The sandbox MMORPG Life is Feudal MMO actually looked quite interesting, but so far success has eluded it. According to players, it is far too slow and targets a hardcore niche.
What is Life is Feudal? “Difficult and realistic, LiF: MMO portrays medieval life on a grand scale.” This is how the MMORPG is advertised on Steam. The sandbox is meant to present players with a significant challenge and is not supposed to be a walk in the park.
- You create a hero and are thrown into a harsh world
- It is your task to survive
- Like in survival games, you gather resources to craft tools, weapons, and equipment
- You can build structures and together create entire cities with other players
- PvP is the central factor of the MMORPG. You can be attacked and even enslaved anywhere and anytime
- Massive siege battles and guild wars occur
Hardcore is not always well received
Why is the game considered “hardcore”? The developers want players to face challenges. The high difficulty level is supposed to be the hallmark of Life is Feudal. It takes a very long time to build something up. You are constantly at risk from other players and wild NPC tribes, and it is possible to lose everything.
How is the MMORPG currently received? The reviews on Steam show 28 percent for the past 30 days, which is considered “mostly negative.”
According to Steamcharts, around 730 simultaneous players have played in the last 30 days. At peak times, it was 1,628.
Even the switch to a free-to-play model in July couldn’t bring the hoped-for success, although player numbers have slightly increased since then.
What is the opinion on the game? As the reviews on Steam show, the MMORPG is not particularly well received by most.
There is a general consensus that this title only appeals to those who have a lot of time, a great deal of patience, and wish to play in large guilds.
You can achieve nothing alone in Life is Feudal. At least ten players are needed for a guild, and only in a large guild do you have the chance to gradually build something up. You also need to be very tolerant of frustration, as everything you have built up over months can be lost in a battle or raid.
Furthermore, the tutorial reveals hardly anything about the actual game, and there are many reports of bugs and lags.
All this currently appeals to only a small portion of the MMORPG community. It is clear that momentarily popular are more casual online role-playing games, in which you can achieve results faster.
Players apparently want “simpler” MMORPGs
Which games are currently doing it better? The hardcore approach of Life is Feudal currently targets only a niche of players. Most players simply want titles that are easier to play. These include:
As you can see, MMORPGs remain popular. Just those online role-playing games that do not pursue a heavy hardcore approach and can be played “easier” – and even in between – and promise faster achievements.
Life is Feudal MMO barely aligns with what MMORPG fans currently seem to want. And that is why the game remains unsuccessful at present. A similar fate has befallen the MMORPG Wildstar, which was considered a hardcore MMORPG.
Why is that so curious? It is an interesting situation as many players often call for more “hardcore” and “casual MMORPGs” are frequently criticized. Players demand great challenges and do not want to be hand-held.
However, when such a game appears, success does not follow, as can be seen with Wildstar and now with Life is Feudal. Is it just a loud minority that demands hardcore MMORPGs? The success of online role-playing games that are more “casual” seems to support this thesis.
Even the director of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, has recognized the problem. Therefore, the MMORPG also offers smaller, easily digestible bites of content for players who have less time. Overall, Yoshida sees the problem with MMORPGs being the “time,” as these games compete with other leisure activities of the players and become more problematic the more time-consuming an online game is.
Thus, the discrepancy between what some players demand (hardcore) and what actually succeeds (casual) becomes apparent.
