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John "Bucky" Buckley, community manager at Pocketpair, the developer of "Metamorphosis Palu", recently discussed the concept of "Dead Game". This concept is often used to refer to games with very few players, especially those that were once popular, such as the self-deprecation of "DOTA 2" and "Overwatch 2".

In an interview with YouTube channel Going Indie, Bucky pushed back against the idea of ​​using the number of players who have a game over a long period of time as the sole measure of a game's success: "I don't think pushing people to play the same game day in and day out is good for anyone."

This is not the first time he has spoken out against the term "Dead Game". Back in February, when the number of players of "Phantom Beast Palu" dropped from millions at the beginning to only tens of thousands, the game also earned the title of "Dead Game". However, there is no doubt that tens of thousands of active players are still very good - even a luxury for many games. Bucky said at the time that this term was "lazy" and took the opportunity to tell players that "it's completely okay to take a break from the game."

"I don't think you should force yourself to play the same game all the time, that's not healthy for us," Bucky told Going Indie. He went on to say that expecting all games to be engaging forever is hurting both developers and players: "We're just going to see more soulless live service games that come out nine, 12 months later and then shut down because they're not making enough money."

In fact, I have heard a theory before that the concept of "completion" is very important to people. People need this "sense of completion" to get a sense of accomplishment. This is the same for games. Many live service games do not have this concept, which is very bad for the mental health of players. However, some developers will only try to maintain the so-called "daily activity" through various psychological traps.

In this regard, Bucky recommends that players consume rationally and buy independent games as much as possible, even if "there are only 5 players".