Yeah, the modding communities for games like the Fallout series and Baldur's Gate series, not to mention Simcity 4 and the Elder Scrolls have often given these games new leases on life. You can't really mod a multiplayer game as easily because, well you have to be fair and be sure everyone's playing with the same setup which can run into complications.
Multiplayer isn't the problem; ask the Neverwinter Nights modding community. Heck, they built MMOs out of a local multiplayer game.
The issue is with always online games, with their dependency on a central server, obfuscation used to prevent players from figuring how it works and creating a substitute server, and draconian EULAs and TOS. There is a reason I wanted the offline ED that was previously promised, and that I consider the current online-only iteration to be less interesting or engaging than OOLite.
And it's the reason I'm planning to completely abandon ED as soon as modding-friendly, private-server-included SC is release, and likely never look back.
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Let's put that to the test: Single player games that are still popular and still selling: Fallout series (started circa 1998); Baldur's Gate 1 and 2; Mass Effect; Dragon Age series (multiplayer in Inquisition is an afterthought); X-series; the Sims (all versions); Simcity (all versions); Elder Scrolls series...Do you really want me to go on? Face it, neither I nor anyone else want to play with the equivalent of the schoolyard meanies. Structured PvP is just fine with me. Open pvp areas where you know in advance what you're getting into and it's your choice to go there is fine. Being your practice target so that you can get your jollies going "Hee Hee Hee I gotcha! I gotcha!" is not and the day I am forced to play unwanted pvp is the day I say "Bye Bye" to this game.
Oh, right. Baldur's Gate not only had new versions of both games released recently — including extra features, patches, extra content, all atop the old engine. And the same company is bringing a new chapter to the story, using the same engine as the previous games.
Star Craft kept releasing updates for over a decade, as did Diablo 2; Blizzard is in for the long game. Heck, the original decade old Star Craft was still used in high profile tournaments even after Star Craft 2 was released.
Half Life 2 is another game that still has a strong following, and still sees patches and improvements. Of course, the fact Valve backports Source Engine improvements to old games that use it helps.
And I bet I can find other games that are still being played, and developed, either by devs or by modders, a decade after launch.
Meanwhile, most MMOs actually close before a decade, and when they don't it's not uncommon for them to be put into maintenance mode, without upgrades. There are exceptions, of course, but far more MMOs close down than keep open.
- I hope you haven't told DB! He's on record as saying there won't be an "Elite 5" - the plan is just to keep developing ED.
