What's your take on online-only games?

[Nightingale]

Just so we are all on the same page, I think it'd be best to limit ourselves to games dependent on a central server that you have to pay money for in order to play, not free ones found on FB and the like. That would make the scope pretty big and, really, I'm more interested on hearing about your experience as a paying costumer to a service that may -or has been- get discontinued overnight.

This has been a pretty big topic lately (at least among the people I tend to follow). And, while I was never into online gaming myself, I can totally see why concerns are being risen by those who are.

The number one complain I have heard being brought forward -and I must have heard it a million times by now- is that there's no refunds given to those who paid to play those games after their services are discontinued. I'm sure there's some fine print buried deep within the Terms of Service that shields the developers and publishers against any possible repercussion that may have, but it just feels scummy... and I'd be pretty pissed off if that happened to me.

Like, you'd think the lack of online capabilities should not prevent the game from running if a single-player campaign existed within it... but most of the time, it seems that playing the single-player mode also requires an internet connection, which not only defeats the purpose (and by a long mark!) but also means that your game is always at-risk of dying. I think that's a pretty good reason to hand refunds if nothing else, once the ongoing expenses of a server have made keeping the game up and running more of a chore for the company that developed it.

But I digress... and really, this ain't my field of expertice -so to speak-.

So, what's your take on the subject? Have you played any game that forced you to go online in order to enjoy it? Were you a big fan of one that's currently dead? And really, what would you do if you found yourself in the middle of situation that had you spending money on a game you cannot play any longer?

[ShiraNoMai]

I'm not one for online-centric games these days as I was back in the day, with things like MMOs and the like.

My thought is, watch the game's launch. Does it have longevity? Will people still be playing this game a month after launch? Is the company reliable and stable? If all of those answers are yes, I would chance to invest time and money into it. Otherwise, you're risking everything into something that will be temporary.

[Nightingale]

I'm not one for online-centric games these days as I was back in the day, with things like MMOs and the like.

My thought is, watch the game's launch. Does it have longevity? Will people still be playing this game a month after launch? Is the company reliable and stable? If all of those answers are yes, I would chance to invest time and money into it. Otherwise, you're risking everything into something that will be temporary.

That sounds like a good take on the subject, my friend.

Thanks for sharing it

[Chloe]

Na, I don't have that much time to play online for much anyway. That & most games that are online are either MMO's which I don't have much interest in or are shootery games that have other players going after each other & you have to get gud son or you end up dead. I don't really enjoy those kind of games either. So no online for me, that & most games want you to pay twice for it. Once for when you purchase & again for the price of being able to pay to be on their servers. So no thanks.

[queenzelda]

The game's online I've played is Animal Crossing City Folk, & New Leaf. I do play mainline Pokemon games, but I don't battle or trade online since neither interest me. I played a bit of White Knight Chronicles 2 online, but their online service didn't last past a few months (it was kinda sad). Jing & I used to play LBP online together with other LBP players before Sony started to charge for online play.

Most MMO's, online fighting games, online racing, or online shooters I'm not interested in playing. Not even Splatoon, Mario Kart, or Brawl Ultimate interest me enough to get them to play them online with others.

[Moonface]

Games that require you to be online when you're not playing with other players is annoying and unnecessary. Any game doing that should have a patch that removes that requirement if the servers are going to shut.

For online only games like Overwatch, it's only worth buying those games when you know they will have a good life span so you can get a lot out of it. I don't think refunds need to be given if the game lasts at least a year or two since you would've gotten enough out of the game for it to not be a waste.

Also shout out to Epic for the time they refunded every Paragon player when they closed that game down.

[Nightingale]

Games that require you to be online when you're not playing with other players is annoying and unnecessary. Sn't game doing that should have a patch that removes that requirement if the servers are going to shut.

The problem is that most companies flat out refuse to think of -or put forth- a solution that would let you keep playing the game you paid for after the servers are down permanently. Wonder what's up with that.

I don't think refunds need to be given if the game lasts at least a year or two since you would've gotten enough out of the game for it to not be a waste.

Mmm, I can kinda see that.

Also shout out to Epic for the time they refunded every Paragon player when they closed that game down.

*Claps*. Now, that's classy.

Thanks everyone for your input!

[Dragon Lord]

The only online game that I would be wiling to play would probably be Final Fantasy XIV (the one FF game Square Enix has made since the merger that isn't ass). Other than that, I wouldn't bother with any games that are strictly online.

[Hotspot]

I guess the only online game I can say I've purchased, is Overwatch. Which is really fun, and popular, I don't think it's going anywhere for a long time. There is also a way to play by yourself and bots, so it's not out of the question either. (Sometimes I like to do that just to do whatever I want.)

Other than that, I've only played F2P games like Dungeon Link, Brave Frontier, Chain Chronicle and Shards of Magic. Which are all decent for f2p.

I don't really like playing with random people, because of rudeness, and me probably being lot's worse than other people.. but I also like to just do my own thing too, I don't have to worry about how it affects others when I play single player games.

[lp0 on fire]

Honestly I dislike online only games because there is normally a death date, especially these days where you can not host a server your self (WTF).

It use to be you could host the server or rent form any server host, and you'd just need to worry about the master server that gathers the list of game servers going down and that could be fixed. Now with you only able to rent though EA Games or another exclusive host as soon as they don't want to host the servers any more, you are shit out of luck. It only kills the sense of community even more.

[WR91]

For PC it's 100% fine. For console, I'm not really a fan. A game should be able to survive long after it's online mode dies out. So yeah, I'm not really a fan.

[Moonface]

For PC it's 100% fine. For console, I'm not really a fan.

I'm not sure why it's OK for one platform over another when the game isn't going to be treated any differently. Can you explain?

[WR91]

For PC it's 100% fine. For console, I'm not really a fan.

I'm not sure why it's OK for one platform over another when the game isn't going to be treated any differently. Can you explain?

Because nowadays most people play their PC games through a streaming device like Steam or the Epic game store and you kind of have to be online as is with those at least to purchase the game right? Not many PC games I know come with a physical disk that you can pop in to your machine.

With consoles (at least the disk drive based ones. You still have the opportunity to play offline 100%)