🎮 In Defense of the Live Service Game (Just Hear Me Out) 🎮 Live service games are not exactly welcome in polite gaming society right now. They have been - rightly so - blamed for much of the malaise that has impacted the gaming industry for the past three years. The result of a few early, massively successful live service titles is a business school case study in management failure, a profound lack of imagination and a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates a person to play a video game. But that is a post for another day. Today I CELEBRATE the live service game. Specifically Destiny 2. When things are so exceptionally out of control in the real world, there is comfort in a repetitive 20-minute task that has a defined beginning, middle and end. And the win at the end - whether it’s an XP bump, a new piece of gear or a check off your weekly to-do list - feels good. And that feeling is REAL. And that’s OK. No matter what happens in my life - no matter what - I can walk around the EDZ and while I know every inch (Every. Single. Inch.) of the map (and every other inch of the entire D2 universe), it’s always new because whatever is happening in that moment has never happened before. Even if it’s my 5,386th clear of a lost sector. The world is always there for me. And it’s full of people. And it makes me feel safe. And happy. And content. Even if only for 20 minutes. And that’s OK. #LiveServiceGamesAreOK #bigfeelings #Destiny2
