Can this MMOARPG, which has been popular overseas for many years, become the next domestic online game "evergreen"
MMOs are not in decline, they just lack a good product
Is MMORPG really lonely? From the perspective of domestic market data, whether it is a long break and no new products, or the existing old product data has declined one after another, it is indeed an undoubted fact that the domestic MMORPG market is declining.
However, the author noticed that since the MMORPG end game was cut off, whenever there is an overseas MMORPG end game online, a large number of domestic players will pour in to try it. THIS IS TRUE FROM "BLESS RELEASE" AND "NEW WORLD" 2 YEARS AGO, TO THE RECENT "BLUE AGREEMENT". This seems to show that MMORPG terminal games are still a necessity for a considerable part of the domestic player base.
Looking back at the domestic MMORPG end tour, this phenomenon also exists. There are still a group of players who still choose to root in an MMORPG and treat it as their second life. It is precisely because of this that MMORPGs with benign economic ecology and social closed loop can often become "evergreen" existences.
At the "Ark of Destiny" final press conference on June 21, the game announced that it will be fully open on July 20. At the meeting, the official announced the release of 3 new classes "Mo Ling", "Gun Warlock" and "Elemental Wizard", as well as exclusive fashion, pets and mounts for national uniforms.
Can this popular MMOARPG become a new "evergreen" in China? We will discuss the game around the game itself, as well as the game project team's operational strategy around the player ecosystem.
Content-based MMOARPG that returns to the essence of MMO
With the emergence of new games, the content volume and quality of games have become one of the important indicators to attract players. Relying on brilliant and rich content to attract players for long-term retention has become an important direction for many games, and MMORPGs are no exception.
Ark of Destiny is a typical content-focused MMOARPG. On the one hand, the game pays attention to the worldview and the portrayal of the plot; On the other hand, through a solid core gameplay, supplemented by rich peripheral gameplay, it creates content that players can experience in a variety of ways.
From the perspective of the game's plot content that players first came into contact with, the game built a large and full-bodied world view around the bottom layer of the story. Whether it revolves around the master of the order universe - the god of order "Lu Payne" and the master of the chaos universe - the god of chaos "Igharan", or the epic battle that condenses the 7 heroes and the leader of the demon world - "Chain War", "Ark of Destiny" has created a rigorous and testable world framework.
In terms of story content, although it is an adventure of the blood king, there is no lack of character shaping full of lonely light. Among them, Hillian's impassioned speech after successfully regaining the throne, as well as the sadistic bridge of Allen's blackened heart, aroused the emotional resonance of players and shaped the flesh-and-blood world of "Acresia". At the same time, combined with the exquisite CG without hesitation, it further enhances the player's sense of immersion.
"Ark of Destiny" is a content-based MMO, with a grand world view and massive text content, building a fantasy world where romance and epic coexist. Although the game's plot seems a bit traditional and kingly, it is enough to satisfy the fantasy of players.
If the grand world view and vivid plot can immerse players in the continent of "Accasia", then the gameplay content of the game is the key to staying in the "Accasia" continent for a long time.
When it comes to gameplay, the first thing to mention is the game's top-down action combat. Compared to traditional MMORPGs, game ACT combat can obviously carry more skill elements.
In the article "We Talked to the Producer of the Ark of Destiny, How to Reduce the Burden for Players", the author cut in from the perspective of top-down combat, expressing how "Ark of Destiny" solves the problem of "balance between action and character class coordination" in MMOARPG - "Thanks to the larger field of view from the top view, the game has the conditions for players to easily know the location information of teammates, which is easy for players to cooperate in battle, and the top view is more intuitive and dodging is also convenient for carrying action elements."
Specific to combat skills, in addition to dodging injuries and moving positions, "Ark of Destiny" further strengthens the game's combat skills through different hitting judgments and skill operation methods.
Among them, the game skill hit method is divided into head hit, back attack, side attack and other categories, corresponding to the front and back hit the enemy with additional damage bonus, these damage settings have certain requirements for the player's position control, further strengthening the position skills in battle. In addition to instantaneous, skill operation methods also have higher damage skills such as charging, guidance, and combos, and how to use skill mechanisms and operations to cause higher damage in a limited output time is the direction that every player pursues in terms of technique.
Of course, a good combat experience is of course inseparable from excellent quest design, which is also the part of "Ark of Destiny".
Whether it is a quest level with clear objectives and smooth transitions ("Chaos Dungeon→ Abyss Dungeon→ Legion Leader" progressive objectives and difficulty selection in the quest), or the differentiated gameplay between different positioning dungeons (miscellaneous soldiers mowing, boss challenges, team cooperation), or the diverse playing ideas of different class genres in the quest, Ark of Destiny not only provides players with clear and clear objectives, but also combines combat skills, classes and genre characteristics to create a rich combat experience for players through quest differences.
While the difficulty of the quest increases, which tests the player's skills more, the game also has a large number of "teaching → verification" designs in the quest. In the most difficult Captain Dungeons, the mechanics may seem complex, but most of them are variations of the previous quest mechanics (e.g., the Captain Cook Quest, with platform-wide movement area restrictions), and players can learn to master various Dungeon mechanics through low-level Dungeons and apply them in harder Dungeons. This is also one of the manifestations of the game's focus on "skill driven".
In addition to core gameplay such as battles and quests, rich peripheral gameplay is also an important part of the game content, which can meet the needs of different player experience.
