Concord Was Eight Years Too Late | Unpacked
Added 2024-09-10 15:03:02 +0000 UTCA new episode of Unpacked is now available!
Comments
It's not actually TV, but there is a game called Foxhole on Steam that's a top-down WW2 game that is a continuous battle on a giant server and the devs were (maybe still are) doing like weekly from the front reports that were super cool. - Nick
Nick Calandra
2024-09-12 03:20:53 +0000 UTCIt sounds like they wanted to do the equivalent of episodic TV. I actually don't hate that, but to make that work they needed to have a story to tell. Imagine a sci-fi WW1 shooter, where the players have the advances and retreats where the death matches revolve around one side chasing the other down in the PVP. You could have a story of generals trying to crack the nut of their opposition while the men on the ground suffer the consequences. Hell, imagine an Eastern front game where you watch the revolutionaries recruit and undermine the front as they take over the government backing them. That would be awesome.
Jadedrakerider
2024-09-11 17:58:47 +0000 UTCUnfortunately I don't think you're missing anything. But... I do think the idea of an episodic hero shooter in which the narrative is created around the stats of the months worth of play is a good idea. E.G. no one is playing character "nomates" so in the next episode "nomates" is retired and a new character emerges both in the story and in the game. Or character "overpowered" is proving extremely popular due to a poorly thought out buf, when they nerf the character they have a story line about them getting their arm blown off which is why they can't use that buf anymore. I think there's meat here but it wasn't gnawed on enough.
Ben Repton
2024-09-10 21:08:26 +0000 UTCShockingly, "live service" isn't like other game "spaces". Games that don't have a proper end are time-sinks, by definition, at least if they're successful. If you don't have a real plan to wrestle players _away_ from other live-service games into which they've already likely invested their time and money, you would be far better off crafting a traditional game with an actual ending.
Kraken
2024-09-10 19:50:20 +0000 UTCIt really strikes me that there was a core disconnect at the heart of this one. On the one hand, they were pushing cutscenes and character arcs as the USP to get players invested in the overarching story and interpersonal drama, whilst on the other hand the actual gameplay was a hero shooter in which those characters (and their uhhh doppelgangers?) randomly killed each other with zero regard to plot continuity or how those battles might be part of said larger story… Am I just missing something?
Sam East
2024-09-10 16:57:14 +0000 UTCAlthough it was a different division of Sony that created it, this reminds me of DC Universe Online and FreeRealms at SOE back in the day. Competent technical performance, but dull and uninspired direction and not enough people on the inside telling the team that the emperor had no clothes.
A
2024-09-10 16:14:09 +0000 UTCI felt pretty similarly when I first heard about Concord, but it's worth noting another game with actual story elements that failed to compete with Overwatch: Battleborn. Of course Battleborn had its own issues; releasing directly against the juggernaut that is ActiBlizzard, too few Co-op missions, handling itself like a MOBA complete with custom item loadouts and agonizingly high TTK...
Maximus
2024-09-10 15:44:27 +0000 UTC
