"Who cares if there's only five people playing": Palworld community lead says you should "just play the games you like" without worrying about "dead" games

Palworld screenshot showing a young woman with tied-back bright red hair and purple armor petting her Pal, a large white and purple Xenogard — (Image credit: Pocketpair)

Palworld's community lead says people should focus more on playing the games they like, and spend less time worrying about 'dead games.'

Palworld itself is no stranger to what some call a 'dead' game. Around launch, it held Steam's second-highest active player peak of over two million players before settling these days at around 30,000 concurrent players on average. It's less than it was, sure, but still pretty healthy.

For community lead John 'Bucky' Buckley, that's just fine. In an interview, he says everyone should "just play the games you like" without worrying about a title's longevity - "If you finish in a day, cool." Bucky doesn't think "it really serves anyone to kind of push gamers to just play the same game day in, day out." While there are some games "designed to be" long-term titles, like MMOs, most aren't - and that's okay.

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"A lot more people are trying to push gamers to play games that aren't really designed to be played for months on end," Bucky explains, going on to describe how this "push" against "dead" games can be harmful. "I don't think you need to be pushing yourself to play the same game all the time. It's not healthy for developers, it's not healthy for gamers, it's not healthy for gaming media, and it's just not healthy for our industry."

The community manager then points to the rise of live service games as an example of how looking at "dead" or "dying" games negatively can backfire. "The more we push this kind of narrative, the more very large companies are going to just say 'gamers want more live service' and we're just going to get more of these like really soulless live service games that come out and then get shut down . . . because they're not making enough money. We all lose in that case."

As Bucky concludes, players should "just enjoy games" regardless of whether or not they're considered "dead" or will be one day. "Who cares if there's only five people playing?" I can agree with this sentiment myself - there's only one player that matters at the moment while you're playing a game, and that's you. As long as you "just enjoy yourself" in the process, of course.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.