Raph Koster is sharing more development pillars of Playable Worlds’ upcoming MMORPG Stars Reach. This time, he focuses on the fun they’re looking to build and provide as part of the experience.
Yet, in talking about what is fun and what they're looking to build, he starts with the foundation of MMORPGs and how things have developed and been refined over time. Live service games like survival crafting and looter-shooters are what he calls “children of MMOs streamlined down to make them more accessible in a bunch of ways”, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. Citing World of Warcraft and its streamlined hand-holding, “It ended the days of total confusion, at the cost of total freedom”.
Conversely, he talks about sandbox type gameplay and how some of that has been “flourishing in single-player games” like Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild. So the first pillar of fun here is what he calls “The Ease of Nintendo Meets the Depth of the Sandbox MMO”. This blend is designed to limit complex interfaces and use layered UI to not overwhelm players. This, along with deep gameplay that combines proven mechanics within the universe that is still easy to get into. With “proven mechanics” it comes down to things like chess being a simple system that can still support deep gameplay. Additionally, if something isn't fun, either fix it or scrap it.
It’s the “easy to learn, hard to master” philosophy. In an MMORPG, you don't need just to attract people to try your game, you need to get them to stick around. However, life happens, and people take breaks, so one thing they want is to make sure it's easy to return to if you come back. Ease of access will also extend to releasing on multiple devices, because in building a hobby they want to make it easy to do at all times.
Related:
Interview: Stars Reach Is Playable Worlds' Upcoming MMO, Set In A Fully Simulated Sandbox Galaxy
Koster calls the way companies focus on maximizing revenue is something that's wrong with game services. Playable Worlds has to consider revenue, but their development approach is to offer players a wide range of reasons to love the game first. They're looking to get people in and turn playing Stars Reach into a genuine hobby that people return to, even for years at a time.
Koster goes into much more detail in the full devblog, although there's still more on how they plans to create the depth that they are looking to provide and we will see future Dev blogs on these topics.
