Andrew Gower developed the MMORPG RuneScape in 2001, one of the most successful online role-playing games of all time. Now his new MMORPG Brighter Shores is launching in 2024 and it’s only doing mixed results on Steam. Gower explains the problems and says players just need to get used to the new system.
Who is Andrew Gower? Andrew Gower and his two brothers, Paul and Ian, started programming games in the 90s. For two of the brothers, it became more and more serious over time.
In 1999, Andrew and Paul Gower founded gaming studio Jagex while studying at Cambridge.
Their MMORPG RuneScape was released in 2001 and has become one of the largest online role-playing games in the world over the last 23 years. Players spend an incredible amount of time trying to bring their skills to the max level in the MMORPG, which takes on absurd proportions.
But Andrew Gower withdrew from RuneScape in November 2011 and developed a new MMORPG Brighter Shores.
RuneScape is a huge success for Andrew Gower:
Old School RuneScape – Trailer for the Steam release
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New MMORPG has a mixed start on Steam
Here’s how things work at Brighter Shores now: His new MMORPG Brighter Shores was released on Steam on November 6th. It currently has 70% positive reviews and has narrowly escaped the dreaded yellow zone of “mixed” reviews.
So far it has had a maximum of 15,920 simultaneous players on Steam, which are rather disappointing numbers for a free2play MMORPG.
Many people found Brighter Shores’ job and skill system to be a problem with the game: As Gamesradar writes, players had the feeling that they were getting a fresh job every time they started a new episode.
This goes completely against the gaming experience of MMORPG players.
“Please give the game a chance”
This was his announcement: When his MMORPG still had 67% positive reviews on Steam, Gower turned to players in a blog post and asked: “Please give it a chance.”
Gower assured players: No progress will be lost. With the start of Episode 2, 4 new professions would be unlocked – but the professions from Episode 1 are still intact and still useful. You can always go back to Hopeport, i.e. in Episode 1, and continue using the old professions.
The feeling of irritation among MMORPG players is apparently due to the fact that the respective skills are relevant to one area and do not apply everywhere, as in RuneScape.
Brighter Shores breaks the classic way skills work in an MMORPG
This is the idea behind it: Gower says that if you start a new episode, it could be equally fun for everyone. On the other hand, if you start a single combat value for the entire game, experienced players would have a big advantage with a new episode.
With the system of constant restarts you avoid dead content. But the idea is by no means that you complete Episode 1, go to Episode 2 and never go back to Episode 1.
Gower says: The tests have shown that players find the new system to be good once they get used to it. But apparently the system needs to be communicated better now.
Skills and progression are part of the core DNA of MMORPGs
This is what lies behind it: When an MMORPG breaks so clearly with the conventions of the genre, it’s a daring experiment. It’s particularly ironic with Gower because he helped to consolidate the very intensive skill farming in RuneScape that he has now identified as a problem with his new MMORPG.
In RuneScape, skills are everything and define the character. Players spend months and years leveling up individual skills, working through specific lists and on a hardcore grind.
To a certain extent, the negative response to Brighter Shores’ skill system is not a communication problem, but a very real one: many MMORPG players love progress in a game and want to become more and more competent and powerful over time. The idea of starting anew with every episode and offering everyone the same starting conditions will simply not appeal to everyone: the developer is so rich that his new MMORPG on Steam is supposed to make players happy
Our cover photo shows Andrew Gower from a RuneScape event in 2011. He rarely makes public appearances.