For the past two months, all I’ve heard about is “ELDEN RING ELDEN RING ELDEN RING BABYYYYYY” when it comes to gaming. It was a game that shook the industry to its core and by proxy the Internet itself. For a guy who has never once touched a FromSoft game I sure know a decent amount of the lore and gameplay mechanics. Mind you I have nothing against the game or other entries in the series, ya boy simply doesn’t have time to be dropping on adventures that long anymore. However, now that Elden Ring has had time to breathe for a while, some users are starting to ask “so is Elden dead?”.
The concept of a game being dead is nothing new, yet the concept of a game being considered dead after a few months is. I should be clear, I didn’t see any sort of large crowd stating this. There was no “ELDEN DEAD” tag trending on Twitter that I saw. It was more-so the odd comment here and there mixed in with some occasional posts I saw denouncing people who were stating it was dead in the first place. Regardless, the fact that such a monumental game could be considered dead after a few months reminded me of an important shift in perspective. We are now living in a time where kids who are growing up on Fortnite, Apex Legends, Valorant, League of Legends, Rocket League, etc. are entering the online space and sharing opinions.
Fortnite's list of content, not including smaller updates.
Fortnite and games like it are never truly considered “dead” by most because updates are constant and seemingly never-ending. Hell Fortnite is currently on Chapter Three: Season Two and when you look back on the previous updates holy SHIT there were a lot. Games with contained experiences like Elden Ring and The Last of Us where you play it, maybe play some DLC, and then smile as you store those memories away and then move on to the next game are a foreign concept to some kids especially since games with constant updates often tend to be free and thus have more younger people apart of the playerbase. As they continue their journey in the world of gaming I’d imagine they become a bit more open to the amazing quality that some single player games can provide that don’t update every week or two, once they have more spending money. As a young fellow my ass was not dropping a fat $60 on anything when my MMORPGS were free baby.
That's the thing, greatness never dies.
I don’t want this to come across as an old man yelling at clouds either, again this was a small number of people being called out for thinking this way and I don’t think we’re at risk of losing games with contained experiences anytime soon… although man y’all notice that decline in single player titles? Anyway as long as bussin’ games that people enjoy like Elden Ring are released, people will be coming back to play them regardless of whether or not they have a damn battle pass or not. Have you been on the Elden hype train yet? Is it interesting to think that some gamers are more accustomed to games with constant updates over contained experiences? How do you see the industry shifting in the coming years, or will it stay the same? Call up your friends, get excited, load up your launcher to play on Friday night, see a 35 GB update waiting on you, cry, and figure out a backup in the comments below!
My take on the concept of dead games. Only online only games when the servers are shut down and thus the game is literally unplayable can be consider dead.
Online multiplayer games can have a dead player base of there are no one playing online at any random hour.
Good games don't need to rip fighters to bloody pieces (Mortal Kombat), wiggle their parts around like red-headed brats (Street Fighter V), or fake their edginess (Blazblue). People are just mad that we now have choices.