Seasons are unnecessary and actually detrimental to the longevity of games. I will not create a new character each season for any game, sorry not happening. I would prefer to continue playing my existing character and experience new content with it rather than starting over from scratch. If the content is mid-level and then if I really want to experience it I would create a new character to do so.
You know that you don’t have to play seasons? Legacy isn’t going away. You can keep playing your legacy characters when a new season starts, which is what I’ve been doing from the start.
Not to mention that all content that is available in a season is also available in legacy (and in offline), although that is likely to change at some point.
That is very debatable and all evidence seems to point to the contrary. Without the constant appeal of something new, games lose players constantly until they’re left with some token die hards.
This can easily be seen by the fact that Grim Dawn (a game most ARPG players agrees is a good one) constantly only has around 5k players, only spiking when a new expansion comes along, and that only for a short time.
Without a seasonal model D3 would have died many years ago, D4 would already be dead and most likely so would PoE.
The only way LE could sort of survive without seasons is if they shut down all servers, only allow multiplayer with a lobby like system (probably run by someone else) and only release new stuff every 2-3 years. Which is what GD does.
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I agree with all DJSamhein’s points.
All this is IMO;
I like seasons. I don’t play legacy. I feel strange about not playing legacy, sometimes. I have all those old chars I never re-visit.
If legacy had something to do that seasons didn’t, I might play a little legacy after I got bored of the season, or during those times when there is nothing else I’m playing and the new season is taking extra long.
I think something like lair-building that required materials you accumulate through play (either legacy or seasonal). Torchlight 3 had something like this, was decently amusing.
Extended power progression? D3 had infinite paragon, with all the problems that brought. D4 has really-big, but not infinite, but you aren’t reaching cap unless you no-life it, but look! you points accumulate in legacy.
I guess the point here is, if you give me something to tinker with in legacy after I’ve exhausted the season, I’ll come back and tinker with it.
On which basis? The whole live-service direction works on seasonal or cyclic content overall, with the exceptions generally not existing because they failed.
Then play Legacy?
Your solution is right there?
I would take a static flow of fleshed out sontent over seasons for sure. Sadly this is an impossible task to ask for from my point of view. From my experience it’s rather unrealistic to offer new content as fast as it is consumed. While Grim Dawn is a nice game after all I don’t play it often because it’s bland and old pretty fast.
This is where seasons kick in. Those spice up existend content and offer some small additions. Best case those make the game feel fresh and give me a reason to play it. Worst case said seasons are BS and I skip them and play something else.
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