When I played counter strike I expected no such thing. If I wanted skins, I could go get them for free on csbanana. I expected nothing more than a game and a dedicated server client. The rest was provided by the community.

I think if you own a copy of Counterstrike, you should be able to play offline

Well yeah. Games that are inherently multi-player and not split screen and feature an aspect of matchmaking are obviously fine to be always online games as a service.

Although personally the games-as-a-service model is something I avoid even in those. Overwatch was made objectively worse when it went from the buy-once model to the pay-once-a-season-or-you-dont-get-the-new-hero model. Mauga is completely busted right now and every new introduction of a hero since 2 launched has felt exactly like this-- busted while paid-only players have access and then fixed after the free players get a chance.

It’s the model. Squeezing money out of players is slowly killing even multi-player games like Overwatch.

It’s completely and utterly unacceptable for single player games.

I’d prefer it release with modding tools so the community could make maps and skins. I’d also prefer it to release with the ability to host my own server. I also don’t give a shit about meaningless ranking. All this shit is a poison pill for me.

Hmmmm no, no one wants always online on anything. Why should you ever have a piece of your property that has no use without an internet connection?

At the very least, you should be about to play against bots offline.

Well, I’m sure there are plenty out there that do want multiplayer only games.

Personally I avoid them like the plague. I would love it if Valorant, overwatch, etc came with a single player campaign that could be played offline, or an option to play against bots.

I hate people. Especially random competitive online people.