Post by Morreion on Oct 2, 2015 16:08:21 GMT -5
Wander official site
Wander is a non-combat MMO where you play as a tree and explore without maps (Polygon)
The team behind Wander describes it as a "non-combat MMO." Players are set down within a lush rainforest sprinkled with ancient stone ruins, groves of shivering trees, glittering shorelines and several more mysterious areas such as a floating island. Each player becomes an inhabitant of this untainted landscape, taking the role of a shapeshifting creature that can take the form of a walking tree, a sea creature, a griffin and more.
Davidson wanted to create an in-game environment that encouraged players to seek out one another and promote teamwork. In Wander, there is no UI — players unravel the story by following context clues within the environment. Davidson wanted his game to be cooperative but without using destruction as a motivation for teaming up. Wander instead focuses on building an atmosphere that will pique players' curiosity — and then leaves them to find their own way, and each other.
"I want players to share things they have discovered that others player haven't," he said. "There are no maps in Wander, either, no dot saying 'you are here.' You have to navigate on your own and share with others how to get to different places.
"I also wanted to show that not everyone on the internet is horrible," he added. "Online players can be lovely, and I wanted to encourage an environment where people can be lovely to each other."
Explorer-centric Wander launches June 4th with new Hira form (MOP)
Explorers rejoice! On June 4th, those who revel in the non-combat aspects of MMOs will be able to meander aimlessly through the wilds of Wander when it launches on Steam and on the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Asia. Players will start off lumbering across the lands as a tree, learning and communicating with others using Wander’s own glyph and drawing-based language, Rozhda, while discovering new sights and new forms to turn into. One of these forms is the newly revealed Hira form, a humanoid with fins and gills that swims, skydives, and rides other players in griffon form.
Wander struggles with bugs, crashes (MOP)
If you’re thinking of picking up Wander to enjoy an exploration-heavy, non-combat MMO, you may want to consider waiting until some of its rougher patches are smoothed out.
At least, this is the report from some players and outlets who are testifying to multiple crashes, severe clipping issues, and game-breaking bugs. “It’s perhaps the worst game to launch on the PS4,” The Sixth Axis lamented. “When the game wasn’t crashing, my character was running into invisible walls, or clipping through walls, or floating above the ground, or moonwalking, or any of a number of other wonky behaviors,” blog Dragonchasers said.
How Wander’s launch devastated its community manager (MOP)
Emma shares how she got involved with the Wander project as a volunteer and worked her way up to CM and social media guru. She describes jumping into the role at launch “beyond stressful” and “insane,” feelings complicated by a massively buggy and unstable release.
“Never underestimate the tremendous wrath of an immeasurable horde of irate gamers,” she recalls. “Within half an hour of launch, Facebook and Twitter had exploded with incredibly nasty comments. Though they were horrible, they were also honest. I hit the ground running. I read and answered every single post and comment as it came though. My stomach sank further with each passing notification. I felt was like I was being punched from the inside with every new comment.”
Emma did say that some fans rallied around her and the team to provide encouragement and even pizza. However, the toll of handling the launch and subsequent trials kept her working so hard that she got sick, had her car towed, and nearly went broke. She’s proud of the game, although she left the project this month to pursue her career.
It’s an interesting read that shows how much abuse and how many trials community managers go through. Read it and maybe consider being a little nicer to your CM today!
What It's Like To Be The Community Manager For The 'Worst PS4 Game Ever' (Kotaku)
The Release-Day Hatestorm
Then came release day. At that point, I took over looking after social media, as the person dealing with it was already multitasking like a goddamned boss. Jesus Christ. It was beyond stressful. As I’d never done social media management or PR before, this was insanity for me.
Never underestimate the tremendous wrath of an immeasurable horde of irate gamers. Within half an hour of launch, Facebook and Twitter had exploded with incredibly nasty comments. Though they were horrible, they were also honest. I hit the ground running. I read and answered every single post and comment as it came though. My stomach sank further with each passing notification. I felt was like I was being punched from the inside with every new comment.
At this point, our part-time programmer left because their freelancing work was picking up, leaving us with a single programmer, Wander mastermind Loki Davison. It wasn’t a stated part of my role, but as an empathetic human being, I now had to keep Loki sane while he soloed through the nights against our showstopper bugs. I’m a fairly resilient person, but on a few occasions I had to simply walk away from my laptop and just take a moment to breathe. In the rare moments where that didn’t work, I broke down in tears.
It Was All Worth It For The Pizza
There were a few bright flickers during this dark time. The part-time people of the Wander team who came into help were pretty amazing and kind. I owe a lot of my sanity to them, especially our artist and sound designer, who was incredibly patient with me and my reports about things that needed to be remedied. People who shared our building rallied around us.
I found that if you just explain a bad situation honestly, sometimes people are willing to be reasonable and understanding. We even managed to get a few players who had initially loathed us to change their minds. I made internet friends with Twitch viewers who tuned in every time I hosted a stream. One in Germany even ordered us pizza just to make sure that we ate while holed up in the office fixing bugs and talking to players. It ended up being delivered mid-broadcast. I was flattered by the feedback about how I handled comments, complaints, and general interaction with the public, but frankly I had — and still have — no idea if I was actually handling it well or not.
Where To Next?
...I actually think Wander is a pretty good game once major issues are addressed, and I’m awed by the people who made it and what they’ve been able to do. But to appreciate it, you need an open mind towards games that challenge traditional paradigms. Being different made it easy for critics to make fun of us. I guess it’s entertaining to watch someone rip into a game, but if no one challenged the status quo, how would games grow and evolve?
We made and released a game with no backing and not even many personal resources. It’s been overwhelming, but at times also thrilling, to have jumped into such deep water. The game wasn’t in a great state at launch and that’s something we took full responsibility for as a studio. I’ve been completely transparent in our aims and focus. We had the community involved through the roadmap and will continue to listen to their feedback. A lot of changes people have asked for are already in the game.
Wander was never made to make money. I’ve been asked a few times if we know how many copies we’ve sold, statistics, metrics and whatnot. I do know but it’s really not a personal concern or a priority to me. I was in the fortunate position where my focus was the community and interaction with players — investing energy into helping improving the game is much better than into counting coin.
Wander’s gotten a hell of a lot better since launch day.
And what’s next for me? Well, I’m not sure my future lies in the games industry. Although I’m now a veteran at holding back hordes of critics I still don’t really see my skills being all that applicable. I’m not an artist and I can’t code. So I’ll probably go back to the career I studied so hard for, settle in for another postgraduate degree. I also have some catching up to do with loved ones. As of August 2015, I’ve left the Wander project entirely.
But concerning my professional involvement with Wander?
I have no regrets.
