What an interesting development and why it does not neccessarily spell doom for WO

[Andazeus 16]

I have to admit: I was rather surprised when I received the announcement mail today. I personally love the concept of Wurm and the online community is amazing. However, like many others, I found the game to be incredibly demanding and time consuming to even achieve relatively small things. As someone with limited time, I always felt like I was hardly making any progress and the often dull tasks with no way of automation (since that would be considered cheating) make it seem even more like a drag.

 

In the end, it was only the friendly community of my neighborhood that kept me engaged in the game.

 

But then there are time, where I cannot play the game fpr a few months and can therefore not take care of my deed, animals and the likes. By the time I return, everything is in shambles and I have to start over. The online portion simply require way more dedication than many players can offer.

 

And for those players, WU seems like an amazing opportunity. Now every player can tweak their game experience to their personal liking and explore at their own pace without the fear of loosing anything or having to make a long-term time and money investment. And I can share this experience with my friends. WO would be way too hardcore for many of my friends, but I can certainly imagine playing together with them on a server with tweaked settings. There also is an incredible opportunity for plenty of custom roleplaying, adventure and challenge servers, further increasing longevity.

 

And to not forget: modding. I definitely hope the game ships with development tools and since the announcement promises at least all the GM tools and with the community already announcing work on a future map creation tool, I am sure it will only be a matter of time till we see modding tools in one fashion or the other. And this might be where the game could really take off. Sandbox games benefit massively from mods, as those really help in keeping things fun and fresh over a long term.

 

But the elephant in the room is clear: will WU canibalize the playerbase of WO? I can understand the concern. WO absolutely lives from its community, the feeling of an actual world built by the people is what makes WO interesting in the first place. And because of that, I do not see those, for those exactly that matters, quickly abandoning WO. I am sure many will play around with WU but will still feel connected to the achievements, builds and communities they have in WO and engage in the plentyful of activities it offers and guaranteed, safe and secure hosting.

 

The players driven towards WU will be much more those, that are not willing or able to make the massive commitment required to enjoy WO in a long term. And these make up only a tiny portion of the WO population.

 

Make no mistake: WO has a small community. It is a very specific game with a small playerbase that many people are not aware of. The vast majority of current players are those, that are truly commited to the experience it currently offers and I highly doubt any of those would be interested in abandoning that for a mostly empty world. WO does not really have much to loose.

 

It does, however, have a lot to gain from that project. WU will undoubtedly attract plenty of new players. Building and survival games are currently popular, so the timing is pretty good. Releasing on Steam will also help raise awareness by orders of magnitudes. If CodeClub really takes their marketing opportunity here, we can expect tens or even hundreds of thousands of people to learn about a game they never have heard before. Those that buy and play WU will not only give money to CodeClub, but will also almost inevitably at least check out WO. Others might not be willing to put down the money for WU, but will learn that there is a free version of WO they can easily check out. And if only a small portion of all these people end up liking WO, its playerbase will increase, rather than decrease.

 

Is the whole thing a risk? Of course it is. Yes, the entire thing could totally become a failure, especially should WU turn out to be a buggy mess. But it also is an amazing opportunity for both CodeClub and the players. In the current, competetive gaming market, small games like WO definitely need a boost to remain relevant and great innovation always involves a certain amount of calculated risk. And I am happy to see that CodeClub is willing to take such risks and innovate and rejuvenate their product instead of trying to sail it safe and eventually drown some day.

 

Whether personally interested in playing it or not, the arrival of WU will bring interesting times to all of us and we all should hope it becomes a success and consequently benefits the entirety of the Wurm world.

[TheGildedHero 2]

this guy get's it. 

 

I'd also like to add that if this takes off we will have a bunch of private servers that are just as big as the existing servers and with more community control since you can make yourself gm and stuff. want to roleplay? join the roleplay server that has 100+ people on it! or pvp? join 100+ server with everyone doing pvp! that sounds pretty awesome to me. Even if you if aren't like OP and really do like the MMO this change is still really exciting and there is no reason for this doom and gloom.

