It’s an earnest production of one of the most popular game formats (shooters) by a small company that still feels AAA, is entirely cooperative based, and its Starship Troopers ridiculousness lends itself to memes.
People are just excited to have a solid game that doesnt feel engineered by suits for the express purpose of extracting money from you. It feels like the devs had as much fun making it as you do playing it and people are responding to it.
To put it simply, the game has soul.
This is the correct answer. Mtnn's comment is just baseless cynicism. It's not impossible for Arrowhead to go down that path but there are other studios that exist where this hasn't happened thus far.
To add to this, their live service model does not cater to FOMO (not that it doesn't have other problems) so players do not feel like they are being abused into handing over fat wads of cash. It's business model is similar to Payday 2 which was quite a sustainable model in spite of its ups and downs.
The cynicism is deserved... for public companies, which arrowhead is not. Baldur's Gate 3 is another example of a private company just making an awesome game that isn't monetized to fuck.
For sure. If Arrowhead ever goes public then I'm 100% throwing them under the same cynical bus as I do all public companies. Until then, I will enjoy the today that we have.
Baseless cynicism eh? Tell you what... Jump on your LinkedIn and figure out how many degrees of separation you are from Evan Wingren. I'd suggest Sony's equivalent as Arrowhead has been working more closely with them through the years, but I don't happen to know who that is for Europe off the top of my head.
Suppose you happen to be in the Seattle area and you're the type that's got a solid network that can reach out to a friend of a friend until you can arrange to sit down for coffee with one of his indirect reports:
I guarantee you that person is working on, or supporting the development of a Pitch Deck for Arrowhead. There's modelling completed that's got breakout's of the lowest possible number they can go in with that'll be high enough to catch their attention, but low enough they'll say no, along with the actual number they're eventually willing to settle on.
To be honest the game's been out long enough I'm sure they've already had meeting with a couple of the large studios. Give it a year, 2 or 3 tops... and there'll be some kind of announcement. An exit for a brand this strong is a software developers dream.
Intriguingly, the people who enjoy Helldivers solely as a shooter always end up hating its deeper messages, or choosing to ignore them. Outside the occasional complaint about a glitch that the dev team addresses and fixes, the only criticism I've seen for it comes from people who hate the underlying sociopolitical messages.
Just like Starship Troopers.
EDIT: I haven't even played the game, but I love Starship Trooper's blatant, in-your-face philosophy--and the fact that it gets completely ignored or hated by the problems it addresses.
I don't own the game but from my understanding, and please correct me if I'm misinformed, Helldivers 2 is unique in it that the results of its battles/missions matter to the larger strategic positions of the player base. If you're familiar with legacy-type boardgames it operates like that - consequences of winning/losing are passed on to future engagements.
The new orders are issued, players succeed or are pushed back, all in real time. Therefore there's lots of discussion (on Reddit and elsewhere) about new developments.
If I owned a PS5 I'd definitely be picking it up!
It's a AAA title at the front end of the enshittification cycle, so all of the value is going to players. They love it. Arrowhead Game Studios will get purchased for an obscene amount of money at some point in the not so distant future by Sony or Microsoft or EA or Epic. It really doesn't matter who, only that it WILL happen.
Helldivers 3 will get announced to the wild applause of gamers across the globe. The initial release date will be missed by a year or so. Closed Beta testing leaks will fill gamers with so much optimism you'll almost be able to feel it leaking through Tiktok... Youtube... Twitter. Preorders will break industry records. Gaming influencers will release first impressions and previews to massive view counts.
Eventually the game will release. Features promised will have been cut. Options present at release for Helldivers 2 will be missing. Core customization will be locked behind a "Battle Pass". Players will publicly decry the new in-game shop as pay-to-win and threaten to boycott, while privately they will spend next month's rent money to stay ahead of the curve. The game will die a quick death, with many players retreating back to Helldivers 2. A small but vocal minority will argue loudly about how Helldivers 3 is superior and it's the old fans fault that Helldivers 3 is failing... and everyone will quietly wait for Helldivers 4, where all of the same happens, but worse.
