How Ashes of Creation is a Different Kind of MMORPG

Ashes of Creation is a new MMORPG that is in the process of being made by Intrepid Studios. It has received a fair amount of interest because it is one of the more ambitious MMORPGs to have been conceived in recent times. As a result, Ashes of Creation could turn out to be an excellent choice for people who like the player-driven nature of EVE Online but want something in a traditional fantasy setting.

How Is Ashes of Creation Supposed to Be Different from Other MMORPGs?

First and foremost, the people behind Ashes of Creation are promising that players will be able to make choices that will have lasting consequences on the setting of the MMORPG. This isn’t unprecedented because the concept of a player-driven MMORPG isn’t a new one. However, it is nonetheless impressive because the sheer amount of effort needed to make such MMORPGs function means that they are not particularly common.

In more practical terms, the promise will be fulfilled through features such as what are being called nodes. Essentially, a node is a place where players can settle in and build up, thus resulting in dynamic settlements. Depending on the in-game race of the players who put the most effort into the process, various secrets as well as other unlockables will be made available to interested individuals. However, this creates a new source of tension because if interested individuals want other unlockables, they are going to have to bring down the existing power structure so that they can build their own upon the ruins.

This is meant to solve a couple of very important problems when it comes to MMORPGs. First, providing players with a chance to have such an enormous effect on the setting of the MMORPG is useful for creating a sense of player investment, which is critical for ensuring that they will return again and again in spite of all of the other ways that they could be spending their time. Second, this ensures a measure of conflict between players, which is important because MMORPGs need some way to convince their players to stick around even once they have hit the limit of what they can do.

For those who are wondering, the need to keep players engaged is indeed the reason that MMORPGs often have very low drop rates for the most valuable items. However, the people behind Ashes of Creation have stated that they won’t be resorting to this particular measure, which makes sense because it can be pretty alienating for a significant segment of players out there. Instead, they will be counting on their node system, which will be combined with regular quarterly updates to provide interested individuals to stick around even once they have hit the end game. On top, the people behind Ashes of Creation are perfectly aware that they won’t be able to perfectly predict everything, which is why they will also be carefully monitoring everything to ensure that they can tweak things for better results as they go along.

Besides this, there are various pieces of other information that have come out that interested individuals might want to look into. For example, it has been stated that player characters will have a main class as well as a sub class, which can make for very different results from character to character. Likewise, combat in Ashes of Creation seems to be going for a combination between the traditional style and a more action-oriented style, though it should be mentioned that the mechanics are still being worked upon at this point in time.

Final Thoughts

On the whole, Ashes of Creation looks like it could have potential. However, it remains to be seen whether that potential will be realized or not. After all, the MMORPG market is notorious for being difficult to break into, which is why most MMORPGs have settled for a very standard formula for the sake of keeping their risks low. Ashes of Creation is interesting because it is going to be going against that standard formula, but the very fact that makes it interesting is also the fact that makes it risky. Suffice to say that the people behind Ashes of Creation are very ambitious, which is something that could work out either very well or not at all.