Preview sessions for new MMORPGs are often fairly predictable. Advances in graphics and artificial intelligence may have been made since the last time you attended one, but you can be almost certain someone's going to beat a big monster senseless in a dungeon. And so, in fact, it went when creative director Steven Sharif and lead designer Jeffrey Bard showed me a hideous chap with face tendrils called the "spider demon" in their upcoming sandboxy MMO Ashes of Creation. Using a mage-like character, Sharif zapped and fried the creature a few times to show off the combat, which he describes as feeling similar to that of Guild Wars 2. Good stuff.
But wait! A twist! Bard showed me that I could become the spider demon myself if I so wished, or at least if I'd bought one of the "monster tokens" they plan on selling through Ashes of Creation's eventual cash shop. Nor would this be some mere cosmetic outfit for a few laughs in the local square, as you might get with a lootable toy in World of Warcraft. Within minutes, Bard was in the spider demon's form tearing through a medieval-styled village and clawing away at its buildings--buildings players would use. And thus those same players have a vested interest in stopping Bard-as-Spider-Demon, but naturally on the sparse preview build there was no one around to thwart him save Sharif, who ended up getting killed by Bard by accident. It's essentially players as world bosses, and it's one of the most interesting ideas I've seen out of the MMORPG genre since EverQuest Next effectively became EverQuest Never, even if the idea has its roots in other multiplayer games like Evolve.
from IGN Video Games http://ift.tt/2qkirRQ
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