A Dinner with Playable Worlds

This is a repost of information I shared with the Unofficial Playable Worlds Discord a month ago - I think with the pending announcement on Friday 6/28/24 some more users would be interested in the writeup!

I was in San Diego in May for a work conference, and as Carneros (PW Marketing Director) has told you, I was graciously invited out for drinks and dinner with some of the Playable Worlds team. We ate at a casual brewery, and I had a great time meeting the folks that came. We chatted about games we’ve been playing lately, what ones we’re looking forward to; general gamer stuff. Once I got over the weirdness of sharing beers with people who helped engineer some very formative experiences in my life, I felt right at home. 

Folks talked about games they’d worked on in the past and shared war stories about the hell of getting games Certified for console release. Raph told us about the game breaking bugs he found while testing some Origin Systems games when he was getting started. 

At one point I asked a question about Playable Worlds itself, based on the vibe I'd been getting from the art we’ve seen so far. For a moment the team was unsure how to answer, how much were they allowed to reveal? I’m under NDA, but even with it there were limitations! 

Carneros and Raph shared a nod, and Raph leaned into telling me all about the MMO’s universe. The history, lore, factions, and the events players will find themselves directly dropped into. It was a well practiced pitch that he’s given to other industry folks before. 

The world as described seemed to allow for a very dynamic story. But what struck me the most was how much it allowed for in universe explanations for the more “gamey” kinds of things a player might encounter in an MMO. Developers could establish rules and boundaries, and have those mechanics fully backed up by the game lore, maintaining immersion. 

Then Raph, having come right to dinner from an earlier meeting, pulled out his tablet to show off  some trailers, screenshots, and test footage. As I watched, the team members leaned in to watch too. When I reacted to different reveals, they grinned as if to say, “Yeah, it’s awesome isn’t it?” They were clearly passionate about what they were working on and so excited to be sharing it.

So, what did I see? 

Gameworld, character models, combat, traversal, harvesting, taming, some structures. 

Character creation will be very friendly to roleplayers and those that like to express themselves, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the Star Wars Galaxies character builder. 

I got to see the dynamically flowing water that Carneros told us about in one of the Firesides. One of the trailers was of a waterfall, which the team revealed took a lot of different ‘takes’ to get it looking right on video. Because unlike in say, Skyrim, the waterfall is not a static piece you drop on a map with an editor. They used tools (the same ones players could use) to carve out pieces of the terrain and get the water to drain from a lake out over a cliff. Getting it to look right wasn’t a matter of improving the art, it was about getting the angles correct so the water hit the right speed to fall and froth like a majestic waterfall. 

I got to see more of the animal taming. It was a bit staggering to see the sheer variety of creatures the game systems will be able to produce. They all had attributes and behaviors derived from high levels of world simulation. Raph said the game will be huge for collectors/sightseers. That’s where the game’s emphasis is, rather than the vertical accumulation of power like in other MMOs. 

And to that - I got to see some of how the horizontal progression works. I don’t think I can give too many details here, but it’s very elegant and will encourage players to interact and work together. 

All this talk of simulation might lead one to think - okay cool, so it's an impressive science experiment, but is it fun? Well, believe it or not, they’ve been considering that too! Even in the snippets of footage I saw there was a big focus on engaging moment to moment gameplay, from combat to traversal. Even the tools by which players harvest materials seemed to be snappy and responsive. I was told the developers were taking inspiration from anywhere across the gaming spectrum where a mechanic was implemented well. Combat and movement absolutely had some coin-op arcade game DNA in the mix. 

Overall, I don’t think anyone here is going to be overly shocked when we finally start seeing details about the game. We’ve been doing a pretty good job piecing together what information we’ve been given + what we know about Raph’s design philosophies. But I personally was surprised by just how in depth some of the features went, and how many edge cases the implementation accounted for. While I watched I kept thinking “Man, if this stuff works in practice once players get a hold of it - people are going to go nuts.” This game is ambitious. People are putting everything they’ve got into it.

Raph said the team actively watches the Discord and have not come across anything we’ve said that makes them go “Oh hey we didn’t think of that.” Our discussions have been a series of confirmations that Playable Worlds has the right audience here, and what they’re making is what we’re all hoping for. To me, that means we need to roll our sleeves up and start pitching bigger, whackier ideas. Really make this team sweat. 

If you’ve read Raph’s posts or one of his books, Playable Worlds is very much building the game Raph’s always been working towards. He told me that the technology has been there for a while, but the market finally caught up with the vision. Games like Minecraft and Zelda: Breath of the Wild have proven that the audience is there for simulation heavy sandbox games, and that they don’t have to be that complicated or overwhelming to the player. 

