In Alpha 2 of the new MMORPG Ashes of Creation, there was a memorable encounter that all participating players are unlikely to forget for a long time. Involved were Creative Director Steven Sharif, former Blizzard developer Jason Hall, and countless ducklings.
What happened in Alpha 2 of Ashes of Creation? Among the biggest Twitch streamers participating in the current alpha weekends of the MMORPG is Jason Thor Hall (with his channel PirateSoftware). The developer worked at Blizzard for more than six years and was involved in games like WoW, Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Diablo 3.
Last weekend, Hall encountered Stephan Sharif on the Alpha server of Ashes of Creation, who had transformed his character GMSteven into a powerful raid boss. Together with other testers, Hall immediately attacked the lead developer.
All important information about Ashes of Creation in a nutshell:
Unique Alpha Experience
How did the battle end? GMSteven struck like a truck and gathered corruption from the defeated enemies, promising special loot at his virtual death. Accordingly, the other players were eager to bring the Creative Director of Intrepid Studios to his knees.
And indeed: After a long fight, the testers were able to defeat the developer turned raid boss. But the fun wasn’t over yet! In the public chat, Steven Sharif wrote:
“Even though my flame has been extinguished at this moment, do not rejoice too soon, you creatures of shadow and darkness. For I am Verra, the fire of dawn, and my essence is bound to the cycle of creation itself.”
Shortly after, the self-proclaimed god appeared directly in front of Hall’s character, only to lead him into a chamber after a brief chat. There, the former Blizzard developer was to express a wish. He wished for the implementation of ferrets into the MMORPG, as he himself runs a sanctuary for the four-legged rascals.
Jason Hall shares insider insights from his time at Blizzard:
How does Steven Sharif respond to the wish? The response of the AoC developer: “Very well, mortal, allow me a moment in the flow of time to consider your request.” As this consideration takes time, Sharif further gifted Hall a mount and ducklings that spawned everywhere in the room for the time being.
Shortly thereafter, the Creative Director struck down the character and the new mount of the former Blizzard developer with a lightning bolt.
Divine power obviously makes one fickle. When Hall’s alter ego stood again in the hall, the ducklings had multiplied as if they were well-fed Tribbles. You can watch the entire fun on Twitch, starting at around 02:36:13.
Could something like this happen in the live version of AoC? That developers intervene in this direct way in player experience normally only occurs during special testing phases – as no lasting progress can be destroyed here. Blizzard has ended some tests in the past, for instance, with the summoning of raid bosses.
The feedback from Alpha 2 so far has been quite mixed. While areas like graphics, music, and potential are praised, there seem to still be many issues that the developers must tackle: In Alpha 2 of Ashes of Creation, criticism meets praise – “miserable” versus “more fun than full-priced games”
