My take on the popularity of survival games is that they're filling a gap in player agency that 'theme-park' MMOs removed from the multiplayer space. I can understand why a game like WoW went in that direction, as inevitably a certain type of player will find a way to exploit the additional 'interactions' and game system deterrents to some detrimental extent, which often undermines the player experience and intent of the systems and can ruin the MMORPG. it's unfortunate MMO developers stopped trying, but here's to hoping Ashes of Creation strikes the right balance.
The way survival games are being presented seem like a great way for an 'indie' studio to create a MP experience that does give the players back that agency without having to spend development time on creating robust server architecture and netcode capable of supporting 1000s of players.
Bonus hot take:
The MMO genre is a victim of 'big data' and Blizzard's success. I don't think studio execs appreciated just how much time, detail, love and passion needs to go into creating a theme park MMO... the need to create a massive, immersive world along with enough high quality hand crafted experiences is not something other studios were ready for or approached correctly. If your MMO limits player agency and thus the potential of emergent gameplay then it's on you to provide all of the non-player driven content.
The WoW expansion model has gotten really modular, it's put itself in a weird position where it provides all of these separate features but they all still inform each other in some way that might be holding back their individual potentials and really isn't helping the holistic experience imo.
After Wintergrasp came out I thought a lot about what a sandbox WoW PvP experience might've looked like. Give them a mini continent with it's own progression that's designed to last all seasons... gathering resources to craft gear, some resources or gear lootable on death, faction META progression through investment etc. go all in on the idea.
Anyway, guess I'm bored today. Thanks for coming to my CHRISx talk. Nice write up.
Very interesting write up Chrise, looking forward to read more from you!
Nice write up Chris
Thanks Shane!
Great review, man, I enjoyed it :)
Thanks Andre!
Great write up Chris. Hope you're doing well dude :)
Thanks Zach!
My take on the popularity of survival games is that they're filling a gap in player agency that 'theme-park' MMOs removed from the multiplayer space. I can understand why a game like WoW went in that direction, as inevitably a certain type of player will find a way to exploit the additional 'interactions' and game system deterrents to some detrimental extent, which often undermines the player experience and intent of the systems and can ruin the MMORPG. it's unfortunate MMO developers stopped trying, but here's to hoping Ashes of Creation strikes the right balance.
The way survival games are being presented seem like a great way for an 'indie' studio to create a MP experience that does give the players back that agency without having to spend development time on creating robust server architecture and netcode capable of supporting 1000s of players.
Bonus hot take:
The MMO genre is a victim of 'big data' and Blizzard's success. I don't think studio execs appreciated just how much time, detail, love and passion needs to go into creating a theme park MMO... the need to create a massive, immersive world along with enough high quality hand crafted experiences is not something other studios were ready for or approached correctly. If your MMO limits player agency and thus the potential of emergent gameplay then it's on you to provide all of the non-player driven content.
The WoW expansion model has gotten really modular, it's put itself in a weird position where it provides all of these separate features but they all still inform each other in some way that might be holding back their individual potentials and really isn't helping the holistic experience imo.
After Wintergrasp came out I thought a lot about what a sandbox WoW PvP experience might've looked like. Give them a mini continent with it's own progression that's designed to last all seasons... gathering resources to craft gear, some resources or gear lootable on death, faction META progression through investment etc. go all in on the idea.
Anyway, guess I'm bored today. Thanks for coming to my CHRISx talk. Nice write up.