Looking down the road: Ashes of Creation

[Techwright]

Those that know me very well realize that although I love MMOs, I usually dread yet another title with a Tolkien/D-and-D vibe.  Severe oversaturation in the market just killed nearly all interest in me.  I choose to seek those rarer MMOs that are anything but high fantasy.  With that in mind, understand my surprise when a coworker introduced me to this video on the development of Ashes of Creation, and I found myself actually wanting to play this fully-funded high fantasy game whenever it finally releases (in development since 2016).

 

Most of my interest comes from realizing the game taps into a couple of the "Four Holy Grails" that governed the development of the groundbreaking Everquest Next (until Daybreak cruelly bought and crushed it).  It particularly taps into the Third and Fourth Grails:  emergent AI for a dynamic word (as opposed to static character placement)  and player-driven environment and story changes or "rallying calls" making for a truly unique experience on each server.  I'm including the presentation on the Four Holy Grails to help make my point.

 

Ashes of Creation development discussion:

 

Everquest Next lead discusses their "Four Holy Grails" things never attempt previous to their design work:

42:15 – first grail:  change the core game

                42:51 – Multi-classing (discovering and learning new classes while exploring the world.  Mix and match to create your own class.  Weapons and armor dynamically adapt and can also be component mixed/matched.)

46:30 – second grail: Destructability -- blow up anything, anytime, anywhere (use of voxels for both destruction and construction)

49:23 – third grail: A Life of Consequence – emergent AI

57:25 – fourth grail: permanent change (rallying calls: player-driven long-time change to the story and environment)

 

[TalynDerre]

I, too, am very much looking forward to Ashes of Creation - if it can create even a fraction of what it promises, which is a truly dynamic world where players have genuine agency in shaping the game world, it will be groundbreaking.

 

However, I am also deeply concerned that giving agency in shaping the game world to people on the internet with too much free time (i.e. the people who are most likely to be able to effect meaningful change in an MMO) is going to end up creating a non-fun experience for the rest of us.

 

I would LOVE to join an in-game tent settlement and help it grow into a town.  I want to be part of a developing community, where we pool our resources and share and generate wealth.  I don't want my contribution to be nullified, griefed, sabotaged or destroyed by someone who can spend twelve hours a day in the game.

[Techwright]

On 10/18/2022 at 5:31 PM, TalynDerre said:

I, too, am very much looking forward to Ashes of Creation - if it can create even a fraction of what it promises, which is a truly dynamic world where players have genuine agency in shaping the game world, it will be groundbreaking.

 

However, I am also deeply concerned that giving agency in shaping the game world to people on the internet with too much free time (i.e. the people who are most likely to be able to effect meaningful change in an MMO) is going to end up creating a non-fun experience for the rest of us.

 

I would LOVE to join an in-game tent settlement and help it grow into a town.  I want to be part of a developing community, where we pool our resources and share and generate wealth.  I don't want my contribution to be nullified, griefed, sabotaged or destroyed by someone who can spend twelve hours a day in the game.

I agree that there are unsavory types who might effect the game.  That said, if there are one or two who have the time and lead from kindness and magnanimity, I'd like to think the good players would rally around them, possibly to the point of making their own difference in the game.