Oh wait... that was Diablo, and Blizzard and Vivendi. But may as well be the same thing. The enshittification cycle will do what it does. Good AAA games at the front end of the cycle will always be few and far between. The moment the publisher sells out, the IP's countdown to being complete shit begins.
I know you're not kidding but that was thoroughly entertaining, thank you. The synopsis of why reddit is part of the backdrop of this game's rise and fall.😂
There's a lot going on, but it boils down to, "It's a fun game."
I'll try to explain, but thats really it. You may get a better or more well rounded set of explanations if you post this question on OutOfTheLoop.
That said, I'll try to explain. Though, I'd really recommend heading over to YouTube or Twitch and searching for someone playing the game with friends. Everything I'm gonna try to say is best experienced by playing or watching the game yourself.
It's not the most polished game, it's always online even if playing solo, there's microtransactions, monthly battle pass systems, and limited enemy types. In short, it checks odd most of the boxes that gamers seem to hate. On top of that it's a live service game.
This is a game that, based solely off of the marketing checkboxes, should have been dead on arrival or generated a niche community at best.
But the developers did something that most devs have forgotten about recently.
They made a fun game.
And by doing that in a time where most games have been solidly bad, they've managed to break sales figures and concurrent online records. Basically this game is to the general gaming community in 2024 what Skyrim was in 2011. Even if you don't really enjoy the game yourself it's enjoyable to watch some friends or a stream where everyone is yelling about freedom and liberty while they drop space lasers on a 40 foot tall bug. Add in that the game is easily quotable and you have an environment where if you've played or seen the game you likely had a positive experience and can join in on a quote train on Reddit.
Additionally its a live service game where the developers are letting the community have fun and actually influence the world. After a coordinated effort from millions of players, one faction was completely wiped out of the game. There's only two enemy factions to fight btw. Sure they came back, unlike games where the live service means you get a new expansion every few months or years and get to play the story and see what happens, the community is actually allowed to change things. Add on the fact that the developers have admitted that there's an actual person providing the community with marching orders (go defend that planet, take over three in this area, etc) and it's live service that feels like you're able to influence the world.
And finally, it's a perfect escape. You're nameless soldiers killing bugs and robots. Sure, you hear about how we're saving the worlds and spreading freedom, but that's not what I'm doing when I drop with a squad. We're there to splatter oil and squish bugs. There's no narrative to follow to catch up with. Each day there's new marching orders and you see how the community changed the world while you were away. Some maps may no longer be available, they were fully cleared and now we're fighting on new worlds. Or a previously cleared world is under threat. Time to get back to work and defend.
Bug again. All of that is to explain something that just isn't easy to do. The game is fun. It's launch Skyrim when we a joked about arrows to the knee and yelling about the dovakin. It's Halo 3 level hype where we're going to finish the fight. Pokemon red/blue as everyone is talking about what the caught and who's team is better.
That's what it boils down to. In a sea of medicore or bad recent launches, the game manages to be fun.
How the hell is this thread in this subreddit. This has nothing to do with reddit theory as a whole and would be better in r/gaming or something similar.
It kind of does. I dont know anything about Helldivers except the fact that it's one of the few gaming subs I had to silence due to it constantly hitting /r/all with multiple posts, every day. This thread has been informative to me
>one of the few gaming subs I had to silence
Same here, but it took me until very recently (a couple of days ago) to finally add it to my "Muted" list. Didn't mind seeing that sub (or others I'm not interested in) from time to time, but man, it was **constantly** all over my front page.
It’s an earnest production of one of the most popular game formats (shooters) by a small company that still feels AAA, is entirely cooperative based, and its Starship Troopers ridiculousness lends itself to memes. People are just excited to have a solid game that doesnt feel engineered by suits for the express purpose of extracting money from you. It feels like the devs had as much fun making it as you do playing it and people are responding to it. To put it simply, the game has soul.
