The Real Reason Ashes of Creation Can Succeed Where Other MMOs Failed
The hype levels for Ashes of Creation continue to grow, but is it justified? Well, the game’s creative director has had multiple interviews with popular gamers and streamers, and they are taking the feedback on board. Better yet, every month they release new footage on their Youtube channel that incidentally now has over 120,000 subs.
WoW Killer?
Over the past few months, a lot of people, particularly YouTubers, have commented on whether Ashes of Creation will be the next World of Warcraft killer. The typical thinking is that there have been hundreds of MMOs released over the past decade and none of them have dethroned WoW, so it is likely that Ashes of Creation will fail to do so as well. I understand the skepticism, but Ashes of Creation is not like the MMOs that have failed in the past.
Ashes of Creation is Different
The first, and possibly biggest reason this game is unique is that this is the first, and only, MMORPG that has been funded and developed by a lifelong MMORPG fan. Better yet, their stated main goal is to simply build the best MMORPG possible. With no outside pressure from investors, the developers have had complete artistic control over the game and it has a realistic budget.
A lot of MMORPGs failed in the past for a variety of reasons, some of the most notable being pay-to-win, aggressive monetization, and poor business models. Ashes will not have these issues as they are going with the tried and true subscription model. Also, many other MMOs have publishers rush the game to release and end up changing the vision of the game. These are issues that are not present in Ashes of Creation as this is a self-published game.
The final, and probably the biggest factor for why MMORPGs fail is developers not listening to feedback, particularly community feedback. Feedback is one of the ways developers can make the changes necessary for the game to truly succeed.
Feedback
I’ve recently had a chance to play the pre-alpha game, and while I can’t discuss the specifics due to the Non-Disclosure Agreement, I can state that the game needed to make changes to the core fundamental gameplay. Steven actually replied to me directly, asking for my feedback, and I believe it was fully taken on board. Better still, they seem like they are okay with delaying the release of the game to get it right.
Can you imagine if the WoW Developers listened to the community feedback over the years? They would have done something about the awful Legendary system in Legion, there would be no Titan forging, no AP grinds making the game less alt friend in previous extensions, and making the mistake of using borrowed power systems.
Raiding and Adaptive Difficulty
It seems that raids will have adaptive difficulty levels based on your performance in previous raids. If your guild totally destroys a raid and kills a boss super fast, the next boss will be more difficult, with correspondingly better loot, and will adapt to the power of your group. If your group struggles, it will be a little easier. This is a very unique direction for PVE content. Adaptive difficulty is a very unique game design feature that will be very interesting to see in action.
All-in-all, Ashes of Creation is shaping up to be the best MMORPG in a long time and has the potential to be the best ever. Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below!
Credits
| Author | Curtis Pyke |
| YouTuber | TheLazyPeon |
| Program | Freedom! Scholarship |
| Publisher | MGN TV |
| Game | Ashes of Creation |