New WAKFU dev diary highlights player freedom, sandbox features

If it's true that MMORPGs have become more linear as the genre has grown, it's also true that Ankama is setting out to do something different with WAKFU. The French development firm has released a new video dev diary titled Power to the Player, and it outlines how the free-to-play game is tackling some of the challenges inherent in sandbox design.

"We really wanted to make WAKFU a game based on freedom, a game which puts the player in control," says Ankama designer Azael. "Most current MMOs create a game and then insert the player. With WAKFU we aimed to create the game around the players."

WAKFU features very few NPCs (and no traditional vendor NPCs at all), and it also boasts mobs that don't drop money. Players create the game's currency themselves by harvesting ores and making use of minting machines, and players are also responsible for seeding the world with monsters since they don't respawn on their own. You can learn more about WAKFU by viewing the video after the break.

Reader Comments (13)

I absolutely adore this game. FREEEEEDOM!!!

I was interested in this game until i found out what kind of "sandbox economy" the developers had in mind. Has anything changed lately?

Sounds like an interesting experiment. I don't know if I would trust MMO players with so many elements of an online environment. These devs says players will work together to create a great gaming experience. I tend to think J. Gabriel's Internet Law will be the more likely norm.

I wonder if there are any mechanisms to limit deliberate griefing? Or if such things will be added after these guys find out just how many jerks there are out there lol

Played the game during closed beta in Europe.

Sadly, it's not my cup of tea. Firstly I do explicitly NOT want to play a game where the political system reflects real life. Sorry, I have enough of this around me every day.

If the governor of my nation is making stupid laws, I'm not inclined to vote for a different governor, I stop playing the game, since I'm not going to waste my gaming time on something that keeps annoying me. Of course, other players think differently, but consider that the laws may be very rigid, e.g. making it almost impossible to gather citizen points if you are a PvE-player.

Additionally, the idea of mobs not dropping money sounds nice at first, but it turns out to be problematic. There are only two ways for a player to earn money: mine ores and mint the coins or sell things to other players who mined ores and minted coins.

Now, as a beginner, there is nothing you can craft that is worth selling. Everybody else can craft the same things, why would they buy from you? So the only option that remains is mining. But there is obviously a limited number of mining spots. I leave it to you to find out what that means...

Instead of offering freedom to players, Wakfu introduces grind.

Finally, being a long-time Dofus player I am somewhat disappointed of the spell-system, which also is very grindy and way less tactical than in Dofus. In Dofus, a higher spell level may also mean use of less action points, increased range, decreased cooldown etc., which makes leveling a spell a tactical decision. In Wakfu, basically only the damage is increased. Around level 10 you know all spells available to your class, from then on they will only become stronger, no change other than that.

I am sure this game will find its players, but I personally am rather disappointed.

@MacDexter

I haven't played in the Beta, but I've seen such systems introduced in earlier games and they didn't work out so well.

Granted, we'd probably have to see this in practice; maybe they have some unique quirks in implementing such things: How are players chosen to rule? Do they campaign or does the game randomly choose 4 players and others have to vote? How long are their terms? Do they even have terms?

I see much exploitation in-game by those willing to do the time but not much benefit for casual or even new players, as you state. In fact, there is a danger of a few players or guild monopolizing everything; I was thinking of how they can even start their own gold-farming here.

Then there are resources. Will mining nodes be limited? I can see botting being a problem. Then there are the monsters: So, you can potentially wipe out monsters, but you can "seed" more, but who is gonna seed? I can see the majority of players coming in and killing and not bothering to repopulate. I can possibly see a few individuals or groups that may try to keep re-seeding such monsters, but those will be gone by the next day (or however long it takes). And really, why can't monsters re-seed themselves? Don't they have "Mommy and Daddy Monsters"? Perhaps it would be nice to give such NPC monsters their own economy, but this does not seem to be the vision of the Dev crew.

Really, based on past experience, I see such problems for this title at launch that will have to be re-tooled sometime after launch and the sooner, the better. Granted, I *could* be wrong and it could work out swimmingly. I also am a firm believer that we should re-evaluate past experiences/experiments and see if things have changed to see if it succeeds where it failed in the past. I am pessimistic over this for the average player getting ahead. I like the goals of the economy, but I don't see the reality shaping up. I see players working the system. I see new players that come in later stunned and log off. I then see old players get bored, because they only have themselves.

It's a bit like bartle's PKers vs. PK-Killers vs. sheep, but on a more capitilistic setting. Again, other MMOs have done this and some are not that old.

It's a bit sad, because it seems charming, but I think the Dev team is being too optimistic. Still, time will bear out if they are right or wrong...or somewhere in-between.

Does anyone know if there is going to be a character wipe after open beta to release? I know 99.9% of F2P games do not wipe characters, but I am pretty sure this game is a "freemium" where you only get the majority of the content if you subscribe.

any answer much appreciated.

@Maseno Yup they wipe so don't get too attached

@loudoggie

Ah alright, thank you.

Guess I won't be playing too extensively then.

Woah, that guy is skinny. And I thought i was bad. Though its great to see more games that feature sandbox mechanics. For the some time sandbox games were reserved for the more 'hardcore' gamers and the like. More 'casual' sandboxes = less carebears in my pvp sandbox.

I like the idea that players must make the game currency from ores, and that they're not dropped by monsters.

Anyone else feel the urge to attempts to gain control of the entire game's currency and become ruler of Wakfu economy? I'd make so much fun for myself.

Peasants! Every last one of you, mine!

This just sounds like a really bad experiment. Leave everything up to the players? Have they seen the average player base? Do they understand how these people think at all? No doubt some people will try to do things correctly, most people will look for loopholes and exploits and a good portion will actually try and sabotage everything they can because that is fun for them. Sadly, if they average player gets their hands on this game, I expect the economy and the environment in the game to go down in flames, very literally.

Very interesting, this video put this game on my radar (Instead of ignoring the massively posts like I have in the past).
Of course, all I could think of is how disruptive things could be. I hope they have a person or two assigned to be the hugest dick on purpose on their test team, doing things like:
- Spawn strong/high level monsters in low level areas
- Mint coins non-stop constantly, but everything thats cheap and resale higher
- Campaign in areas with no competition to get an instant win

The currency thing is especially interesting, but I can't help but think of Xsyon's tribal currency options that never really took off... I'll be watching this game closely now.

I tried it, but then i red on the forums this is goind subscription based in february soo game deleted. This is true right?

@SpaceCobra
you can only kill/seed a limited number of the types of monsters(2-3) and in specific locations. Same with trees/herbs. If you harvest more than the NPC in that region accepts as normal, you get penalties.
alson there are plenty of nodes and they respawn in few minutes.

New WAKFU dev diary highlights player freedom, sandbox features

Reader Comments (13)

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 12:19PM loudoggie said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 12:22PM kgptzac said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 12:36PM Vandal said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 12:49PM MacDexter said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 3:13PM Space Cobra said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 1:08PM Maseno said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 2:21PM loudoggie said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 3:53PM Maseno said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 2:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 2:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 3:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 13th 2012 3:46PM Vazzaroth said

Posted: Jan 14th 2012 3:58AM BGExorcist said

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