The average MMO or looter-shooter has a baseless non-existent story that stands as a way to gate you off from high-tier equipment or incentivizes you to pay money to “progress forward.” Well, According to a new blog post from the General Manager of BioWare, the post explains that Anthem will change the mind of those who are skeptical of a story implemented in an online game.
Whether an MMO or looter-shooter features a story in it, most times the story affects very little of gameplay or if it does the story is a vague/generic one that’s uninteresting. Additionally, most games with said problem tend to accompany it with fetch quest and other things that dilute the actual thing even more.
But it seems that BioWare aims to fix that problem with Anthem by stifling gamer skepticism when there’s mention of a story being implemented into an MMO or looter-shooter.
Just today, or on January 22nd, Casey Hudson posted on blog.bioware.com the following information:
“We knew there would be challenges. People are skeptical of the idea of story in an online game, and for good reason. Often, the nature of online multiplayer games tends to fight story agency and interesting character interactions. And, even in the best online games, it’s easy to lose interest or run out of things to do when your friends aren’t online.”
In other words, Hudson is saying that even in the best or worst MMOs or looter-shooters it’s easy to lose interest in these games because of the lack of unique and gravitational characters and events, which in turn fight story agency.
In addition to the above, Hudson follows the above up with a pretty big claim stating that Anthem is designed to address said problems with a challenge:
“We designed Anthem to address these design challenges by trying something new and different. With Anthem, we aim to integrate the fun of multiplayer missions with your friends, and single-player story agency and characters, into a connected narrative experience – set in a world designed to be always changing, and where anything is possible. The result is an intentionally unique structure which is fundamental to Anthem’s design and even the universe it’s set in.”
In other words, whether your friends are online or offline, the story, world, missions, and characters will be just as engaging no matter the stipulation — although I believe heavy quotation marks are needed.
Well, we’ll find out soon what will go down given that Anthem info will seep out when those who pre-ordered the game or are an active EA Access subscriber participate in the VIP demo starting January 25th, 2019. This also applies to those who try the February 1st, 2019, open beta or those who have Origin Access Premier, which makes the full game accessible on February 15th, 2019.
Lastly, the official game will release across PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 22nd, 2019.
