One of the greatest things about blogging for a longer period of time is followers coming up to you saying “you’re wrong about that” or “you forgot this”. This is genuinely beneficial and helpful in so many ways even if it ends in heated debates and disagreements sometime. At the best of times, we discover new viewpoints or just new THINGS we never heard of – and new games! So it happened with my last week’s post where I researched upcoming MMOs in 2017-2018 to get excited about. Shortly after, a friendly person on twitter poked me to ask:
Have you heard about Ashes of Creation?
I admit that I hadn’t up to now! I am aware of few titles from the more distant future, like Amazon’s New World, but I missed last December’s news on the big Ashes of Creation reveal and first look video on environments. So it appears there is another big scope classic MMORPG title in the works currently, by former SOE and Daybreak MMORPG developers no less – who knew? After some research, it does not appear that Dave G. is part of the crew however, in case you were wondering!
An Ashes of Creation First Look
Ashes of Creation development started 2016 which means the title is still a long way off and additional crowdfunding via kickstarter is planned to go up at some point. At a first glance, the game aims to follow the classic fantasy MMO formula, doing a little bit of everything with a focus on dynamic world building. This was something promised in EQN and we’ve yet to see a bigger title actually deliver on this front, so color me interested. Another feature that jumps out immediately is Intrepid Studio’s approach to housing which, according to their FAQ, is going to be both open world as well as instanced –
Q: Can I own land?
A: Our land owning system has an integrated personal housing and farming system to allow players to claim land in the open world. This land is the same static size for all players. You may then acquire blueprints for structures to build on that land, such as a home, stables for animal husbandry, crafting stations and more. In addition to open world housing, you will also be able to own homes within a Node itself; these homes will grow as the Node does, from a small cottage to a sprawling mansion! Certain Nodes will also have instanced housing. (source)
While there’s no definite word on the 8 different races and classes as of now, the different info on the housing and node systems make me wonder if there will be full non-combat classes? Many open questions like these are likely to be answered in the coming months and it’s worth checking out MoP’s interview with lead designer Jeffrey Bard as well as MMOGame’s recent interview with founder Steven Sharif for further inside info. From the many provided answers, I definitely prefer the below one from Syp’s interview:
Q: How will this game differentiate itself from everything else that’s out there or that is in the making?
A: Our hook is deeply integrated gameplay. When players first log in, they’re going to see Creation, beaten and broken. Outside of some few outposts of huddled masses, civilization doesn’t exist. It will be up to the players to invest life into the world, and bring villages, towns and cities into being. At the same time, they will need to protect what they’ve built, from the creatures they’ve disturbed in returning civilization to the world, as well as from each other. (source)
It’s the one million question: How is your MMORPG different from those that came before it? Considering how 99% of all MMOs start their player journeys the same way, the above statement is great news! Maybe Ashes of Creation will be the first title to really tell a story from the other end – from a world of destruction and desolation that’s waiting for players to rebuild and heal the land. Too often have we started our journeys in the sheltered lands of Elwynn Forest, Queensdale or The Shire, only to meet our inevitable Mount Doom as endgame progressed. How many times can we stomach traveling from soft greens and golden colors to black, brown and lava red?
To hear a developer say “we’re flipping the coin” is actually pretty exciting! It’s early days but yeah, consider Ashes of Creation added to my list of hopefuls. I guess they need to come up with a new shorthand though, AoC is already taken folks!
It is moderately intriguing but also too far off and way too vague at this stage. It’s on my deep scan radar but not paying any real attention until they open the Kickstarter. I might go for whatever tier of that equates to buying into alpha or beta – if that’s $30 or so.
I don’t recognize any of those names from SOE/DBG – do you know what nicknames they appeared under there? And thank the lord Dave Georgeson isn’t involved – he is on my “never play anything that man is involved with ever again” list.
Heh…you know more about the inner workings at former SOE than me, but during Landmark/EQN Georgeson seemed a real fab guy to follow. So much enthusiasm and engagement with the community.
And indeed the title is far off. I’ll check out the KS too altho I tend not to back. Whats your opinion on the subscription model?
As for the crew, I don’t think the SOE folk were high profile, see from MoP interview:
-Can you give share a little information on the origin of this project and the people involved?
So this started as the brainchild of Steven Sharif, who is the founder and creative director. He brought on a small team of industry vets from here in San Diego, a lot of them from SOE/Daybreak, and a few fellows from more distant pastures. We’ve got quite a bit of specifically MMO experience here: folks who have seen the ups and downs of MMOs and know what mistakes to avoid.
-So tell us a bit about Intrepid Studios.
Intrepid Studios was formed in late 2015, and we started production in early 2016. We’ve got 13 folks on our staff at the moment. I’m not sure that you’d know too many of the names here [from Daybreak], not many of us were public-facing folks, but yeah, I was over there, Jason Crawford was over there, and Michael Bacon came from Daybreak too.
I do need to read up a little more on this one, though it is early days so we shall see. But it’s promising, definitely. And I love the idea of rebuilding. Reminds me a little of Mistborn, actually!
PS. As far as I’m aware, DG is working on VR stuff these days. 🙂
Ohhh you’re right 🙂 I followed him all the way on twitter and heard something, but mostly crazy holiday pics haha.
My concern about the starting place for the MMO is that it is almost too open. I think it’d be fine as a single player sort of game, and maybe for people within a limited group, but putting it that wide open also means that the devs will have to accommodate the “Attila the Hun” tendency of a subset of players to destroy rather than build. Sure, you get some people to get a village going and expand it to a city, but then a bunch of folks from the Brute Squad come in and lay waste to it for kicks. Leaving a game so open in an EVE-like fashion –without a societal baseline– means that trolls can and will wreak havoc on someone else’s game, just because.