Blog Banter 75 - What Does Project Nova Need to Be Successful?
Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 75th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.
What Does Project Nova Need to Be Successful?
At Fanfest CCP showcased their current iteration of the FPS set in the Eve Universe. Following on from DUST514 and Project Legion, Project Nova is shaping up to be a solid FPS with CCP taking the decision to get the game mechanics right first. However with so many FPS out there what will Nova need in order to stand out from a very large crowd and be successful? What are the opportunities and perhaps more importantly, the dangers for CCP? How can Nova compete against CoD, Battlefront and Titanfall to name a few?There are a ton of quick and dirty PvP games out in the First Person Shooter genre, and I've played a few of them, a lot of the Call of Duty franchise and dabbled in Sony's Planetside 2 MMOFPS. I was really looking forward to getting into DUST prior to hearing it was a Playstation only title which meant I was not going to ever play it. I still feel that was a huge misstep for CCP.
Regardless of DUST, in the PC ecosystem there are a lot of FPS to choose from so CCP needs to distinguish themselves early and strongly in the minds of gamers in order to be successful.
First and foremost, Project Nova needs to have solid fundamentals: performs well, looks good, feels good (in terms of controls). Sounds easy but it is rare to find all three in a single game.
Secondly, it needs to have a lot of variety: lots of weapon types and abilities/utilities to choose from that are well balanced, maps with various designs and environments and elevations, and different types game modes (with lots of options to customize them in private matches).
But even with those two things all you have is a good FPS in a market flooded with FPS games. In order to truly be successful CCP needs to capitalize on their biggest strength and the unique tie in only they can bring to the table: tight integration with EVE Online.
That is the big selling point not only to current EVE players but the large FPS community at large. Being able to affect the large universe that is New Eden through their actions in Project Nova in collaboration with capsuleers. A tight integration beyond orbital bombardments and slight impact on Faction War will make the game a mainstay in the long run and not just an also-ran.
I look forward to shooting my opponents in the face on the ground and in space.
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I am still waiting for the immersive DUST integration that was promised (sorry no citation just a feeble memory). What was delivered never matched the hype, or were we just too hopeful? I was really looking forward to transporting a bunch of DUST Bunnies between systems, for a fee, only to self destruct outside the destination station in true evil Eve style.
ReplyDeleteSo... you would pay a subscription to have your game affected by whatever did a bunch of F2P players in a F2P FPS?
ReplyDeleteI'm never sure what good controls are. Lot of people went to fanfest, but no one really said what category of FPS it falls in. Halo had a design philosophy back in the day, "Five Seconds of Fun". Short fast engagements that lasted 5 seconds and then a fast breather before next engagement or respawn. CoD is about the same and Battlefield is a bit longer. Quake back in the day could last less. Then you have stuff like ARMA where combat can take forever since it's not a run&gun game.
ReplyDeleteGood controls in all of those mean different things. A good game means something different for all of those. Asking what CCP needs for Nova to be successful or stand out doesn't really help because what they need to be successful is highly dependent on what type of FPS they are making. So far all I've heard is a very generic "We're focused on core shooting mechanics" or from fanfest attendees, "It's a very competent fps.". This tells me nothing about what I want out of it or what I want in it.