I’m always wary when I hear a game is trying to do everything - games that try to please everyone often end up pleasing no one. But Playable Worlds is not trying to *please* everyone, they’re trying to create a game capable of anything the player might want to do. Or more specifically, everything this community and fans of Raph’s games have wanted for decades. 

Well how can that work, certainly some game styles will alienate others? Ultima Online got sheep and wolves playing together because there weren’t really alternatives. But then as soon as PvE players could - they jumped ship to Trammel, or EverQuest, or another game. And players have more options than ever before now. 

So for this game, players are being handed an immense amount of tools and ways to interact with the world. If there is a style of play that someone doesn’t like, rather than leaving the game altogether they can go somewhere in the game that is more suited to their play style. But everyone will still be sharing the same game world. And all of this seems like it’ll be done in a very immersive lore friendly way like I alluded to before. This is right in line with how Raph has always preferred virtual worlds - players handling things themselves. 

Whenever I hear a lot about player freedom I start looking at it through my ‘Griefer PTSD’ eyes and question how it’ll work in practice. And even though the emphasis of the game isn’t on accumulation of power - will some players find ways to abuse the tools they’re given to lock down vital resources? We’ll need to see more about implementation and what options are there before we can really start digging into those edge cases. That’s what testing is for!

Time and the trajectory of the MMO genre have really dulled my hype sensors over the years, but I was so impressed with the team, what I saw, and where it’s all going. I think if anyone has a shot of pulling something like this off, it’s them. Indeed I saw with my own eyes how so much of it was *already* being pulled off. Thanks again to Carneros and Raph and the other folks I met. I didn’t name drop you here in case this kicks up a ton of questions - but feel free to chime in! Hopefully the rest of you get some peaks behind the curtain soon, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 

 -Signus

The Breaking of Team Stormfront

Nothing is eternal.


Agon is a savage continent, but I took solace in the fact that I had solid friends to fall back on. I had believed that the bonds holding our group together were dauntless. I never would have believed that given the right circumstances, Team Stormfront could implode in only thirty minutes. I never would have believed that we'd go from living comfortably in a lightly war torn city, surrounded by a legion of strong fighters, raking in gold and building up our armories... to entirely dissolving without any hope of reconciliation.

One misunderstanding and it all came crumbling down. The slow rot that had gone unnoticed at the heart of our fellowship was finally revealed, and it was too late.

After the massacre that had taken place during the siege, I was not in the best of moods. Dominion had won the day, in the end, but not without a heavy cost. The ordeal had left me weary of battle. It had done the opposite for Blarggy and, to my surprise, Publius as well.

They had been out on the front lines, far from where I was fighting to stay alive. Blarggy had always had a taste for combat, and now Pub had acquired it as well. Others told me that they fought like men possessed. After the siege, they wanted more war. Unfortunately, Dominion was not providing enough of it. Discontent quietly festered inside them.

Piratejim, Blarggy, and Publius continued to fight alongside Dominion whenever they could. Primarily, the war was at sea. Dominion had the finest navy in Agon, and they used it to secure the massive ocean stronghold in the south waters. Piratejim was living out his dream. By day he was blasting cannons at massive sea monsters, and by night he was leaping from ship to ship, slashing at the enemy and helping to secure Dominion naval dominance.

But this was not what Publius and Blarggy wanted. It wasn't the lack of people to fight, but the lack of prestige. Dominion allowed almost anyone willing to hold a sword to join them. Their ranks were full of the young and unbloodied. When they won battles, it was largely attributed to the number, rather than the skill, of their forces. And they didn't often go seeking out conflict.

Blarggy had more ties to the larger politics of Agon than the rest of us did. He remembered other clans, fiercer clans. He knew the names of revered warriors, and had met and fought with and against some of them. After a month with Dominion, that is the world he longed to return to. But when he brought this up to the rest of Team Stormfront, that is not the way he phrased it.

When a few of us were together, Blarggy proposed the idea of going north to join a new alliance. I was against leaving. I felt no need to seek out even more ruthless individuals to associate with, and I didn't feel my battle abilities were strong enough to get me into one of these other alliances. Pangalactic suggested we wait until Piratejim returned from mining, and we could all decide together. The conversation did not remain civil.

Blarggy planted his feet. "Well, I'm leaving today, with or without you guys. Pub's coming too."

Pangalactic started, "Hang on. Don't do anything yet! I don't even get why you want to leave."

But Blarggy's tone and threat to leave with Publius set off some bottled up resentment inside of me. "You always try to make yourself our dictator! We joined Dominion because of you! And now you want to leave? Again? Why should we even bother?"

