Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, as the Lead Designer and spokesperson for Blizzard, guided the direction of World of Warcraft for several years. Now, he discussed “Ghost” and the philosophy with which his team designs the MMORPG’s activities. How friendly should it be to twinks, how time-consuming, and how repetitive?
What did Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street reveal? The former WoW developer explained in various tweets on X:
- The content of “Ghost” is not supposed to fill up all your leisure time. Those who focus on progress can achieve their goal long before the next chapter appears. Then you can optionally tackle fun or optional activities, or you can take a break.
- However, this fun or optional content should not consist of visiting the same raid instance for the 50th time.
- Twinks – that is, secondary characters you play alongside your main hero – are supposed to be an important part of “Ghost”, but the same applies: taking breaks is important and healthy. Once you finish with one character, you don’t have to repeat the grind with all your twinks.
- The developers currently plan to have factions that are tied to different classes. So, if you want to experience all (optional) faction content, you will need to play multiple characters that serve different classes. However, it should not feel like a punishment if you focus fully on just one character and therefore cannot engage with these optional contents.
- A part of the activities should also emerge from player interaction. But don’t expect an editor like in Starcraft or Roblox to create content for you and others. As an example, the developer mentions PvP content that is deep and enjoyable enough to keep players engaged even without a reward carrot in front of them in the long term.
- The team continues to plan with a Buy2Play payment model without microtransactions. Greg Street is not a fan of devaluing alternatives earned as loot by introducing nicely designed cosmetic items from the shop.
Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street’s new studio in the introduction trailer:
Evolution or Revolution for the MMORPG genre?
What else is known about “Ghost”? When the developers first introduced the project in November 2023, they were still in the concept phase, highlighting how early we are in the development of the MMORPG.
The goal of this unusual strategy is to involve the community in the game’s development as early as possible through continuous interaction. The value of this type of collaboration can be seen in successful early access titles like Baldur’s Gate 3.
As for the direction of “Ghost”:
- The game is supposed to adhere to functioning genre standards, but expand them with its own twists.
- The sky of the game world is filled with flying landmasses. There are two types of these. The red zones resemble traditional areas from MMORPGs like dungeons and raids, with aggressive monsters, world bosses, and foreign players. Blue zones, on the other hand, function more like a sandbox. Dynamic events are expected to take place there, with every visit being different. These zones could even serve as private areas for you and your friends, with the option to define your own rules or enhance and customize your area (keyword: housing).
- The developers mentioned possible classes such as the Sharpshooter, a Gunsmoke Ronin, a Gatling Gunner, or an Axe Thrower. Standard roles like tanks, healers, and damage dealers will exist, but with slight quirks.
- The combat system is supposed to find a balance somewhere between New World and Black Desert on one hand and WoW and Final Fantasy XIV on the other. Controller support is planned alongside the usual PC controls via mouse and keyboard.
- The perspective should be third-person, like in WoW and similar games. Community addons will only be supported if they increase comfort or accessibility or change the interface. Mods for combat are not permitted.
- The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, and the developers prioritize the integrity of the client as well as protection against exploits and bots from the very start.
If you want to take a first look at the current prototype of “Ghost”, you can do so! However, note that this is a very early version consisting of placeholders. The actual assets still need to be developed: Former WoW lead shows his new MMORPG after just 4 months of development
