostalgia. I'm happy with that raid staying as-is. Leave it alone and work on new stuff for me to play. I want to feel powerful as a long-term player in endgame content - not equal to someone who just runs the first raid over and over.

[Valkenr]

In your own fictional Destiny expansion example, old content still becomes irrelevant for all intents and purposes. Sure you can still play it, but you're not going to make progress with the new mechanics (Soul bar) by playing old raids (as it should be). When you release new content, you are catering to existing long-term players. There's no need to water down new content to make sure old content stays relevant.

I don't know about you, but I generally don't raid on a constant weekly basis. By the time a new expansion comes out, I still have work to do in the old raid, but there's little point to do it. I don't see how it still makes old content irrelevant. Everything has a baseline usefulness for new content, as you trickle in new mechanics and swap out the gear specific to that content. And a good dev will revisit the old content with events to keep the old gear relevant, and maybe even expand the old content a bit. Like how during this last Halloween, Destiny 2 revisited the Infinite Forest (1st expansion). Just to reiterate my example, the new content provides rewards with extra mechanics associated with that content. For general gameplay, all content provides equal "power" its the specialized content that requires specialized gear from that content arc. Instead of a sequence, you have parallel paths, and if you have some talented minds, you can find fun ways to make the paths cross (Like you have to equip rewards from multiple paths for some special mission). You don't have to water down anything, you just have to take time to map things out.

I disagree about catering to long-term players, and so would the shareholders. You never stop trying to bring in new players. Why else package all expansions in new editions of the game? For a GAS, each expansion also serves the purpose of re-igniting old-players interest and bringing in new players. Both Destiny games lost a lot of people with the first few expansions, then finally worked out the kinks, many players returned and new players joined.

[Valkenr]

Edited the OP, please don't use this thread as a place to complain about GAS. This is meant to be a discussion about how they can improve. You know, a productive conversation. I understand this is an alien concept to many on the internet. If you want to discuss why GAS should end, or why it is here to stay, please start another thread.

[Cosmocalypse]

You don't have to make old content pointless to make new content relevant. Monster Hunter isn't a great example, you progress through the monsters, but once you hit the 2nd to last rank of weapons for that tier, you have gear good enough to take on basically everything. When they do add a new "Level" it includes everything before it, just elevated up a tier, the entire game moves up with you (aside from maybe the first few easy-mode monsters).
One thing I like, is when activities give rewards that either advance or make that activity easier. For example, I'll use a fictitious Destiny 2 expansion:
- First, you play through the new story, it introduces a new mechanic "soul" which adds a shield-like health bar to yourself and enemies. The first few missions require you to use map-items to damage the bar (throwing glowies). By the end of the story, you have a few basic weapons that can damage this bar and armor that bolsters your own bar.
- Now you start doing to team-content, these provide more specialized weapons, and armor that increase your "soul"
- Once you have a large enough soul-bar, you get access to the raid. Once you have the weapons you want, you do the raid.
- Once in the raid, you get rewards that make the raid easier to run, or better yet, allow you to unlock a + or hard-mode version.
None of the above requires a new level cap, as you have created a new mechanic that is only associated with this activity, with some potential for future activity. With Desitny and Destiny 2, I took a break and came back with the 4th DLC's. I wanted to run the old content, but there wasn't any reason with the weapons being locked to a lower level. They only had utility in PVP, but there were better options for PVP. When you constantly increase the level cap, you're forcing people to buy expansions with pointless content if they are late to the party, or took a long break.


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I don't have a problem with enemies that take a lot of hits to take down. To go back to Monster Hunter World, all the enemies are basically bullet sponges, but you can damage parts of the monsters to different effects, and before you can break everything the monster is either dead or ready to capture. I want bullet sponges that have logical reasons to be bullet sponges, not some-catch-all health bar that doesn't really care where you hit the monster (I include bonus damage "critical zones" in the "doesn't really care" category, its too simple). Give the enemy armor that can be broken and expose fleshy bits that take more damage and cause certain effects when fully "injured", or as in the example I gave, a body that falls apart where you are shooting it, until you exposes its "death button."

In your own fictional Destiny expansion example, old content still becomes irrelevant for all intents and purposes. Sure you can still play it, but you're not going to make progress with the new mechanics (Soul bar) by playing old raids (as it should be). When you release new content, you are catering to existing long-term players. There's no need to water down new content to make sure old content stays relevant.

[Valkenr]

I only have a problem with a few of your points:

This sounds like a quick way to kill an online game IMO. These games are designed for people to play for long periods of time. You have to give people something to work or grind for. It's the whole point of the game. For example, when the new Monster Hunter World expansion comes out you think I should just be able to keep killing the first basic monster and have rewards "equal to each other in power" as the new stuff? It doesn't make sense. The long-term players that stick around for this want new high level activities to do. You have to keep up a system of progression.

Keeping old content "relevant" without changing it means holding back new content. I understand where you are coming from, but it can't work in practice. Games like this need an endgame with endgame specific power levels and rewards to work towards. Basically the same point I made above.

