Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen a big push for MMO studios to talk up their numbers – and by that I mean how many people they can squeeze into an MMO’s functional play area, not total population. Camelot Unchained has put 5000 humans and bots on a battlefield. Dual Universe put 30000 on the same planet in alpha. Ashes of Creation says it’s hoping to launch with the “largest organized PVP battles of any MMORPG.” And CCP Games – which already holds the record for biggest PvP battle at just over 6000 bodies – is hoping to top that with an EVE Online collab that’s recruiting 10,000 pilots for a tech test.
Now, I gotta be honest, I freakin’ love seeing things like this, and not just because of the epic headlines. This is ambitious! This is truly capitalizing on the “massively” in MMORPG! This is what I want to see devs doing!
On the other hand, I am not actually sure whether it matters too much to me – or other MMO players – on a regular basis. I can unreservedly say there’s a big difference between 10 and 100 and 1000 PvP combatants, or 100 and 1000 on a server economy. But in a 5000- or 10000-person battle, I’m probably not going to interact with more than a few hundred of them anyway. I’m glad they’re there and we’re all together (and I especially don’t want to deal with multiple servers), but sometimes I wonder whether tech like this has the functional impact we’d like to think it does.
What do you think – does size really matter in MMOs, in PvP or out?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