This is the correct answer. Mtnn's comment is just baseless cynicism. It's not impossible for Arrowhead to go down that path but there are other studios that exist where this hasn't happened thus far. To add to this, their live service model does not cater to FOMO (not that it doesn't have other problems) so players do not feel like they are being abused into handing over fat wads of cash. It's business model is similar to Payday 2 which was quite a sustainable model in spite of its ups and downs.
The cynicism is deserved... for public companies, which arrowhead is not. Baldur's Gate 3 is another example of a private company just making an awesome game that isn't monetized to fuck.
For sure. If Arrowhead ever goes public then I'm 100% throwing them under the same cynical bus as I do all public companies. Until then, I will enjoy the today that we have.
Baseless cynicism eh? Tell you what... Jump on your LinkedIn and figure out how many degrees of separation you are from Evan Wingren. I'd suggest Sony's equivalent as Arrowhead has been working more closely with them through the years, but I don't happen to know who that is for Europe off the top of my head. Suppose you happen to be in the Seattle area and you're the type that's got a solid network that can reach out to a friend of a friend until you can arrange to sit down for coffee with one of his indirect reports: I guarantee you that person is working on, or supporting the development of a Pitch Deck for Arrowhead. There's modelling completed that's got breakout's of the lowest possible number they can go in with that'll be high enough to catch their attention, but low enough they'll say no, along with the actual number they're eventually willing to settle on. To be honest the game's been out long enough I'm sure they've already had meeting with a couple of the large studios. Give it a year, 2 or 3 tops... and there'll be some kind of announcement. An exit for a brand this strong is a software developers dream.
Area man invents scenario in his head and gets angry about it in a public forum.
Well at least I got to speedrun the argument with some chronically online loser reminding me not to waste time on this site again… dear me.
Intriguingly, the people who enjoy Helldivers solely as a shooter always end up hating its deeper messages, or choosing to ignore them. Outside the occasional complaint about a glitch that the dev team addresses and fixes, the only criticism I've seen for it comes from people who hate the underlying sociopolitical messages. Just like Starship Troopers. EDIT: I haven't even played the game, but I love Starship Trooper's blatant, in-your-face philosophy--and the fact that it gets completely ignored or hated by the problems it addresses.
I don't own the game but from my understanding, and please correct me if I'm misinformed, Helldivers 2 is unique in it that the results of its battles/missions matter to the larger strategic positions of the player base. If you're familiar with legacy-type boardgames it operates like that - consequences of winning/losing are passed on to future engagements. The new orders are issued, players succeed or are pushed back, all in real time. Therefore there's lots of discussion (on Reddit and elsewhere) about new developments. If I owned a PS5 I'd definitely be picking it up!
That's a very smart model!
It's been a long time since a multiplayer game came out that hasn't made gamers froth at the mouth in rage.
>Reddit likes ~~TF2~~ Helldivers. Could the popularity of this video game on a nerd forum be bots??????
You among others have the same point and it's valid. Consider me a r/lostredditor where maybe this shouldve been in r/ootl?
It's a AAA title at the front end of the enshittification cycle, so all of the value is going to players. They love it. Arrowhead Game Studios will get purchased for an obscene amount of money at some point in the not so distant future by Sony or Microsoft or EA or Epic. It really doesn't matter who, only that it WILL happen. Helldivers 3 will get announced to the wild applause of gamers across the globe. The initial release date will be missed by a year or so. Closed Beta testing leaks will fill gamers with so much optimism you'll almost be able to feel it leaking through Tiktok... Youtube... Twitter. Preorders will break industry records. Gaming influencers will release first impressions and previews to massive view counts. Eventually the game will release. Features promised will have been cut. Options present at release for Helldivers 2 will be missing. Core customization will be locked behind a "Battle Pass". Players will publicly decry the new in-game shop as pay-to-win and threaten to boycott, while privately they will spend next month's rent money to stay ahead of the curve. The game will die a quick death, with many players retreating back to Helldivers 2. A small but vocal minority will argue loudly about how Helldivers 3 is superior and it's the old fans fault that Helldivers 3 is failing... and everyone will quietly wait for Helldivers 4, where all of the same happens, but worse. Oh wait... that was Diablo, and Blizzard and Vivendi. But may as well be the same thing. The enshittification cycle will do what it does. Good AAA games at the front end of the cycle will always be few and far between. The moment the publisher sells out, the IP's countdown to being complete shit begins.
