Game-Time reports/In the past March, the MMORPG product “Taris World”, developed by Ledong Excellence Technology and distributed by Tencent, became the focus of the recent MMO circle before its final beta test began. However, on the first day of the final test, a large number of players reported that server queues were serious, and the estimated waiting time for some popular servers reached more than 6 hours. Although this phenomenon was quickly resolved with the game’s emergency expansion, it still caused widespread dissatisfaction among the player community.
One day later, the project team issued a public apology letter, explaining to us the cause of the queuing phenomenon: Based on the industry’s past testing experience, the team gave an estimated carrying capacity of 200,000 people and installed servers with double capacity. reserve. However, on the first day of testing, millions of players poured in at the same time. This unexpected high concurrency made the project team unable to cope with it. They had to quickly expand and repair it and apologized repeatedly: “Frankly speaking, our mood is no better than the players.” . But we also know that no matter what the reason is, we must face up to the problem, actively improve, and properly resolve all adverse experiences in this test.”
Since the “golden age” when MMO products swept Internet cafes across the country, such lively scenes of massive players pouring into one product are now rare. The expansion of the game industry to the new generation of players has driven the rapid rise of other categories, making the MMO track that once stood at the center of the stage seem to be “standing still”. Some leading R&D teams are also gradually transitioning to other more profitable emerging tracks, and new “playable” MMO products are gradually becoming scarce.
Although there are many innovative forms of MMOs such as martial arts and two-dimensional MMOs, in fact, the core fans of the MMO type have always faithfully guarded the territory in memory of the Western Fantasy MMO. Countless passionate teenagers and girls who were running around and organizing people to form teams to open up wasteland may now be adults, but they are still on the road to find the next game that belongs to them. And “Taris World” has also proven its appeal: based on new design experience and the gaming habits of modern players, this product lightens and eliminates redundancy of traditional MMO products, and returns to the pure experience of hard-core wasteland development. , allowing players participating in the test to play fully immersed.
On the first day of April, the fifteen-day final test officially ended. However, Game-Time has seen that the officials of “Taris World” are still actively working on many aspects: actively collecting feedback from players on the final test, jointly planning to conduct QA questions and answers on topics that players are concerned about, and inviting producers to make public the launch optimization plan; last night, this This product further announced that it would launch a “Leader Recruitment Plan” with a generous reward of 10 million yuan, inviting adventurers to become “China’s Good Leaders” for paid land reclamation.
Using “sincerity” to open the way and “being brothers” with players, this product seems to want to use the ultimate heart-to-heart communication with players to jointly write this generation’s own MMO story.
Top overseas MMO masters like: When team-based pioneers return to hard-core authenticity
Before the launch of the beta test, the slogans of “Taris World” such as “double-ended development” and “no value for sale” quickly became players’ first impression of the game. However, after actually experiencing the game during the test period, what impressed many players, including Game-Time, was the down-to-earth gaming experience such as PVE and dungeons. Some overseas media have previously commented that “”The World of Taris” is like a heritage from the old world.” After actually experiencing it, its core experience is obviously deeply influenced by the classic era of MMORPG.
“Taris World” takes the daily dungeon of 5 people and the group version of 10 people as the core gameplay, and pursues the fun of collaboration and wasteland development experience between different professions of “War Mage, Animal Husbandry”. These classic Western MMO designs are all in “Tares World” It has been relatively completely preserved in “The World”. On this basis, “Taris World” has moderately slimmed down and optimized the overall system framework, making the game more modern while also returning to the pure fun of “hardcore land reclamation”.
In a traditional MMO, when faced with an overwhelmingly difficult boss, the DPS performs front-line output, T attracts hatred, and the “nanny” fully heals, and finally kills the boss and drops equipment. This professional collaborative experience has attracted many core players. Players can’t stop. In this “eve final test”, the game opened two new professions, “Phantom Priest” and “Shadow Blader”, bringing the total number of professions in the game to 9. The career system has also been redone in this test. Combining each character’s 8 secret skills, dual specialization talents, and equipment matching systems, “World of Taris” provides team formation and individual player skill building. Plenty of space.
The team experience is mainly verified in the copy. In terms of the core PVE mode, “World of Taris” has been greatly expanded this time, adding 2 large team dungeons, 5 five-person dungeons, random secret realms and other gameplay content, bringing the total number of bosses in the game to 22, and the total number of boss battles exceeds 60, which is extremely rich. During the open beta period, where the first kill of the difficult group will belong has become a focus event that has attracted the attention of players across the server.
Players are the most authoritative judges of the quality of the dungeon gameplay – Scripe, a well-known MMO master player from overseas, became interested after learning about the launch of the product “Taris World” and played it live for several days. . During the experience, he conducted an in-depth study of the game’s strategy system, won multiple difficult dungeons, and spoke highly of the design of the “healing assistant” built into the group battle, which is similar to the DBM plug-in, as well as the dungeon combat experience itself.
What also left a deep impression on Game-Time was the series of casual gameplay in “Taris World”: the mini-game “fishing” gameplay, the “Star” that provides several mini-game experiences such as “gacha machine” and “push chess”. “Yao Amusement Park”, use abilities to explore hidden treasures in new maps such as the floating city of Silver City and the misty forest, the home of the elves… In addition to the intense and exciting group battles, these simple and healing little gameplays make the tense Nerves relax.
