Hello there o/
So i've been playing MMORPGs for a very long time now, and i just tried the alpha II for Ashes and there are some thoughts that i'd like to discuss with people. Maybe i am just the weird one here so, i'll try and get some feedback from you guys on this.
DISCLAIMER: English isn't my first language (Hello from Germany o/) and also, i tend to write looooong texts. Be prepared.
I get the feeling that the World is pretty dead. And i don't mean, its empty. As more players join and more nodes get activated and expanded, the, admittedly, very open and currently empty feeling maps, will fill out, plus it's alpha II and who knows what Steven and his crew are cooking backstage. I mean, the World feels as if there is no life happening there outside of the players.
Remember, this World is supposed to have multiple societys. Societies are not sustained by adventurers and mercenaries like us. They exist because of the labour of farmers, miners, administrators, governments and so on and so on. Races build cultures, lore, legacy, traditions, cuisine and so on and so on. Yet it feels like the races have no real identity in AoC so far.
I made a dwarf, i choose the traditionalist faction. I don't know anything about the dwarfs outside the text blurb, which basicly tells me nothing usefull, and that there are two factions, that seem to be entirely irrelevant as of today. They don't get brought back up again ever. I made it to Bonfire, there are barely any named NPCs, they don't react to you outside of a single text bubble with three words in it and most of them are, currently, identical looking.
I hate bringing this up as a comparison but remember how even the most insignificant NPC in WoW had a little voice line when you interacted with them? Sure the classic peon sounds were a side thing and the NPC was most likely useless but it felt like he belonged there and had some sort of cultural identity and purpose for being there. The npcs in Bonfire could have been replaced with dialog dispensers and the camp would essential feel the same. It felt like live in ashenvale would continue even when you were no longer present. I don't get that feeling from AoC so far.
Imo, the World needs to live, even when no player interacts with it. There is life happening around you, even though you don't have an active part in it. This is currently missing entirely from the game and i'm wondering if the focus on having everything player run is a problem here. A part of the old MMO's was always also some random NPCs that had some funny quest, some random voice line or some part in some story to play that made them memorable. Aiming for a world that is by majority run by the players, i feel, is going to rob us of these moments.
So what is the solution here? Imo, the factions and cultures of the world, need to interact with the world and the nodes in it outside of what the players do. Maybe some nodes can ally themselves with, say the dwarfs, and thereby increase their influence on the world. This is turn, to borrow a mechanic from FFXI, would allow npc traders in the dwarfen main city to trade specialty items from the zone the node is in, for as long as the noce or the wider area is controlled by a dwarfen allied guild / mayor, whatever.
Maybe small bands of diplomats from the factions roam the land, traveling from node to node to trade, bring limited quests with them, maybe offer rare wares or something.
Imagine some drunk wondering dwarf bard that just walks around in the world stumbeling from tavern to tavern to sing and tell tales and maybe, if you are a bard of sufficient renown, teaches you something, some Bard only emote for example. Or if he likes you, he can give you some rare crafting part for a really good bard weapon, thereby pushing you to have a reasson to gather up other materials and seek a skill craftsman who can finish your bardic super lute.
The lack of these kinds of non-player interactions makes the world feel dead, in turn harming the need for immersion. The aim is supposed to be role playing as an inhabitant of a setting or world. If the world feels dead, it becomes a glorified lobby for combat encounters instead of a places you would want to live in, fill a role and participate in the world and its fate.
tldr; Imo the World feels not alive enough because of lack of world building and establishing npcs and live outside of player interaction. idk if this is just an alpha II thing but it feels like the design structure or design vision of AoC will limit this aspect severly and i fear that this will, in the long run, severly hurt immersion and the feeling of "home" a MMO requires in ordner to maintain long term engagement for players.
What do you guys think about this? Do you think i worry to much or feel this is not neccesary? If so, why not?
