In a recent post on the official forums, Cody Peterson, an Associate Community Manager at Intrepid Studios, shared his perspective on Ashes of Creation and its place in the MMORPG landscape. In a thread titled, “Is AOC Finally the WoW Killer” Peterson, under his forum handle Vaknar, weighed in on the perspective of whether Ashes of Creation is aiming to “take down” the consistently popular MMORPG.
Contrary to the popular ongoing narrative by fans of nearly every new MMORPG in existence, aiming to dethrone the iconic World of Warcraft isn’t something that many studios aim for these days as Peterson expressed in his response. In fact, while World of Warcraft has long been seen as the benchmark in the MMORPG genre, Intrepid Studios isn't fixated on surpassing it at all, and Peterson himself stated that he didn’t believe WoW should be on a pedestal so high that it needs to be “dethroned”.
The team at Intrepid has a singular goal, and that’s to create the best MMORPG possible, one that resonates with their vision and the desires of their community. Peterson candidly admitted that Ashes of Creation may not appeal to everyone, but this is not seen as a drawback. He then went on to state that the team doesn’t need to “necessarily” kill another game to be successful.
Broaching the “WoW Killer” subject is certainly one with a storied history that has been ongoing for nearly two decades now. After the meteoric rise of Blizzard’s theme park marvel, many games attempted to emulate their success by crafting similar games. Some even attempted to retrofit games that were already running to fit the mold to attempt to gain favor with the shifting MMORPG populace.
However, as we all know, MMORPGs have continued to grow and branch out, and Intrepid’s insistence that they want to go their own way, focusing on their particular niche will be more of a boon than a hindrance.
Recently, Intrepid Studios revealed more information on their intricate Caravan system. This system promises a high risk and high reward style of gameplay, outlining a new and exciting element that the team intends to utilize to set themselves apart from other games in the genre.
While the gaming world often looks for the next big game, Intrepid Studios' stance with Ashes of Creation is a reminder that the premise of a “WoW Killer” is a phrase that should be retired. Whether Ashes of Creation will deliver on everything they are setting out to do, appealing to their fans and creating the game they want to make are both equally significant markers of success, as long as it keeps the game running. With Alpha 2 on the horizon, AoC has a long way to go before we can determine any long term success, as they’ll need to jump the most arduous hurdle of fully releasing the game – a task which has yet to find target date. Either way, we’ll keep a close eye on Intrepid for more details as Alpha 2 approaches.