The addition of 4 kinds of life sub-jobs allows players to experience various lifestyles such as forging, jewelry, tailoring, and alchemy. Combined with the changes made by the game in “liver-lowering” through the self-selected daily tasks of the “Destiny Manual” and other designs, this product not only serves core MMO users well, but also provides more diversified services for players in different scenarios and needs. play options.
“Roll yourself up” in the MMO circuit of 2024
With richer dungeon gameplay, a more strategic career system redesign, and a more diverse content experience, “World of Taris” showed sincerity in the three tests. In the minds of many players who have participated in multiple tests, this product is gradually approaching the excellent MMO product in their minds. On platforms such as TapTap, a large number of final test players also gave high scores and praise, keeping the overall score of the game at an excellent level of around 8 points.
In recent years, the scarcity of excellent new Western-style MMO products has caused many old players who have stuck to the genre to wonder: “Should we continue to wait?” The excellent performance of the final beta of “Taris World” will undoubtedly provide players with Get a shot in the arm. The solid quality has laid a good foundation for the explosive growth of this product in the future. In Game-Time’s view, this product has found a track that is truly worth the effort, and has set out three directions for exploration for subsequent Western Fantasy MMO products.
In terms of research and development, “Taris World” can be called a representative product in the genre. Unreal 4’s artistic expression and the design of dual-end interoperability between PC and mobile games have laid the foundation for this game to be launched in more markets and on more platforms in the future since its inception. After actual experience, the game has taken into account the performance optimization of both PC and mobile phones, and the UI interface and gameplay have also been localized for the respective platforms. Although there are still some shortcomings, there are almost no substitutes for mobile games of the same type on the market. . Although there were server pressure issues at the beginning of the server launch, the production team’s quick response also showed us that this product is agile enough.
In terms of commercialization, “World of Taris” has chosen not to sell equipment and development resources with attributes through the game mall; monthly cards and battle passes mainly only provide appearance rewards and a small amount of development resources. The season-based model and the design of clearing the development progress every season try to avoid the extreme development strength gap between players, making it possible for new players who have just joined the game to cooperate with old players to make money. It can be seen from these designs that “Taris World” also shows its sincerity in not pursuing a wave of monetization, but in staying with players for a long time.
Finally, what many domestic players did not know before is that “Taris World” has actually achieved good results in internationalization. Although this product was developed by a domestic team, after a round of testing overseas in November, its previous testing journey has repeatedly attracted the collective attention of gaming media, top anchors and other overseas gaming circles.
For example, IGN has previously commented that “I had a great time playing the game.” EsfandTV with 1.2 million fans and well-known e-sports player Doublelift have also participated in the testing of “Taris World” through live broadcasts. Game-Time also sincerely hopes that in the future, more MMORPG products from China will enter the international stage and gain greater recognition in overseas markets with a stronger MMO culture.
Growing, continuous evolution is waiting to be witnessed
Even though the current “World of Taris” has evolved significantly, players still have higher expectations for it. In fact, it is the game itself that is most supportive of this idea. Frank, positive, sometimes even a little “humble”, and speaking with actions – this is the direct impression that many players have on the “World of Taris” game operation team.
When the final test started and faced a server run crisis, “Taris World” wrote in a letter to players: “No matter what the reason is, for all bad experiences in this test, we must face up to the problem, actively improve, and properly deal with it.” Solved.” In the announcement of the end of the final test, “Taris World” wrote: “We are fully aware that there are still many shortcomings in the experience of this final test, which may cause some problems and inconvenience to everyone. I sincerely apologize to everyone.” In the comment area of each video, the official account of this game is almost “chasing behind the players” and gives feedback on almost every feedback and suggestion reply.
The core point is one sentence: “Change, we change!”
On April Fool’s Day night, “Taris World” even published a long article. This is not a jokey fake news report, but another long article focusing on player feedback. From “the stone is too liver” to “the game is unbalanced”, the game team has previously collected feedback from various channels on the final test, and the official has made a “heart-breaking” concentrated response – just the modification plan has been listed Dozens.
Is it difficult to maintain such a sincere and almost naked communication posture? no doubt. But now that distrust and suspicion between game teams and players are constantly becoming topics, this kind of honest communication is an effective strategy. From a player’s perspective, seeing that your feedback is adopted by the game officials makes you feel that the game side values you, and you feel a sense of gain from the game. From the perspective of the R&D team, severe criticism from players can illuminate blind spots in the planning process, draw nutrients from feedback, and achieve a comprehensive evolution of product quality.
MMORPG is one of the oldest tracks in the gaming industry, but the current “World of Taris” is such a vibrant product – it makes people feel like a young brave who wants to create fair games. With faith, curiosity to continuously communicate with players, and endless vitality and execution, he carves out a path that best suits his ideals in the boundless wilderness.
With a lighter experience and a return to the more pure and traditional hard-core dungeon fun, “Taris World” reminds people of the fun that only belongs to MMO games. After the final test comes to an end, we also expect this product to continue its outstanding performance and once again open up new areas for the MMO track.
