Living Games vs. Timeless Games
The last 15 years or so has seen a huge shift toward "living" games--i.e. games that are regularly changed through patches and expansions. The business world loves these because they are typically monetized for continued spending of the players that you just can't get from an unchanging game. Though I am not opposed to living games (I have played and enjoyed several myself), I am going to make the case that they are overvalued and have non-obvious drawbacks from both a business and a gameplay perspective. And I am going to start with a story. The Rise and Fall of Warmachine For those who are not familiar, Warmachine is a tabletop miniatures game that had a huge burst of popularity (at least among the wargaming crowd) for a few years before falling to a shadow of its former glory. I played a little bit of the first edition (Mk1) but really started getting into it during Mk2. Once I realized how brilliant of a game it was, I sold my whole collection of Warhammer and WH40K