[Uberknot 327]

This pretty much gives Wurm a HUGE amount of Advertising and a TON of Exposure.  The only thing that will happen is more players playing Wurm.

 

Some will stay on WO some will go to WU and some will come and go to both.  

 

Some players who are just learning about Wurm might prefer the hosted servers with actual real world value controlled by the developer.

[neofit 78]

There are also people like me. I've played about two years in total. I have played with great people, but the game requires a lot of commitment that I ultimately couldn't provide. I wouldn't mind getting back into Wurm, but not the one I have played before but one that I would tune myself, less grind and more survival.

 

I am a grownup, some would say overgrown, with a job, and I wouldn't mind paying a 60€ AAA price for a local Wurm. Without WU Rolf wouldn't have gotten another dime from me anyway. Sure, it depends on how much resources have to be devoted to WU and all, but it may be that a new source of revenue is simply required, I wouldn't be surprised if all of the Earth population that could endure such a grind in their free time has already tried WO .

[GoldFever 299]

+1 OP pretty much covers what I was thinking. 

[Nelus 5]

Very intresting indeed. If any other company would do such fundamental change i would fear they screw up by placing unnecessary limitations in customization and moddability to force their vision.

But WO is diffrent and i feel that WU will be diffrent too. It looks like something that has never been done before, a completly customizable and moddable sandbox game (sandbox builder).

Given there are no limitations and the right tools are present we could see thousands of mods, from new armors, hair, skins, animals, building parts and textures to even new game systems like persistent player characters and multi character controls etc.

Probably the steam workshop will be integrated as mod source for casual players and even some lorefriendly additions could be integrated into WO. If you take the sims as an example of what a modder community can do you can see the potential, the development speed of wurm could really take off.

The community has a pretty strong base and that could kickstart something even greater. Imagine superclusters with hundred of worlds that are moderated and offer a complete story and immersive world to their players.

The success will depend upon the removal of limitations providing of tools and supporting of integration and the community will be a great part in this.

 

There are risks, but they will only be a problem if the process would stop halfway done.

For example someone using GM Mode in WU to see everything and get bored and leaves. Would such a person really be a potential WO player and put months of work into WO?

Instead i see Players that put much time in WO now not building a place in WU but a world.

[Andazeus 16]

Another interesting thing to note: we all know that WO does not have a huge community. As such, the game is always at risk of player collapse. Only a relatively small loss of the playerbase might be enough to make the game no longer profitable and eventually force it to shut down.

With WU we basically now have a backup. Even if WO were to collapse as a result (which none of us hope and I do not expect), we now have the opportunity of running community servers to keep the game alive, even if CodeClub could no longer support it. Wurm will always be available for us to play and enjoy and will never vanish into the ether. I find that extremely valuable.

[Gawain 622]

Well hey. Look at this. We probably will gain at least some more players to fill the near empty servers

[Yamuliss 105]

I dont see how you all think it will allow the online version to survive. It's the same hype that Xanadu had look how that turned out! I hope you all are right i really do i hope its a huge success and thousands come flocking to wurm online. I hope it restores the in game economy to its glory days.  But what if it don't, what if it turns for the worse then what?

[Andazeus 16]

There is a certain amount of risk, yes. It would be foolish to claim otherwise. But I think the chances far outweigh the risks. And if it spells doom for WO? As I said earlier: at least we then have some kind of backup and we all will be able to keep playing forever, whether on our own private servers or with community hosted ones. Wurm definitely won't die either way.

[Beregrost 4]

There is a certain amount of risk, yes. It would be foolish to claim otherwise. But I think the chances far outweigh the risks. And if it spells doom for WO? As I said earlier: at least we then have some kind of backup and we all will be able to keep playing forever, whether on our own private servers or with community hosted ones. Wurm definitely won't die either way.

 

...and that is far more than fans of other games can look for when their player base is moving on to new titles...

[Andazeus 16]

Yes. We already have seen way too many onlne only games vanish into the ether when the servers were shut down. Such a shame.

[topkos 495]

No , is not WO doom. That is not happening anytime soon. But if they dont change the premium system to something like 1 sub allowing you to have 3 non capped chars, then with time, WO will slowly fade away.