Long-in-the-works colony sim MMO Seed is shaping up into something that looks like EVE Online for RimWorld fans.
  • wakko@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13 days

    I’ve played in the Seed closed beta. It’s awful. It’s not a game that anyone should invest any time in. I would describe it as the kind of thing self-absorbed developers build because they enjoy the process of building it, not because anyone but them will enjoy using it.

    It’s a lightly-interactive Sims knock-off with all of the soul stripped out, zero story or narrative creation, and instead we’ve got Baby’s First Toy Economy Systems that are so trivially exploitable that it’s ruined every play session I’ve participated in because the entire world’s resources become dominated by 3 players within the first two weeks. There’s a barely-funcional civics system where players can elect somebody national leader, and there’s a toy government of the president’s cronies who can pass policies to alter some national economy settings (tax rate, import/export priorites, etc.).

    There’s almost nothing stringing any of the game’s systems together. The developers appear to have a lot of faith that the player will somehow care about the goings on of their bots. But there’s not really all that much going on. Bot-to-bot interactions are shallow and purposeless. There’s just nothing going on in the game to latch onto.

    As the saying goes - Imitation is the strongest form of flattery that mediocrity can give to greatness.

    • bitjunkie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12 days

      all of the soul stripped out

      zero story or narrative creation

      3 people control the entire economy

      barely functional civics system

      toy government of the president’s cronies

      interactions are shallow and purposeless

      Sounds like a pretty accurate simulation to me

    • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.ukEnglish
      13 days

      “[…] the entire world’s resources become dominated by 3 players within the first two weeks. There’s a barely-funcional civics system where players can elect somebody national leader, and there’s a toy government of the president’s cronies […]”

      I mean, that doesn’t sound fun, but actually sounds pretty realistic :(

      • TheV2@programming.devEnglish
        12 days

        It’s the curse of niche MMOs, the dream games of some people, that get shredded into disaster, because they don’t have enough players or they will mostly attract players who are clearly not the target audience.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13 days

      It’ll take a lot of effort to keep the systems from being exploitable like that, I expect. And maybe so much structure will be needed that it’ll become rather un-fun.

      I use to be excited about such systems and ideas in games. But I’ve come to realize that players will break and ruin anything you put in front of them.

      • dil@piefed.zipEnglish
        13 days

        Didn’t it work in archeage kinda, and that one star wars mmo (or so I’ve heard)

        • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13 days

          Oh, that’s probally true. But those were a long time ago. And the users were still self selecting and in the right headspace.

          We have crossed a threshold with the internet and awareness of possible places to be a shithead at these days. If you know what I mean. A certain mentality bands together to seek out how to fuck these spaces up, now.

          It’s like the early days of VR. The social spaces were great until VR got cheaper and more common. Now you need to hunt out the good groups and social circles and they are hard to find.

    • MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      13 days

      Exploitability sounds pretty terrible as a possibility, but I will say that the devs seem aware of it and the possibility of exploitation doesn’t necessarily sink a game like this. Eve often was such an amazing experience early on precisely because the game had so many openly exploitable systems.

      They mention they’re looking to attract the caregiver archetype, which I assume means they’re trying not to bring the purely competitive Eve player, so maybe a healthy starting mix will help with the exploitative feeling early on?

    • whiskerleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13 days

      That’s sad to hear! I will definitely have to wait until their systems start clicking then.

  • Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
    13 days

    Great, I’ve got robots that can write, sing, draw, and play for me, leaving me more time to… uh, work, I guess! /s

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13 days

    One thing I actually disliked about GTA5 was that the game wouldn‘t exactly pick up where your last session ended. Instead, it felt like the world continued in my absence. I would save my game as Franklin in his house but the next time I boot up the game I‘m controlling Trevor waking up in a pile of garbage, feeling just as disoriented as he did. Even when it made for some surprising moments I disliked it overall.

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    12 days

    I like the dragons dogma thing but I would like it to be with your character. like you decide if they are on the market when you log off and maybe being in a guild the guildmates can have your character in their group for free if your logged out.

  • Cursed_Fig@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13 days

    lmao the comments on that article

    seems like it could be fun, but first let’s see if they want $15/mo for it

    • akwd169@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12 days

      Yeah EVE online was one of my favourite games ever but damn did I spend a ridiculous amoint of money keeping 4 accounts subscribed for a few years there smh