The problem with GAAS is that consumers are a just as guilty of it as publishers. It seems nowadays that people will literally drop your game in a flash unless you add new content to it infinitely, preferably at a fast pace. Used to be devs dropped a game, then a few patches, maybe map tools (talking mostly about FPS games here) and it was a done deal. I'm currently playing in a Call of Duty: United Offensive league (this is an expansion to the very first CoD, released 2004). People there are playing the same game for 19 years even though it didn't receive any new content since launch. They just made a bunch of maps and a mod (PAM) that makes slight changes to gameplay and introduces organization stuff (rounds, bo3/bo5 handling, etc.), and that's it.
If a dev tried that shit in 2023, people would play the game for a month maybe and then leave, citing lack of new content and getting bored. Consumers need a constant carrot on a stick to be engaged, otherwise they leave. That means constant revenue is required for the dev/publisher, and that means GAAS. Now, if every game has GAAS elements, you have no idea what people will be playing at the time. You want people to engage with GAAS elements in YOUR game, so you add FOMO elements, and here we are.
Personally, I think the trend of having a carrot on a stick in every game signifies a bigger problem - that the vast majority of games are either shit or at least very boring and uninspired, and it's only the FOMO and chasing carrot elements that trick people into playing them and thinking they're good. Dopamine from good gameplay is substituted by dopamine from level up/new unlock/new skin from battle pass or whatever.
People expecting new things is true... but not really new either?
What has changed since the olden days is creation tools - players get fuck all for modding tools (and if possible at all it will be very arcane and veeeery much the most dedicated that will find modified versions and how to connect to private servers, etc), so if the developer don't come up with new things? Players certainly won't make their own DOTA modes and countless new maps and modes.
However note that all of that discussion is laser focused on the big AAA that get the marketing for a certain segment of the gaming population, the fabled "hardcore" that's now pushing 40 years old and posts on forums.
Because for the much, much larger market?
Creations tools are very much here, and juggernauts that shits on Call of Duty numbers have existed for ever - it's the Minecraft, Roblox, Garry's mod of the world, and they are gigantic and
far more influential than COD, be it an old or a new one.
It's just the same as it was back in the day... with some antique games still being very much alive, good old Doom is one of the spiritual grandpappy of those games, and it's still ont the scene today, MyHouse.wad has been a huge success and a runaway phenomenon on social media like Youtube and Twitch just last quarter, Romero himself played it!
When people complain about GaaS, it's mostly about a specific fringe of games that has eaten itself alive for a long time, and I don't believe for a second that is has to do with quality, and all to do with players just getting killed by a thousand cuts because they like it... and also because
they don't know any better.
The average 30 something year old that played Call of Duty when he was younger? I have zero doubts that they're still saying that Roblox is a game for babies like they did 15+ years ago.
And they don't intend to change while the rest of the industry has moved on, there's a reason why people think fake E3 and whatever AAAA that sells 10M copies is a "big deal" while countless games make more money than that in a week - GaaS are very common, but the immense majority of them were established as such, and have communities going with them.
While the more recent ones trying to catch up and that dedicated hardcore" website will complain about are the 79.99+39.99+39.99+MTX+Battle Pass ones. The rest are celebrated because the GaaS
is the intent and people are very attached to their communities, making art of the games, making new maps, etc, a GaaS is more than a regular stream of mediocre content, but the largely console focused and very AAA space has not really seen it yet.