"Dominion was good for us at the time, but not anymore. All the good fighters are in the north, not in this massive alliance. And you know, I've been around Agon a lot more than you have! Why shouldn't you listen to me?  Either way, I seriously don't care whether or not you're coming. It's not like you'd make much difference anyway." 

I boiled with rage. The idea of him taking Publius with him, one of my most trusted friends, and the insults, and the power grabs that no one else seemed to mind, I couldn't handle it. Even if Blarggy was often correct, the way he always talked down to all of us, talked down to me, couldn't stand. After a few choice curses to Blarggy, I pulled Publius aside.

In an angry whisper, I said, "Are you seriously leaving with Blarggy?"

"Yeah, of course I am! Don't you want to be elite, Signus?" He laughed. I wish I'd known then that he was just being sarcastic. But my mind wasn't in a rational place.

I shouted with Blarggy, trying to convince him, in the least effective way possible, that everything he wanted could be found with Dominion. He didn't need to ride north across Agon. But our bitter attitudes towards each other bubbled to the surface and took over. With each word out of my mouth, the rift between us grew, until finally Blarggy made his final decision.

"I'm leaving, and I'm taking my equipment out of the clan bank!" He stormed off to gather Publius and I stood there panicking. My distrust for Blarggy took over, and in my mind, I saw him emptying out the bank, leaving us with next to nothing, and riding off claiming that he had been the reason we even had any of those items to begin with. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I sprinted down the streets of Tugri, knocking aside idle Dominion recruits, making a bee line for the bank. I ripped open the clan vault doors and began loading everything I could into cases and bags, tying them to my back. I was going to deposit all the loot into my personal account and keep it safe until Piratejim could return and talk Blarggy and Pub down. It was at that unfortunate moment that Blarggy walked around the corner with Pub.

"Signus!" Pub shouted. "What the shit do you think you're doing?"
Blarggy drew his sword, "he's robbing the clan vault!" The two of them descended on me, slashing with bright blades. I turned my back to the attacks, shoving as much of our wealth into my bank as I could, before slamming the door. I couldn't get all of it in before a broadsword point went through the back of my throat.


Death took me, and the agonizing process of returning to my body felt all the slower, knowing that Blarggy was making off with our hard earned wealth. And now Publius was likely against me too.

 

When I came back to life, I dashed to the largest building in Tugri, knowing I needed help. I went to the Supreme General of Dominion. "There's been a coup in our clan!" I shouted. "Two of our members have robbed the clan bank and are trying to leave the city with it!"

The supreme general seemed confused. "Wait, who even are you?"
"I'm a general of Team Stormfront, one of the clans in your alliance. I need your help, please!"
He made me slow down and give him more detail, but after a minute or so, I had him and a few Dominion members following me to the clan bank, where we found Publius and Blarggy sifting through my corpse.

Pub looked at the Dominion clan members with narrow eyes. "Signus...what is this?"
"I'm not going to let you steal from Team Stromfront. I've alerted Dominion, and they aren't going to let you leave the city."

Blarggy's eyes lit with fire. "You brought another clan into our business? And you think we're the ones robbing the bank?" He was quivering with rage. I stood straight and put a hand on my sword hilt. Then I looked at Pub. In his eyes I could tell that I'd well and truly lost him. By bringing in Dominion I'd broken some kind of trust between us that even theft and murder hadn't managed to dislodge.

"You idiot..." he whispered. "I wasn't going to leave, I was just fucking with you! But I sure as shit am leaving now. And neither you, nor Dominion are going to stop me."

Blarggy smiled triumphantly. "Good! We'll go north to-"
Pub spun. "I didn't say I was going with you! I don't want to be around any of you right now. This whole thing is mental, you're all mental. I don't care about anything in the vault. I'm going to leave, and none of you are going to follow me."

The Supreme General of Dominion talked to Blarggy and heard his side of events, gave me a withering look and stalked off. I heard him say "...waste of time..." to his recruits.

When Pangalactic returned with Piratejim and Llemon, they found a broken clan waiting for him. After some hours arguing, shouts of "vault robber" and other such accusations, I opened my bank and returned the goods back to the clan vault. Blarggy then took his share, and rode off.

The fissure of anger ran too deep for the remaining members of the clan to ignore. Llemon left not long after Blarggy, and then there was nothing left but for me, Omnigord, and Piratejim to go our seperate ways. With numb fury and disbelief in me, I rode west alone. I went to the land where I'd always be welcome.

Mercia.

The Siege of Tugri

I'd been taught a harsh lesson I wouldn't soon forget. It was going to take much longer to trust people in the future.

