In a recent interview on Gamesindustry.biz with New World game director Scot Lane, information has surfaced on how Twitch, action RPGs and survival titles influenced the design of combat in New World. In addition to outlining their influences, Lane is candid about Amazons focus to make New World the next big MMO in an industry that he feels has been largely stagnant.
It’s no secret that his team loves MMO’s, or so Lane professes, but he goes on to talk about some of the titles that his team feels has done a fantastic job in developing fun and engaging MMOs.
"Everyone is always looking for the next new MMO, and we've had some really good ones. Final Fantasy 14 is awesome. Black Desert. But it seems there hasn't really been a new [hit] for a while, and a lot of the focus is shifting to other genres. I saw it as an opening...so our combat style, being physics based, was a differentiator.”
Later he goes on to talk about the elephant in the room, World of Warcraft, where he focuses on the industry defining game style that we’ve seen parroted time and again across many MMO’s, and how New World strives to be different, yet not just for the sake of difference, but for the sake of an updated, enjoyable, new experience.
“"There's always the question, 'Who's gonna be the next World of Warcraft? I think that has resulted in a lot of games that try to borrow too heavily from the formula... You don't ever want to be the next someone else. The iPhone didn't want to be the next Blackberry. They wanted to be a really cool thing. And we would rather be our own new cool thing."
You can read the rest of the article directly on the gamesindustry.biz site. New world recently did a preview event that saw pretty high numbers on SteamDB. If you’re interested in learning more about what the game will be like when it finally releases, check out our article on 7 things Garrick wishes he knew when he started the New World preview event.
