The Forever Games (Ep. 4)

Mitch and Blake discuss how the rise of games-as-services has privileged durable, long-duration play-patterns -- leading to the modern idea of the "Forever Game" which can persist for decades. Mitch outlines his five attributes of long-term engagement and provides examples of each from games like Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, and League of Legends. They look at the two distinct strands of long-duration play that emerged in the 1990's -- the massively-multiplayer online role playing game and the session-based online competitive game -- and how those genres evolved and cross-polinated to produce multi-billion dollar online games that have remained viable for a decade or more.

Links & Show Notes:

Bill Gurley on LTV

Island of Kesmai

Bran Ferren

I/ITSEC

The Assassination of Lord British

Lineage

AoE2: Red Bull Wololo 2022

World of Warcraft

Fortnite