Despite this, my ego began to swell a little. I was on the up, in a formidable clan, and becoming a powerful warrior. But after my first siege defense I was reminded that I still had a long way to go.


Initially, Team Stormfront was excited by the prospect of an enemy invasion. We'd have knowledge of local terrain and a fortified position to fall back to if the fighting became too difficult. We saw the looming threat as a way to test our hard earned skills in a massive conflict, to have our fighting mean something. All day we prepared, scouting the best ambush points, arranging our armor and weapons so that we'd have easy access to them.

But the mood in Tugri was not one of anticipation. As the day wore on I started to notice a legitimate element of fear amongst the busy members of Dominion. Just how big was the attack force that was coming for us?

Restless, and without anything more to do, I got on a horse and circled the city, looking for any sign of the enemy. They were still hours away, but still I scouted. Back in the wilderness, I had a brief pang of nostalgia, remembering when I had no city or allies to fall back on, and remembering how strangely thrilling it was to be on my own, hiding from outlaws and sneaking through monster camps.

Was I really cut out for the life of a professional soldier, when I had survived this long as a ranger? I suppose even as a ranger I had fought for Team Stormfront, and it was true that we were all much richer and safer with Dominion. I forced down my doubts and rode back for Tugri to listen to the defense strategy. It would soon be time to defend my home.

After a short assembly with the Dominion Generals, I looked around for Publius or Pangalactic or anyone from Team Stormfront, but they were nowhere inside the city. Had they gone out to scout like I had? Are they laying in ambush somewhere? Before I could find out the leaders of Dominion began to scream and gather everyone together. The enemy had arrived early. They'd somehow slipped by our scouts and were already charging up the causeway towards the city.

I was swept up in the action. Already wearing my mail, I charged out with Dominion, surrounded by people that were still strangers. There seemed to be some sort of internal organization to the charge that I did not understand. Our army thundered out the door and over the walls hoping to catch the siege force unprepared. We stood above them on the high ground and rained down a hundred spells of lightning, necrotic rot, and lances of flame. The enemies scattered for cover and we all hunkered down as the ranged battle began. It became a conservative war of attrition.


My first death that day came when I saw a couple bodies floating in a pond at the base of the fortress. I swam out and began to pull the rare and powerful armor from their corpses. That's when about five arrows struck me in the back. A group of enemies from the main force had noticed me slinking off and came to hunt me down. I didn't last long, even after diving underwater. My lifeless body floated back up and my spirit was hurled into the raging screaming void, on my way back to the find stone.

As always, death was painful, demoralizing, and disorienting, but my blood was still on fire with battle lust. The inside of Tugri, I noticed, was deserted. The fighting had moved away from the city, and it seems our forces had pushed the enemy back. I stood from the battlements after rearming, and saw that there was no one left to fight. Dominion chased the invaders down towards the beach. And that was right when the real invasion force arrived.

They flew over the city walls dozens at a time, with no one to stand in their way. I ducked into a building hoping to shoot them from the windows but they discovered me immediately, surrounded me, and cut me to pieces until all was black.

I woke again at bind stone, without weapons or armor. Dominion was rushing back to the fortress as fast as they could, but they were scattered and leaderless. The invaders cut them down as they came over the walls and soon the bindstone was crowded with confused and unarmed allies.

I dashed off again, scavenging armor from bodies as I went. Finally I thought I was equip enough to start fighting back. I found an Alfar on his own, who was hurling battlespikes into a building, laughing as the flames started to spread inside.

I fired a curse at him and then brought all my strength to bear behind a sword blow aimed at his chest.  He barely flinched as the blow dented his armor. He casually took out his staff and blasted me into the sky with a bolt of fire. As I came down he launched spell after spell into me, wracking my mind with agony and burning my flesh. By the time I landed he only needed one swing of his two handed sword to kill me. I was hurled back into the void.

This process repeated itself again and again and it became clear... I wasn't a match for anyone. Whether it was due to my confused state, from being surrounded, or just outclassed, the truth was that I couldn't kill a single person on my own.

Death followed death, and soon I entirely gave up on fighting. I thought to hurt the enemies the only way I could. I started stealing armor and reagents off the bodies of the fallen, and tucking them into a hiding place. I'd only ever grab a few pieces and safely stash them before dying again, but I managed to build up quite a stock pile. It was a pitiful revenge. The invaders had all come in expendable gear. What did they care if I stole a fraction of a fraction of it.

It wasn't enough. Death. Death. Death. Alfar spells, Ork axes, human broadswords. By the time I lost count of how many times I'd died... I had entirely given up. Dominion had come back in force and the battle was heavy all around me, but I only sat at the bind stone with dull eyes and watched the carnage, without a single care.