You don't have to make old content pointless to make new content relevant. Monster Hunter isn't a great example, you progress through the monsters, but once you hit the 2nd to last rank of weapons for that tier, you have gear good enough to take on basically everything. When they do add a new "Level" it includes everything before it, just elevated up a tier, the entire game moves up with you (aside from maybe the first few easy-mode monsters).
One thing I like, is when activities give rewards that either advance or make that activity easier. For example, I'll use a fictitious Destiny 2 expansion:
- First, you play through the new story, it introduces a new mechanic "soul" which adds a shield-like health bar to yourself and enemies. The first few missions require you to use map-items to damage the bar (throwing glowies). By the end of the story, you have a few basic weapons that can damage this bar and armor that bolsters your own bar.
- Now you start doing to team-content, these provide more specialized weapons, and armor that increase your "soul"
- Once you have a large enough soul-bar, you get access to the raid. Once you have the weapons you want, you do the raid.
- Once in the raid, you get rewards that make the raid easier to run, or better yet, allow you to unlock a + or hard-mode version.
None of the above requires a new level cap, as you have created a new mechanic that is only associated with this activity, with some potential for future activity. With Desitny and Destiny 2, I took a break and came back with the 4th DLC's. I wanted to run the old content, but there wasn't any reason with the weapons being locked to a lower level. They only had utility in PVP, but there were better options for PVP. When you constantly increase the level cap, you're forcing people to buy expansions with pointless content if they are late to the party, or took a long break.

Some games need bullet sponge enemies and some don't. Not all games are realistic war simulators where a headshot kills anything. Borderlands (not a game-as-a-service game though) would be super boring and generic without bullet sponge enemies. It just works in some cases.

I don't have a problem with enemies that take a lot of hits to take down. To go back to Monster Hunter World, all the enemies are basically bullet sponges, but you can damage parts of the monsters to different effects, and before you can break everything the monster is either dead or ready to capture. I want bullet sponges that have logical reasons to be bullet sponges, not some-catch-all health bar that doesn't really care where you hit the monster (I include bonus damage "critical zones" in the "doesn't really care" category, its too simple). Give the enemy armor that can be broken and expose fleshy bits that take more damage and cause certain effects when fully "injured", or as in the example I gave, a body that falls apart where you are shooting it, until you exposes its "death button."

[Cosmocalypse]

Thanks, but I do not need your services. We still have CD Projekt Red.

So if CDPR made an online Witcher game with a living world and regular updates you wouldn't play it?

[Baron Baldric]

Thanks, but I do not need your services. We still have CD Projekt Red.

[Cosmocalypse]

I enjoy single player games as much as anyone but this is ridiculous. It's a huge sector of the gaming market and some people love these types of games.

[Cosmocalypse]

I only have a problem with a few of your points:

Games-As-Service (GAS) seem to be here to stay, at least in the AAA realm. To be clear, by GAS I mean any game that trickles out post-launch content and has MTX. I can enjoy games like Destiny, but when I take a break, my interest starts to waver and I find it hard to get back in when I miss an expansion or two. For Destiny 2, I was in from the start and played through the first DLC, but didn't stick around long, because it was just a huge grind with way too many time-gates and there were other games to play. Then I came back and was overwhelmed by new content, level caps, and disappointment that all of my gear was next-to-useless without a grind for expensive upgrade components that I have to postpone until I hit the new cap, as to not waste materials. So I thought I would outline what I would prefer in my GAS, and wonder what other people would like to see.

This isn't critiquing any game in particular, many games follow a few of these. They're just what I think is important, not just for ethics, but to have a game with long-term success. Some of this would be good advice for any game.

I. Thou Shalt Not Increase the Level Cap

Level caps just serve to make old gear useless (or a pain in the ass to maintain) and old content irrelevant. I think there should be a "leveling up" phase for starting a game. It serves to slowly dole out game mechanics so a player can learn the systems of the game one step at a time. But once you hit the vanilla leveling cap, you should not be leveling anymore. At that point, progression should be towards specific goals that are all equal to each other in power of their rewards.

This sounds like a quick way to kill an online game IMO. These games are designed for people to play for long periods of time. You have to give people something to work or grind for. It's the whole point of the game. For example, when the new Monster Hunter World expansion comes out you think I should just be able to keep killing the first basic monster and have rewards "equal to each other in power" as the new stuff? It doesn't make sense. The long-term players that stick around for this want new high level activities to do. You have to keep up a system of progression.

II. Thou Shalt Not Make Old Content Irrelevant

Once a player hits the level cap, every mission they run or reward they obtain should stay relevant until the servers shut down. This was my main problem with Destiny, mostly because they increase the level cap with every expansion. It is disheartening to see old content be pointless, because the rewards are useless aside from a collection purpose. I enjoyed Destiny 1 and 2 at launch through the first expansion, then I took a break and came back to tedium and everything I worked for was basically useless without a serious grind. Innovate and create new mechanics and weapon types. Make sidegrades, not upgrades. Give rewards that expand the activity, like a weapon that opens an alternate pathway, and other things that increase replay value and make every drop relevant in some way. Yeah, this is a bit of a repeat with I, but its important.

Keeping old content "relevant" without changing it means holding back new content. I understand where you are coming from, but it can't work in practice. Games like this need an endgame with endgame specific power levels and rewards to work towards. Basically the same point I made above.

VII. Thou Shalt Not Create Bullet Sponges

This is just lazy game design. Make good AI. Make boss fights that involve multiple steps, and precise targeting and timing. For example, give a boss a series of weak points that aren't always visible. Each weak point only takes a few shots to disable, but you have to dodge attacks and stay alive until all the weak points are hit. For another example, if you're making a Warhammer 40k game, and you have a Daemon Prince of Nurgle boss (fat and gross monster), you can make it have a lot of health by having its rotten body get ripped apart with damage, and the player has to expose some inner organ and destroy it. This isn't saying you can't have health bars, but there shouldn't just be one big health bar. Put small health bars on parts of the enemy. Do things like armor damage, or limb removal. Make there be a strategy more complex than "Avoid things and shoot at it." And Heatshots kill, unless there is a mithril-clad reason that they wouldn't in the game's universe. Its not hard to create justifications for things if you plan from the start.

Some games need bullet sponge enemies and some don't. Not all games are realistic war simulators where a headshot kills anything. Borderlands (not a game-as-a-service game though) would be super boring and generic without bullet sponge enemies. It just works in some cases.