Elden Ring

Replaying it to study one thing: how it holds attention without any of the retention machinery a live-service game would reach for. No daily login, no battle pass timer, no quest marker herding you to the next chore. The map trusts you to be curious and pays that curiosity back directly — a glow on a distant cliff, a cave you weren’t sent to.

What it gets right: the reward is the discovery, not a number going up. What that proves: engagement and exploitation are different things, and the industry keeps confusing them on purpose.