What is a living world game anyway?
Why so many devs lie about having a living world game?
Is it just for marketing or because it looks cute saying that the game has a living world?
- npcs are always in the same spot
- quests are always available
- zones always have the same level range
- mini-bosses are always in the same area
- city buildings are always there in the same state
- no factions grow or diminish
- no factions disapear
- no new factions arise
- npc buildings always have the same owners/tenents/residents
- players have no influence in the world lore
- shops always have the same items in the same quantity and same price
- there's no real war among factions (player or npc), it's always a sham with no results
- npcs never die, disapear, make babies
- area levels never change
- mob levels never change or adapt
- cities never become ghost cities
- rivers and lakes never go dry
- fauna and flora are always the same
- no fauna or flora become extinct
- gathereables are always there, always available in the same rate
- npcs have no life, they never go visit their family elsewhere, they have nothing to do except stand there and wait for you
- you can never befriend npcs
- your guilds can never invite npcs to join your guild
- npcs never build new towns or cities
- bridges are always there in the same state, they never get destroyed or damage in any way
- you can deposit in the bank many tons of materials, like many tons of coal (at least in AoC you can't deposit materials in the bank)
- your clothes never get worn out
- your character never gets sore of running for hours, in the next day the character can run for hours again
- npcs never improve in combat over time, they never learn anything at all
- all npcs treat every player in the same way, npcs never have preferences based on looks, profession, races, biography, etc
- npcs never go on vacation, they are always there eager to buy all the trash you collect
- npcs buy unlimited amounts trash
- npcs can never have any emotions or opinions about people, they can't be influenced in any way, you can't wear a mini skirt and get discounts
- no npc gets replaced anywhere or anytime
- you can kill 10,000 goblins and they will never start a war with you, npcs are always oblivious and irresponsive
- npc factions or mobs never form or break alliances among them
- no moon cycles
- no season cycles
- no day and night cycles
- no weather cycles
- caves are always open, there's never ice walls, no landslides whatsoever
- npc forts and castles get bashed many times a day and they are never fortified in any way
- no company monitors player vs mob performance in dungeons and areas and adapt the challenge, if you bring a party that can overkill the dungeon, then the mobs will never adapt their strategy in any way
- there's no real tracking of your actions around the world and the world doesn't adapt accordingly
- you can never influence npc groups or factions into growing in a certain direction or changing in a certain way
- there's always the same amount of available quests everyday
- quest rewards are constant and flat, they never change based on player interaction
- a npc will never pay a bigger reward if nobody is running his quest
- a npc will always pay the same amount of gold even if there's people running that quests hundreds oft imes a day
- npcs are in the same mood everyday, no npc ever said "i'm not in the mood for giving quests today, freck off"
- mobs just sit around and watch you pulling each mob and slaughtering it, they never do anything about it
- mobs don't upgrade their gear, never, even if they are dying over and over and getting insta killed
- mobs and npcs will never hire players to kill another player, they never want revenge
- mobs and mob factions will never stalk you, never find where you live and kill you
- all your actions against mobs have no impact on how they see you
- a player guild can never ally a mob faction and declare war against another player guild
- if you have good alignment with a npc faction or mob faction, they never invite you to live with them in their strongholds or cities
- all your characters are pretty much running through the game, leveling and having the same experience
- storylines are always individual, no storyline is shared and influenced by a group of players sharing the same storyline
- when there's companions in the game, they are always there for you like slaves, they never get sick days, never get hurt and have to rest or go run their personal errands
- there's no salaries of any kind. anywhere, in any game, no public service... there's only quest payouts and selling stuff
- there's no contracts of any kind, no contracts for killing people, for producing items, for hauling, for supplies, for repairing structures, etc, theres no job goals... there's only quests... you can't be hired by mobs to protect their dungeon entrance against other players
- there's no real hollidays, nothing changes through the entire year other than cosmetics
- there's no wandering armies of any kind, nobody will see themselves facing an entire army out of the blue
- etc
There's 64 reasons why game worlds can't be called living worlds.
Many areas in MMOs remain desolate because game developers create static worlds. Once players beat a particular area, there's no incentive to revisit it. This is a consequence of developers' dishonesty.
#peace
