How do you feel about Games as a service/GaaS?

[the-pi-guy]

I feel like a lot of people have a knee jerk reaction to GaaS.  A lot of people are upset about Gothic Knights and Suicide Squad because of GaaS.  

What do you consider to be GaaS?
How do you feel about it?

[Xevross]

GaaS is a game which is intentionally designed to be constantly added to after launch, with monetization usually in the form of MTX. For 90% of titles, this means they aren't complete at launch and are only made to be at a quality you'd expect of them further down the line. For people who just like to play games and move on its a pretty bad deal, and these games are all competing for the same space.

I'm very much that kind of person, I like to play games at launch and then move on, so GaaS really does suck for me. If its a rare case of a game launching in a complete state then the extra content feeling like more of a bonus then its great, I might go back and check it out later. These games also often are made with co-op in mind, and the friends I play games with have no interest in games like these most of the time, so that makes it worse.

So overall it definitely puts me off and its a harder sell for me to buy a GaaS game.

Edit: I would say this is the case for PvE GaaS games like Avengers, Anthem etc. but PvP games almost always benefit greatly from GaaS. You don't have a story/ campaign to go through at launch then move on from, PvP is about continuing to play the same kind of content repeatedly for as long as the game entertains you. GaaS helps keep this fresh by constantly adding new content and mixing things up. So its kind of the flipside, if I was big into PvP games like Fortnite and a new one I was hyped for was announced to be put out at launch in a "finished" state and never touched again, I'd question if I want to buy it and I imagine most people would be the same.

So yeah, PvE/ PvP is a huge important distinction.

[kitler53]

GaaS is great if the game is great and you want to play it for the next 2 -5 years.   I loved Gaas in:
 - World of Warcraft
 - rocket league
 - destiny

GaaS is horrible in the game is only average and you don't want to put a huge time investment in the game.   if a game is GaaS i typically just won't play it at all if i'm not hyped beyond belief for it.   ..but i do agree with xevross in that pvp centric games work better as a GaaS.  new maps.  new modes.  new costumes.  new weapons.

[Legend]

GaaS is a game which is intentionally designed to be constantly added to after launch, with monetization usually in the form of MTX. For 90% of titles, this means they aren't complete at launch and are only made to be at a quality you'd expect of them further down the line. For people who just like to play games and move on its a pretty bad deal, and these games are all competing for the same space.

I'm very much that kind of person, I like to play games at launch and then move on, so GaaS really does suck for me. If its a rare case of a game launching in a complete state then the extra content feeling like more of a bonus then its great, I might go back and check it out later. These games also often are made with co-op in mind, and the friends I play games with have no interest in games like these most of the time, so that makes it worse.

So overall it definitely puts me off and its a harder sell for me to buy a GaaS game.

Edit: I would say this is the case for PvE GaaS games like Avengers, Anthem etc. but PvP games almost always benefit greatly from GaaS. You don't have a story/ campaign to go through at launch then move on from, PvP is about continuing to play the same kind of content repeatedly for as long as the game entertains you. GaaS helps keep this fresh by constantly adding new content and mixing things up. So its kind of the flipside, if I was big into PvP games like Fortnite and a new one I was hyped for was announced to be put out at launch in a "finished" state and never touched again, I'd question if I want to buy it and I imagine most people would be the same.

So yeah, PvE/ PvP is a huge important distinction.

Instead of PvE/PvP, I'd expand the distinction to games with firm endings and games with fuzzy endings. PvP is super fuzzy because there is always a drive to play another match. Same goes for roguelikes, strategy games, minecraft, etc. Even without the GaaS engine, players enjoy returning to the game from time to time just to replay content.

In these types of games, I think GaaS can work great depending on how it's monetized. Heck these games can even launch unfinished and I'm fine with it. They're prime candidates for Early Access too.


Games with firm endings however really only work as GaaS if new content can be produced faster than it is consumed. People will play all the content available at launch, drop it, and then come back to try out updates. If as you said the game launched finished then this could feel like free DLC but that's rare. Plus these games tend to include really tedious activities to try and pad out some of the content.


I think the only GaaS game I enjoy is Elite Dangerous.

[Xevross]

Instead of PvE/PvP, I'd expand the distinction to games with firm endings and games with fuzzy endings. PvP is super fuzzy because there is always a drive to play another match. Same goes for roguelikes, strategy games, minecraft, etc. Even without the GaaS engine, players enjoy returning to the game from time to time just to replay content.

In these types of games, I think GaaS can work great depending on how it's monetized. Heck these games can even launch unfinished and I'm fine with it. They're prime candidates for Early Access too.


Games with firm endings however really only work as GaaS if new content can be produced faster than it is consumed. People will play all the content available at launch, drop it, and then come back to try out updates. If as you said the game launched finished then this could feel like free DLC but that's rare. Plus these games tend to include really tedious activities to try and pad out some of the content.


I think the only GaaS game I enjoy is Elite Dangerous.

Yeah this is a great way to put it.