For players who love PVP, the game provides a level playing field in 1v1 and 3v3 modes; For casual party players, the game provides a customizable life territory and a variety of comfortable and casual life gameplay; For players who like adventure and exploration, the game also provides a huge open sea, including hundreds of mysterious islands, as well as unpredictable storm seas, allowing players to explore the journey charming and dangerous; For players who pursue personalization, the game has a wealth of costumes and mounts to choose from.
It can be seen that "Ark of Destiny" provides players with a world-like "Ark" world with a sense of world through a grand world view and a flesh-and-blood story story. At the same time, it integrates diversified battle copy content such as mowing grass, challenging bosses, and team cooperation, which also provides players with a rich core combat experience. The combat and quest design that focus on skills, and pay more attention to the player's own operation and the cooperation between players, give the game more fun and challenge, and return to the essence of MMO. The rich peripheral gameplay content provides players with different experience preferences to meet the experience needs of different players.
All in all, Ark of Destiny is a content-based MMOARPG game that returns to the essence of MMO, which is enough to support a long-term and interesting content experience for different players.
Player-oriented, resolutely maintain the economic ecology of the game, and create a diversified player ecology
The game itself is indeed a rare MMOARPG boutique. But looking back at the domestic MMORPG field, there are still many chaos. Whether the game can be optimized in a targeted manner is crucial to the long-term operation of "Ark of Destiny".
Aiming at studio gold scripts, plug-in gold groups, etc. that deny the fruits of players' game labor and destroy the player's ecology. Jerry, the producer of the national server distribution, said: "We will always maintain zero tolerance for behaviors that disrupt the game experience, such as scripts and plug-ins, and do our best to crack down on and block them."
Regarding this part, the author did not find this chaos during the pioneer test, and the production team was indeed fulfilling a "zero tolerance" attitude for those behaviors that denied the fruits of the player's labor.
Of course, official operations are also a top priority. It is precisely because of the excessive pursuit of monetization efficiency, ignoring the closed loop of resource output and consumption in gameplay, and the improvement of players mainly relies on gift packages rather than the "forced krypton" phenomenon of gameplay, and the MMO category continues to decline in player word of mouth.
In response to this part, Jerry said: "Many people who have played "Ark of Destiny" say that this is a conscience game, and the overall direction of the game will be basically the same as the external server in the paid part, and the core point is that we will never force Krypton."
In addition to the sincere accident of the project team in operation, in fact, it can be seen from the previous battle part that "Ark of Destiny" is not a cultivation game that focuses on numerical improvement. In addition to the numerical improvement of equipment, the improvement of player combat skills is also a key part.
Jerry further explained that most of the in-game Marketplace items can be purchased using Blue Diamonds. Players can earn coins through daily actions such as quests, events, etc., and exchange them for blue diamonds through currency trading houses. This means that players can get a variety of paid content even if they don't pay kryptonite, which is also an important part of the benign economic ecology of "Ark of Destiny".
Of course, the production team has also made a lot of efforts around the player ecology. This includes the introduction of one-stop community access support for QQ channels, as well as the improvement system of Xinyue Club, which carries out ecological construction covering all aspects around guild entry, creator incentives, KOL incubation, and global Internet café privileges.
Whether it is the determination and sincerity to protect the game economic ecology, or the multi-dimensional and large-scale ecological construction, "Ark of Destiny" is trying to be player-centric and "provide players with a better game environment and atmosphere" as the long-term operation policy.
It is also the construction of a "player-oriented" benign ecology that "Ark of Destiny" has become the foundation and heritage of the next "evergreen".
Create a haven for players
As an MMORPG player, I have also immersed myself in a game for tens of thousands of hours, treating the game as my second life.
From being attracted by the gameplay and content at the beginning, to resolutely choosing to enter the pit. Then form a small group of mutual help between gangs and classmates and friends, meet various players in the quest, and then develop into a guild group of hundreds of people. With the long-term companionship of the game, those seemingly everyday stories have become shining memories in the author's heart.
Like "Ark of Destiny", it is precisely because of the rich content and long-term continuous iteration that the author has the origin of the story; The benign ecological construction allows players to meet more partners, and the story can unfold.
Those joy when they get useful equipment and feel gradually getting stronger, the chagrin of the late night wild group's extreme rescue failure, or around the new version to organize the strategy content for guild members to help guild members dedicate. In addition, stay up with friends all night to read the guides, ask each other about the monster mechanics, and only take responsibility for tomorrow's new quest to clear the land smoothly; After many failures, he finally succeeded in clearing the land, and although he was dropped at the time of settlement and was not rewarded, he was still extremely happy with the achievement; Instigate friends to return to the game and embark on the new version of the journey together. The various experiences surrounding the game connect important memory points in the author's recollection.
It's not just the fun of the gameplay, it's more about sharing the joy of the game with friends.
Although I go my separate ways now, I also have old friends who still talk about it from time to time. Although the author is no longer a core player, I can occasionally play games and play PK with these friends. No matter how the real world passes, the game is always there to accompany the players and become a solid "safe haven" for players.
The author also expects more content-based MMORPGs like "Ark of Destiny" that return to the essence of MMOs. On the one hand, it can allow more players to experience the happiness and warmth of long-term companionship, improve players' recognition of MMO categories, and change the prejudice of player groups against MMOs; On the other hand, it will also help drive more products that return to the essence of MMO to emerge and achieve a win-win situation for joint promotion.
Finally, the author also hopes that "Ark of Destiny" can become a long-term and warm "safe haven" for the next MMORPG players, and become a carrier that condenses the stories and emotional sustenance of many MMORPG players.
After all, we really need a game that can find the happiness of the past and continue to write a new legendary story in the memories of that legendary period.