There are currently a six-figure number of players playing Throne and Liberty around the clock on Steam alone. And although the online role-playing game focuses on playing together and against each other, there is also a well-known problem of the MMO genre here.
What kind of problem is this? Throne and Liberty is currently attracting hundreds of thousands of interested parties to the servers. On Steam alone there were at times 336,300 simultaneous players over the weekend. And since thousands of characters cavort in one version of the game world, a wonderful MMO feeling always arises on the surface.
But the new game from NCSoft and Amazon Games does even more to promote cooperation and opposition. The events in the open world in particular always attract dozens or even hundreds of players to a small area. World bosses are beaten, other characters are hunted in PvP or resources are collected together.
So the foundation for a great MMO experience is right. Still, beneath the surface, Throne and Liberty suffers from a problem common to other modern online role-playing games: Hardly anyone speaks or interacts with anyone.
There will certainly be interaction within some Throne and Liberty guilds. Joining a community is also worthwhile for other reasons:
Throne and Liberty: This is why a large and active guild is so important
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I miss the wasteland chat
How does the problem manifest itself? Although countless characters are in metropolitan areas like the city of Kastleton almost around the clock, we hardly ever see any interactions between players there. Gestures and poses are hardly used between the characters. Chat is almost always just about effectively searching for a group, a guild or fellow members of your own community.
We haven’t even seen a long discussion about God and the world or even the game break out in the chat. You almost miss the good old wasteland chat from the vanilla era of World of Warcraft, in which things were regularly verbal…
And even in randomly thrown together dungeon and raid groups, hardly two words are exchanged. Exchange about boss mechanics? None. Then leave the group after two wipes. The result of this: Level 50 instances such as Cursed Waste or Temple of Carnage have so far been mastered by just 1.1 and 3.1 percent of all Steam players, respectively.
What is the reason for all this? When it comes to your own character progression and gaming experience, your own efficiency in MMOs has become increasingly important over the years. This is the only way to explain why large parts of the community always choose the more effective but less fun way to reach their goal.
Or that activities that are not sufficiently profitable in terms of rewards are rarely used. But also that you want to get past the level phase as quickly as possible so that you can plunge into the end game. Anyone who doesn’t fit your own standards of efficiency has no place in your own guild or group.
This isn’t something Throne and Liberty invented. This kind of behavior could be seen in MMOs 15+ years ago. It’s just a shame that cooperation also suffers in a completely new online adventure that wants to bring back exactly that massive MMO gaming experience from back then. Here’s just one sad story of many: Player from Throne and Liberty is kicked out of the guild because he had to go to work on day 2.