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I do not envy any developers working on a live-service game. Between planned updates and fixes based on feedback, the pressure is constant, and one need only look at the last two years for Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead Game Studios for a prime example, the head of which recently spoke about the foibles of keeping such a release moving.
"Sometimes we're more on target with an update, sometimes less. It's not an exact science," Shams Jorjani, Arrowhead CEO, said on the Helldivers 2 Discord following the release of a new patch. He's responding to someone who believes the team could stand to listen to players more, to which Jorjani explains the tricky nature of the environment they're in.
"We've had times when we've done tons of testing (internally and externally) and got OK feedback – only for it to be received much better than anticipated," he explains. "And the community changes as well – you like one thing when you've played ten hours vs 100 hours vs 1000 hours."
Anyone who's played any kind of multiplayer shooter or MMO knows this cycle well. An update comes out. People hate change, but then after a few dozen hours, they settle into it, and then the next alteration causes the same thing.
In the case of Helldivers 2, finding balance is the difficult part. You've got to keep new weapons coming, alongside fresh planets to liberate and enemies to destroy, but making sure the challenge is exactly as intended is a constant push-pull of nerfs and buffs.
The latest patch, for instance, rebalances the Exo Suit, and makes minor adjustments across several enemies. The need for such is just endless. Or, as Jorjani puts it: "Live service is tricky as hell."
