Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
the lost art of WTF moments in video games...
Stryta
Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
idk how to explain this.... but here's a lot of text
An MMORPG is an entire universe right? the best way to develop that universe is to hide all aspects that show it was developed by someone with a certain intention?
ie:
Follow MSQ
Do side Quests
Sell shit
Get paid
Imagine an MMO without...intention?
Why not create things (blocks) that have many, many different uses...like, for example, maybe im walking along a road and a random ass leprechaun pops out of the bush and turns my friend into a chicken for the next 7 days unless they can find a PLAYER to de-spell them....
That random moment that leads to an unscripted random side quest to hunt down a PLAYER to de-spell...
These sorts of things is what MMOs are lacking. Everything is conventional, everything follows a road, the Experience is all made linear...
The things that should be added IMO are the blocks(legos) that have many uses..spells, abilities, objects, mobs, npcs that all have many different abilities to interact with each other and not just in a shallow sense of simply using a log on an npc to bonk em' and they turn hostile etc... maybe that npc is secretly into that shit and becomes your friend/ companion but only after you have a prerequisite.
Maybe i can capture a chicken in one area using a rope as a lead, lead said chicken to a group of wolves in another area and the wolves spawn rate increases 100% or spawns a unique wolf under said circumstance.
Many legos + many uses = a lot of randomly used things in many aspects you CANT think of, imagine how the player base may build their legos or create an experience .....
Most games are developed for the sake of business (obviously/understandably) but this kills creativity in the things added into an MMORPG...
For example we all have money in game, why cant i drop a pile of money on the ground that causes interactions with mobs/npcs like "the npcs all swarm the cash pile"(but not something so simplistic)...random ideas like this are usually not added because why waste the time and money to develop them? These sorts of ideas, details etc are diminished for the sake of conventional expectation by the consumer as well as business intentions.
An MMORPG is an entire universe right? the best way to develop that universe is to hide all aspects that show it was developed by someone with a certain intention?
ie:
Follow MSQ
Do side Quests
Sell shit
Get paid
Imagine an MMO without...intention?
Why not create things (blocks) that have many, many different uses...like, for example, maybe im walking along a road and a random ass leprechaun pops out of the bush and turns my friend into a chicken for the next 7 days unless they can find a PLAYER to de-spell them....
That random moment that leads to an unscripted random side quest to hunt down a PLAYER to de-spell...
These sorts of things is what MMOs are lacking. Everything is conventional, everything follows a road, the Experience is all made linear...
The things that should be added IMO are the blocks(legos) that have many uses..spells, abilities, objects, mobs, npcs that all have many different abilities to interact with each other and not just in a shallow sense of simply using a log on an npc to bonk em' and they turn hostile etc... maybe that npc is secretly into that shit and becomes your friend/ companion but only after you have a prerequisite.
Maybe i can capture a chicken in one area using a rope as a lead, lead said chicken to a group of wolves in another area and the wolves spawn rate increases 100% or spawns a unique wolf under said circumstance.
Many legos + many uses = a lot of randomly used things in many aspects you CANT think of, imagine how the player base may build their legos or create an experience .....
Most games are developed for the sake of business (obviously/understandably) but this kills creativity in the things added into an MMORPG...
For example we all have money in game, why cant i drop a pile of money on the ground that causes interactions with mobs/npcs like "the npcs all swarm the cash pile"(but not something so simplistic)...random ideas like this are usually not added because why waste the time and money to develop them? These sorts of ideas, details etc are diminished for the sake of conventional expectation by the consumer as well as business intentions.
0
Comments
But Ashes is a sandpark game, which means that players are playing in a sandbox with each other, which creates those random wtf moments, while npcs give some linearity to those who like that type of thing.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Game_design
i imagine development in and around if it works it works but if not it doesnt. but taking into account that its early dev i hope they take full advantage of the sandpark and the things that we may see have depth to them. That they balance the expectation of the linear experience with the randomness of that...ability to mess around? (some people just wanna watch the world burn idea) that freedom, that ability is what i personally find fun to watch and experience (within reason) I think it also adds to the overall experience.
The majority of players seem to prefer simpler, curated content over randomness.
Not all, though. The other issue is that randomness of this type completely shakes up what most players refer to as 'respecting their time'. If I am trying to clear a retrieval mission in Elite Dangerous and randomly get attacked by a very powerful pirate NPC group (and this is almost entirely random sometimes) and shot down, I could have spent half an hour doing something that is unsalvageable, it's just failed because 'I happened to fly past someone that didn't like me and was strong'.
People remember those moments much more than they remember 'being attacked by some random normal-strength NPC' but then being saved because some other random law-abiding NPC happens to see and come to help.
That, plus the fact that a 'wtf' moment tends to only actually be that when you've played the game for about 300 hours, means most people who play games like that aren't going to have a lot of commentary about them. A wtf moment is usually one that you don't have a video of or anything, just an anecdote to share.