[elsonrodriguez]

The concept of a game being transient is still a new one. There are 20 year old Pokemon cartridges out there with their original batteries keeping still kicking, keeping their Pikachus intact.

Combine the surprise of transience with the use of real money to buy fake goods and it can be a true shock. This is especially true for casual gamers who have yet to experience their first game shutdown.

[mjevans]

What's worse is when you spend money on something, thinking it's one kind of game, and then it mutates in to something else.

I was realistic and didn't spend that much, but I can't imagine I'm the only one to feel that way. I've now got an even stronger stance against online only games/communities.

[fx1994]

That happened with WoW, mutated to something after it was bought by ... Activision... so that's why community made their own server. Thousand of players on Lights Hope these days, and now they want to release WoW classic to harvest more money but I think it will fail for good.

[Tecuane]

I've played WoW for something like 11 years, from its peak in around 2008-2010 and through its slow decline since. Logging in now and having the reality that this game is actually genuinely fading away is difficult for me to properly process. The gp comment mentioned how non-transient games such as Pokémon are, and how games that do actually fade away are a new thing. I hadn't really thought about this before until the last couple of WoW expansions and its effects on the playerbase.

It makes me really sad to think about; WoW (and video gaming in general) has been a huge part of my life and tinkering with video games under the hood was the kickstarter for my career. I don't know if I will ever find a replacement for it when it's gone.