Warframe's overwhelming complexity is no secret. The first thing you learn about the game is that it's a free-to-play loot-grind action game. The second thing you learn is that it's not for everyone. The game offers new players little in the way of tutorial and many aspects, from the mechanics of elemental damage to the way to obtain new classes & weapons, remain utterly opaque. It introduces new systems constantly, even dozens of hours into the game. There are standards set by other games about how to ease players into the world and tutorialize systems, and Warframe ignores almost all of them. On paper, it should be a downward spiraling game with a small audience.

Instead, it's a Steam powerhouse. In their Noclip documentary, Digital Extremes' Steve Sinclair likens it to a long Netflix series that requires a real investment of energy. If it's not for them, players won't even try to start; but a lot of others will love the chance to sink their teeth into something with real depth.

It makes a lot of sense. But perhaps more interesting is how the complexity makes Warframe unique. The convoluted systems on top of systems surely turn away some, but it locks in just many. By being so hard to wrap your head around, it does a few things that other games really do:

1. The complexity forces players to engage with the community. You can't really play Warframe alone. You can run missions solo, but without the guidance of veteran players or the wisdom of the wiki, you aren't going to get much out of it. The game doesn't tell you much, so you have to get the answers youself, and that means actually talking to people. Players have to use the internet to get answers to all sorts of basic questions like, "Which Warframe should I get next?" or even "How do I get a new weapon?" You have to reach out and ask the public chat, or make a post on the forums, or subscribe to a YouTube channel. In time, you get so used to this routine that you become an active participant in the community.

The game has a reputation for having a minimally toxic community. While I personally think that tends to be overblown, its hard to deny that the player base is generally eager to help new players. Everyone remembers when the game was initially overwhelming and impenetrable to them, until a veteran player took the time to walk them through it, and they're eager to pay it forward.

The level to which the players have come together can be seen in the wealth of free tools on the internet. Players have created offline marketplaces, multiple build creators, world state monitors and just flat out handy tools. It's not unusual for players to create extra tools for other players. People do it for Giant Bomb. But in Warframe these tools feel like the only way to survive, like they tame the wilds of game's systems. They were born out of necessity, out of the conditions created by the complexity.

2. A kind of offline gameplay is created. Warframe in its totality is hard to wrap your mind around, but your mind will keep trying, and that results in thinking about the game a lot. In my first few months as a Warframe player, I found myself spending free time wondering about concepts and researching them online. During my downtime at work, I'd think, "I should brush up on combo damage types" or, "What is The Index that everyone keeps talking about? I should read about it." You could spend so much time dedicated to the puzzle box of Warframe that you begin to feel like you're playing it even when the game is off.

Today, I have more than 200 hours of play time and I more or less "get it." But the out-of-game persistence is still strong. For example, I recently set myself a goal of building Valkyr Prime, a strong melee character that requires a modest-length grind to obtain. I can't just boot up the game and do it. I need to make a gameplan. First, I look up which relics contain the parts I need; Then, I use the drop data searcher to find where the relics appear most frequently; then I use a world state tracker to see if any of those relics are rewards for bounties on the Plains of Eidolon; and then I can turn on the game. Doing productive research on the game has a familiar endorphin release in the brain. It's the same type of satisfaction that you get from a game with a rewarding grind. It all adds up to a feeling of minor accomplishment and productive progress.

3. It galvanizes players to identify closely with the game. Sticking with the game is a trial by fire. Those that make it through might treat it like a badge of honor: here's a big scary mountain of a game, and I conquered it. It's true that figuring it out can feel like work, but the work garners investment, and investment creates a passionate fanbase. This is, of course, a double edged sword. It results in a lot of cringe-inducing "Us vs. Them" memes on the subreddit. It means when things go wrong, even temporarily, the base is enraged. But when you're a free-to-play game that lives off of premium currency microtransactions, it's still the most helpful thing in the world.

Because the game asks players to invest so much time and brain power, it is also possible to ask them to fly in for a yearly con or buy merch of characters that don't even speak, or create new skins and sell them. Destiny made a lot of noise in its pitch about being more than a game, but a hobby, yet Warframe seems to have executed on the premise with greater success.

4. The new game novelty lasts longer. The thing with systems in games is that once you figure out the systems, the excitement of the unknown is gone. There will be a point in any Warframe career where the mystery dissipates and you're just playing with an elaborate grinding rewards system. You no longer feel like you're tearing through an underwater Grineer research lab to save prisoners, but just parkouring through another map to check off an item in your overall gameplan. That's inevitable in any game.

But with Warframe, because there are so many systems, it takes a long time to get there. Every time you feel like you've become savvy to the way things work, there's another concept to conquer. Maybe you figure out how to build and obtain weapons; then it's time to figure out how to create builds for those weapons. Once that's down, you should figure out how to build your own melee weapons in Cetus. Did you know you could get exclusive parts during an event that occurs every 3 or 4 months? You should figure that out next. After a year of playing Warframe there are still things I don't know about it. I've never built my own Amp. I have not killed the harder Eidolons. I just now got a cat.

Add to this the fact that Digital Extremes is always expanding their game, looking to add ship-to-ship space combat in 2019, and you have the game equivalent of an everlasting gobstopper. There are undoubtedly players that have burned through every inch of content the game has to offer, but these are such an elite subsection of players it shouldn't be considered a normal behavior.

It's not an ideal model. In fact, most games shouldn't follow it. There is no doubt that many things in Warframe would be better if they were more accessible. But in a world where games are out streamlining each other, where Fortnite caught fire because PUBG was a little too hardcore, it is exciting to see games like Warframe and Path of Exile take the unconventional route. The complexity is just the ultimate fulfillment of the promise that comes with the "Games as a Service" concept. Anything that lasts this long is just bound to be a labyrinth, constantly iterated upon, and continuously built on what came before. There is no end in sight.