Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street was in China to visit some colleagues at NetEase. His enthusiastic praise for the expertise of the Chinese MMORPG developers has encountered resistance.
Why is the developer visiting NetEase? The former lead developer of World of Warcraft and the new MMORPG for League of Legends has been working with his own studio Fantastic Pixel Castle on Project “Ghost” for a while now, aiming to improve everything that is currently going wrong in the genre of online role-playing games.
Since November 2023, it has been clear that he can rely on the Chinese corporation NetEase as a strategic partner. You know, that’s the company with which Blizzard had some beef for a while, causing World of Warcraft and Co. to not be able to appear in China for a long time.
The exact nature of the collaboration is unclear. At the time, Ghostcrawler commented on the partnership as follows:
We want to show the game to the community early and often to ensure that we are on the right track and to consistently incorporate feedback. This is possible because NetEase is a strategic partner who understands our vision and gives us the creative freedom, resources, and support we need to be successful.
First gameplay from the prototype of Ghost – a very early version of the MMORPG:
What does Ghostcrawler report from his visit? In the course of this collaboration, the lead developer was now in Hangzhou and Guangzhou to chat with his colleagues from NetEase in person. His subsequent conclusion on X:
Their MMO design is about 10 years ahead of the West, while ours feels a bit frozen. I learned a lot and ate a lot of delicious food. I will be back soon!
Under the post, Greg Street faced some backlash, but many questions were also raised to delve deeper into the reason for this statement. Additionally, some fear that Ghostcrawler might adopt some “bad habits” from Asian MMORPGs for Ghost.
- A perpetual hater commented on X: “Your design could be 100 years ahead of the West and the West will still be more successful because the East has proven to be greedy when it comes to MMOs.”
- Griffin Best hopes on X: “Please no Auto Play or Pay to Win, that is widespread there.”
- SyphinB3 writes on X: “I disagree with the current MMO formula from the East. Aside from the graphics, the fantastic character customization, and the combat, they don’t seem to be able to get the systems right, nor can they develop a strong endgame. It always ends up being a resource grind to level the equipment […].”
How does Ghostcrawler respond to the comments? True to Ghostcrawler’s style, he is very communicative, providing various answers and explanations. In a post on X, the developer explains, for example:
I’m not saying you should love Chinese MMOs if you live in the West. You’re probably not their target audience anyway. I’m just saying that as a designer, I really appreciate the depth of their design, especially the horizontal progression, which is something the game I worked on, WoW, struggled with.
In another post on X, Street adds that Ghost will target a Western audience, so he will focus on payment models, art design, and character progression that are specifically tailored for the West. NetEase is a Chinese publisher that would like to have more of these Western games in its portfolio, the developer further states.
What is interesting in this context: More and more Asian companies are looking to achieve greater success with their MMORPGs in the West and are also adjusting their design orientation for this purpose.
Two examples of this are ArcheAge Chronicles and Aion 2, which will focus much more on PvE content and story than their respective predecessors did. By the way, there should finally be more detailed information about Aion 2 soon: A new MMORPG is coming to us in 2026, and it is supposed to be larger than Throne and Liberty but with less Pay2Win.
