Chapter 24: Chapter 24

I would like to believe that the game we are making has something for everyone. That it is appealing, but I've forgotten a key aspect whenever you are trying to push forward anything you're trying to sell. Who is it primarily for?

Gamers of course. But what kind? As a gamer myself I thoroughly enjoyed PvP. Which is why the game we were developing had a lot of options for those that liked battling other players.

"How was your experience playing the game so far?" Johnathan asked the young man in front of us.

We were in small room that we were using to get feedback from the streamers one by one. The young man in front of us was a popular World of Warcraft streamer that did a variety of content.

"It was interesting, but the questions at the start of the game don't seem to matter much. It's to help with the immersion but majority of the players would skip through it. I will say that the graphics are insanely good, I've never seen something so life like before." He said.

"So what do you suggest we do? Remove the system altogether?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "I'm not saying that, but it is just useless. People will see what it is about, but not many will be interested in it. If you add perks to the system then people like me will just go and min-max every time. You can try to make a way to have it be more appealing to the players. Instead of having it at the start of the game, it could be a part of the game. Like an opening where you have a set of choices to choose from as you play through the prologue. That would help players be more interested in the options." He explained.

Me and Johnathan both nodded and he scribbled something down in his notepad.

"Combat is different, but that could be a good thing. It's challenging and hard, but once you learn it, it's really fun. I will say this, some classes seem to perform better with this action combat system than others. Especially for those that are support based. Having to see your teammate's health, position, and the type of move the enemy will make will take a lot of concentration. This game seems to need some sort of balance and if everyone is playing simple classes that are easier to land skills with or take less control, the support classes will fall behind. I think adding in some sort of aim assist would be fine, or even being able to lock onto specific targets." He paused for a second to look at the two of us seeing if we would say anything. We didn't and he continued. "Combat is smooth, but this game is open-world PVP yes? If so, then how do you plan on handling it?"

"That will be the case, but for now we have no plans on having open world PvP at release. When it is out, there will be various systems in place to punish those that kill others just for fun. It will be a criminal system, but we are working out ways to cleanse yourself of being 'evil'."

"Might I add a suggestion?" The young streamer asked.

We nodded.

"I don't think that is necessary in a game like this. If you chose to do bad, then you're likely to do it again. Instead i'd like to see some sort of alignment that changes based on your player's actions. Similar to how Dungeons and Dragons have a system like that when you create your own character to role-play as. Except in that game you don't cleanse yourself, your actions will determine what kind of person you are. A feature like that would do the game wonders."

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Hearing him say that it made a lot of sense. I never once played Dungeons and Dragons, but I've played a few games that used the same concept as them. Such as Baulders Gate, Divinity Sins, and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I enjoyed them all, but I did not think to take concepts from those games and put them in my own. Mostly because the genres were just too different, but after hearing what he said I needed to take another look at the game we were developing. Maybe my vision was too limited and just because other MMORPG's did not have the same features as those RPG's, did not mean that mines couldn't.

"Also, since this game will have open PvP that might throw some players off from playing it. No one likes to idea of going out into the world and dying to some level 100 paladin while you're still level 36 killing boars. If the end game content is centered around PvP, then that is the type of players you'll draw in. But with the concept of factions, you'll have to deal with a way to balance that. And as much as I like what you guys are going for with the class system, I believe it should be changed. Why can only those in a certain faction play a certain class when the other faction cannot?"

He once again brought up some good points. And it was because of the other streamers that we talked to before him that I realized I forgot the key aspect in game development. The audience you are aiming for. This is with any sort of product, be it toys, clothing, books or even movies. Our game had elements of role-playing and a lot of PvE content, but it was all lacking when compared to the features we had centered around PvP. And while I did not want to leave those two elements out of the game, I had to remember that they mattered.

"No one likes that at all and we can see how this would be a negative reason to play the game for those that do not want to fight other players. And although we cannot force people from committing such acts, we can place a harsh punishment on them. Like a debuff that persists for a long time if you kill someone a certain number of levels below your own. Unless this was an agreed fight, or allowed in certain situations." I replied to him. "As for factions, there will be no balancing on our end at the start. We want to see what the players do before we decide to act. Because once you join a faction you cannot leave it unless you want to incur the wrath of that faction. No faction will like it when they are betrayed by one of their own, and you'll find yourself in a tough situation if you want to ever go back. But, because we allow players to freely chose those with faction-specific classes can easily move to another group. Over time this will lead to a diverse number of players playing different classes within each faction."

Me and Johnathan talked to the streamer for a bit longer before we felt we got everything we needed. Tomorrow they would continue to test the game and some things they said may change. But for now all we could do was wait and see.

As we were getting ready to leave the room, my phone started to vibrate and I noticed Scarlett was calling me. However, at the same time, Natasha knocked on the door and entered.

"Sir, Mr. Leeroy is on the phone for you he says it is important," Natasha told me.

Leeroy was someone I had carried out various tasks at the headquarters for YouTube in Califorina. He was working as the overseer in my steed as I dealt with my two companies here. He was a man that got things done and rarely needed me for anything. So what did he want? I declined Scarlett's call and sent her a quick message informing her that I would talk to her later.

 

 

 

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