Curse of Seasons

Seasons. Every modern multiplayer game seems to have them, and why not? It’s a great way to keep player occupied and make them come back every day to get those special unlocks and join once-in-a-lifetime events and then get them interested in the next season. But at the same time this temporality drives away players like me, who just want to jump in from time to time and play few games. But as you don't have those fancy grinded hats or outfits it almost feels like you're an outcast. At the same time it's fantastic to have something to reward players who invest their time on specific game, but maybe it could be (still) done like in old Call of Duty games instead? You play when you want, everything is available for you even if you're finding the game years after it's launch and there's no rush or need to be active all the time. 

But then again, I play mostly multiplayer shooters from the mid-2000's when the whole game industry in general was very different. For example, if you wanted some flashy skins for your Counter-Strike characters you went to sites like Gamebanana and installed them yourself. Of course others were not able to see those skins, but it didn't matter. Point was to made your personal experience truly yours. 

Maybe it's not really seasons that I'm mad about. Maybe it's skins. If you think about it, for example Team Fortress 2 is pretty silly game with silly graphics, but it wasn't until the hat invasion that the game's art direction kinda melted away and became this mess it is nowadays. On the other hand we have games like Overwatch in which skins are more in line with the general art style. And both of these games don't even have seasons - most of the time things you unlock or buy won't effect the gameplay.

I normally start playing multiplayer games years after they've been released, when the hype has died and in the worst case players have already left (poor Brink). So maybe after all there's nothing wrong with the concept of season for your target audience, but for players like me: those who want to be able to do and unlock everything on their own pace rather than following the trends. 

Then again, it's hard to keep players focused on your game when there's so much else to play, so the seasonal concept works well for that as Fortnite and other such games have proven.

Oh, I still remember when Fortnite was just a ''little'' PVE that no-one knew about...

To conclude this babbling, I'd say that seasons are cool and stuff, but I personally rather have games where mostly only seasonal events are Halloween or Christmas themed. But that's me, and you probably have your own preferences. Let's remember that the most important thing is to enjoy the games you play.