What's a "Live Service" EA Game?

Zloth

I smell a... wumpus!?
Joined
August 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
I've seen this term thrown around a bit. A recent announcement from EA said they were going to 'double down' on live services. Of course, being EA, I quickly assumed it had something to do with making their constant revenue stream goals. Apex Legends is the future for them… except it also mentioned Sims 4!? Huh? So maybe it means they are going to follow Paradox and kick out a few years' worth of expansions/DLC for every game?

Well, I found an explanation over in the Sims forums: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/893117/live-service-explained

So before they would isolate their various teams - which I expect was great for accountants that could then easily track how much was spent on each part of ongoing development. But each team would fix their own issues, which meant a fix for an issue from the expansions team that only releases every few months took way too long. Now they are developing, well… normally. Developers have specialties and generally stick to certain areas but they aren't locked in.

So, all in all, it doesn't mean much to us at all. New content probably won't be on as predictable a schedule as before but we're more likely to see the nastier bugs fixed sooner. I expect the term is a heck of a lot more important internally where they need slogans and other political tactics to do some culture changing.

Of course, that doesn't make the constant revenue stream goals go away.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Sims 4, so far, was not live service scam. Or so called GAAS. Never was. Do not listen to that Graham charlatan at Sims forum. There is one major characteristic of live service products. Those can't be played offline. Sims 4 can.
Sims 4, as other iterations of that franchise, is de facto DLC: The Game. That's not live service.

What live service is then? How about an almost 2 years old video that can explain it better than I ever could:




Seems however that hyped and brainwashed masses aren't as stupid as in the past. Live service retardness didn't work for Ubisoft.
I bet it won't work for EA either.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
If you have an hour or so to burn, Ross Scott has an in-detail explanation what "games as a service" are and why they are a scam.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2014
Messages
899
Actually, as explained by crowdfunding proponents, it is not a scam unless nothing is received. Something is received, then it is not a scam.

Fraud is a different thing. If this guy thinks he has a point, he can sue.
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
6,265
Every scam and fraud milks your $ over and over while giving an useless fat can of fog in return and "advertising" it as something that's good for you but you're too stupid to decide yourself so a seller is there to think instead of you. Ever seen offers on a proven cure for cancer you need to pay for monthly? No? Don't you guys have phones?

Ergo, every live service is scam.
We need to thank to full product developers/publishers who don't want to be scammers. I can imagine myself in some alternative future where actual videogames don't exist but everything is live service falsely advertised as videogames. I'd probably whimper "gimme back lootboxes instead please". It's worse scam than lootboxes.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Live services are a scam.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Let's see, who should I believe? The guy that's actually in the company that's using the terminology or some yahoo looking to get clicks on his YouTube channel? Hmmmm…

"Games as a service" is a different concept. That would be a game where a very substantial part of the code for a game is running on a different computer. Also known as "cloud gaming." Also known as "thin client gaming." Also known as "client/server" gaming. Originally not known by any name because it was the only way you could play decent computer games like Empire and Zork. Every MMO is in that classification. I think Trade Wars from back in the BBS days would be, too, as is Overwatch.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
The yahoo is certainly long-winded ;), but essentially…

"Games as a service" is a different concept. That would be a game where a very substantial part of the code for a game is running on a different computer.

… you are using a different definition. Naturally, you arrive at a different conclusion. That's not the type of concept he is talking about. From what I got, he explicitly excludes subscription models. Now of course we do not have to agree with his definition, but that aside he still has a point.

I do disagree with some of the details he discusses, including the "95% accurate" list of games he compiled in that context. But I can at least agree that games being sold in a single transaction, with an undefined (but necessarily finite, due to server costs) life span are a real problem. Whether it's fraud/scam in any kind of legal sense? I'm not a lawyer. But I'll certainly stay away from these kinds of games.
 
Joined
May 18, 2012
Messages
2,315
@Zloth; - never believe anything any EA employee says.
Or, accept their terminology of "surprise mechanics". :)

 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Well, in theory, it's a game that's "alive" rather than a static content dump with a potential expansion or two.

In practice, it can be many things.

I've seen great examples of this and I've seen horrible examples of this.

Mostly, though, I think it works better in theory than in practice.

Still, I much prefer games that expand over time - and continue to improve.

Problem is, of course, that we don't really get to experience "finished games" with this model, and we don't actually get to see how these games would have worked as static content dumps.

One part of being a live game is obviously the online nature of such a thing. I mean, you could potentially deliver constant updates without an online infrastructure - but that would be impractical considering the downsides, including piracy and having already developed a widescale infrastructure for other games.

Might as well integrate all your games once the hard work is done.

I don't know why EA is being singled out here, though. I mean, they might have coined the term - or made it popular. But it's absolutely par for the course for major studious these days.
 
Live Service = MMO, streamed ? Perhaps ?

Or, in other words, = non-offline ?
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Well in EA terms it means a constant flow of updates & content basically. The opposite is games as a service which combine live content are are mostly or partly online only.

Need an example look at every new Assassin Creed game for reference material.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,185
Location
Spudlandia
Back
Top Bottom