Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
As we wait for Godzilla to show up on Saturday (April 12th, 2025 - 10:00am PDT), I thought it would be a great use of time to talk about my disappointment in NeoGAF.
Ya'll missed BADLY on Wildgate. This is a surefire GAAS hit and not a soul here saw it. Not one. Not a
clarky
, not a
James Sawyer Ford
, not a
yurinka
or a
Mibu no ookami
.
Dreamhaven (publisher) and Moonshot Games (dev) released two forgettable trailers that did a poor job of illustrating what this game was about. They emphasized art direction, action, and humor. Three things that aren't important in the GAAS market but are heavily overvalued by internet discourse.
This is what they should have done. Here's a full, mostly unedited, gameplay loop. It's an episode of Star Trek, only you play it. The ending of this clip...the build up to that climax, is why Battle Royale is so much better than the lesser PvP genres...
What does it do well that most people didn't notice?
- Pairs high skill aggro players with low skill casual players better than anything on the market. There are PvP centric "boarding class" characters who's role is to disrupt enemy ships by out DPSing opponents. There are "pilot class" characters who's role it is to drive the bus and make longer strategy call outs to teammates. This class needs to have high game awareness but doesn't require crazy thumbs to compete. There are "janitor class" characters who's job it is to clean up the ship when it's on fire. This is great for people who want to hang out with friends but can't handle the PvP. Shout it from the rooftops...this is brilliant f*cking design.
- The "map", called The Reach, is procedurally generated. Moonshot essentially created 20 PoI's and 10 space "hazards" for Wildgate. Each match pulls 15 PoI's and 5 space hazards and shuffles them up so you're discovering them as you play. That has two impactful benefits. First, the map doesn't get stale like it does in most PvP centric games. Once you play Route 66 in Overwatch 122 times, it loses a bit of it's luster. Secondly, that means each update hits harder because pulling from 40 PoI's and 20 space hazards (after Season 6) makes The Reach that much more diverse. Again, brilliant game design.
- Moonshot understood the GAAS market is moving away from competitive "sports style" games, into more social "heroes journey" types games. They Wayne Gretzkey'd the market when Firewalk (Concord) and Mountaintop Studios (Spectre Divide) fell on their face.
So for everyone who said "Battle Royale is over" or "The GAAS market is saturated"...
Ya'll missed BADLY on Wildgate. This is a surefire GAAS hit and not a soul here saw it. Not one. Not a
clarky
, not a
James Sawyer Ford
, not a
yurinka
or a
Mibu no ookami
. Dreamhaven (publisher) and Moonshot Games (dev) released two forgettable trailers that did a poor job of illustrating what this game was about. They emphasized art direction, action, and humor. Three things that aren't important in the GAAS market but are heavily overvalued by internet discourse.
This is what they should have done. Here's a full, mostly unedited, gameplay loop. It's an episode of Star Trek, only you play it. The ending of this clip...the build up to that climax, is why Battle Royale is so much better than the lesser PvP genres...
What does it do well that most people didn't notice?
- Pairs high skill aggro players with low skill casual players better than anything on the market. There are PvP centric "boarding class" characters who's role is to disrupt enemy ships by out DPSing opponents. There are "pilot class" characters who's role it is to drive the bus and make longer strategy call outs to teammates. This class needs to have high game awareness but doesn't require crazy thumbs to compete. There are "janitor class" characters who's job it is to clean up the ship when it's on fire. This is great for people who want to hang out with friends but can't handle the PvP. Shout it from the rooftops...this is brilliant f*cking design.
- The "map", called The Reach, is procedurally generated. Moonshot essentially created 20 PoI's and 10 space "hazards" for Wildgate. Each match pulls 15 PoI's and 5 space hazards and shuffles them up so you're discovering them as you play. That has two impactful benefits. First, the map doesn't get stale like it does in most PvP centric games. Once you play Route 66 in Overwatch 122 times, it loses a bit of it's luster. Secondly, that means each update hits harder because pulling from 40 PoI's and 20 space hazards (after Season 6) makes The Reach that much more diverse. Again, brilliant game design.
- Moonshot understood the GAAS market is moving away from competitive "sports style" games, into more social "heroes journey" types games. They Wayne Gretzkey'd the market when Firewalk (Concord) and Mountaintop Studios (Spectre Divide) fell on their face.
So for everyone who said "Battle Royale is over" or "The GAAS market is saturated"...
