I don’t enjoy every game I play. It’s only natural when you play as many games as I do, and when your job requires you to check out games that lie far outside your comfort zone. But more often than not, if I don’t enjoy a game, I stop playing it. I didn’t vibe withFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’scombat, so I gave up trying. I probably missed a bunch of great character work and am very jealous of everyone enjoying Rebirth right now, but slogging through all that combat just to see Cloud and Tifa have a heart to heart isn’t worth it for me.
However, there are some games I play that annoy me. Some that I find excessively aggravating as I play them. The biggest culprit isEA Sports FC 24, but a lot of other players are in the same boat.
As a gaming reporter, I also have to keep my finger on the pulse in gaming communities, so I know that my experience with EA FC is no outlier. Lots of players get annoyed by this every year. Gameplay is inconsistent, matchmaking is frustrating, and every event is tailored to point you towards the store. It got so bad that I just stopped playing back in November, so why haven’t others done the same? I’ll answer that question in due course, but first I’d like to point out another game where I hear constant frustrations:Apex Legends.
Frombalance changesto the lack of new content, to the expensive cosmetics not even being that exciting, to thenew, bland $700 heirloom, the game has a lot of problems. Players complain about cheaters in ranked, poor performance, and the temperamental state of servers. There are a lot of issues, but at least the gameplay is generally good, and that’s what keeps bringing players back.
However, the complaints usually outweigh the praise. The scales tip that way for many games; Rocket League, Destiny 2, and Overwatch 2 all suffer similar fates. And what do all those games have in common?
This is, by and large, a live-service problem. If you play a single-player game and don’t like it, you’ll inevitably stop playing. You might complain, you might write about it online, but you’ll simply stop playing and move onto something better. That’s not how live-service games work. They don’t let you move on.
Live-service games prey on FOMO. You see the next event in EA Sports FC, and you jump back in to grind for some packs or – as EA would prefer – buy some from the store. I fell for this hook, line, and sinker, and found myself lacking the time to play any other games. I needed to evo all my Liverpool youngsters, play my Rivals matches, and spend some weekends sweating in FUT Champions. Suddenly, all my free time was consumed by a game that I didn’t actually enjoy playing.
I’m sure thousands of others feel the same. So many gamers are trapped in live-service loops, enticed by new rewards and the carrot being dangled in front of them. It’s not good for you to focus so hard on something that you don’t enjoy, and it’s time to take a step back.
Live-service games also have an inherent problem. We play them too much. This is by design, of course, but I don’t think games are meant to keep our attention for this long. If 100-hour RPGs can start to drag by the endgame, what happens when you spend ten or 20 times as long playing a single game, dropping into samey matches over and over again? There’s next to no sense of progression other than through battle passes (which only offer cosmetic upgrades), no sense of improvement or empowerment. That feeling when you defeat a horde of enemies in the latter stage of an RPG, and think back to when just one of them would ruin your day in the first mission? There’s none of that with live-service.
When you play a game for 1,000+ hours, you notice every crack and every flaw. When your only motivation is to get a better skin or improve your K/D, you rarely get those serotonin boosts that make games fun. Winning a battle royale isn’t the same as beating Malenia, because you immediately jump into the next match and attempt to replicate the feat.
When you play games for this long, and when all they can offer is a fresh, shiny carrot to chase after, it’s understandable to feel defeated. It’s understandable to take to your community with your complaints. But that’s a sign to take a break. Games aren’t for grinding, they’re for fun. If you stop having fun, stop playing. You’ll thank me for it.