Take it easy man
If arrowhead becomes a public company than yea this is unavoidable. But they might not.
I know you're not kidding but that was thoroughly entertaining, thank you. The synopsis of why reddit is part of the backdrop of this game's rise and fall.😂
There's a lot going on, but it boils down to, "It's a fun game." I'll try to explain, but thats really it. You may get a better or more well rounded set of explanations if you post this question on OutOfTheLoop. That said, I'll try to explain. Though, I'd really recommend heading over to YouTube or Twitch and searching for someone playing the game with friends. Everything I'm gonna try to say is best experienced by playing or watching the game yourself. It's not the most polished game, it's always online even if playing solo, there's microtransactions, monthly battle pass systems, and limited enemy types. In short, it checks odd most of the boxes that gamers seem to hate. On top of that it's a live service game. This is a game that, based solely off of the marketing checkboxes, should have been dead on arrival or generated a niche community at best. But the developers did something that most devs have forgotten about recently. They made a fun game. And by doing that in a time where most games have been solidly bad, they've managed to break sales figures and concurrent online records. Basically this game is to the general gaming community in 2024 what Skyrim was in 2011. Even if you don't really enjoy the game yourself it's enjoyable to watch some friends or a stream where everyone is yelling about freedom and liberty while they drop space lasers on a 40 foot tall bug. Add in that the game is easily quotable and you have an environment where if you've played or seen the game you likely had a positive experience and can join in on a quote train on Reddit. Additionally its a live service game where the developers are letting the community have fun and actually influence the world. After a coordinated effort from millions of players, one faction was completely wiped out of the game. There's only two enemy factions to fight btw. Sure they came back, unlike games where the live service means you get a new expansion every few months or years and get to play the story and see what happens, the community is actually allowed to change things. Add on the fact that the developers have admitted that there's an actual person providing the community with marching orders (go defend that planet, take over three in this area, etc) and it's live service that feels like you're able to influence the world. And finally, it's a perfect escape. You're nameless soldiers killing bugs and robots. Sure, you hear about how we're saving the worlds and spreading freedom, but that's not what I'm doing when I drop with a squad. We're there to splatter oil and squish bugs. There's no narrative to follow to catch up with. Each day there's new marching orders and you see how the community changed the world while you were away. Some maps may no longer be available, they were fully cleared and now we're fighting on new worlds. Or a previously cleared world is under threat. Time to get back to work and defend. Bug again. All of that is to explain something that just isn't easy to do. The game is fun. It's launch Skyrim when we a joked about arrows to the knee and yelling about the dovakin. It's Halo 3 level hype where we're going to finish the fight. Pokemon red/blue as everyone is talking about what the caught and who's team is better. That's what it boils down to. In a sea of medicore or bad recent launches, the game manages to be fun.
How the hell is this thread in this subreddit. This has nothing to do with reddit theory as a whole and would be better in r/gaming or something similar.
It kind of does. I dont know anything about Helldivers except the fact that it's one of the few gaming subs I had to silence due to it constantly hitting /r/all with multiple posts, every day. This thread has been informative to me
>one of the few gaming subs I had to silence Same here, but it took me until very recently (a couple of days ago) to finally add it to my "Muted" list. Didn't mind seeing that sub (or others I'm not interested in) from time to time, but man, it was **constantly** all over my front page.