1. What is the design goal of Barrier City?
A: Barrier City is a digital hangout, similar to digital chatrooms from the 90's, with the exception that it is built as a sci-fi mmorpg.
2. How is it different from a traditional MMO?
A: A traditional mmorpg is a quest-grind. You come home from work or school, or take some downtime from your busy life only to sit down and grind. Players get bombarded with a whole spreadsheet's worth of quests as soon as they login. Do this, do that, go talk to so and so. I'm surprised the games don't ask you to go wash the dishes and fold the laundry. It's tedious and stops you from slowing down and smelling the flowers, from enjoying what the game has to offer, from making your own adventure. In Barrier City there will be no quest assignments. Players will have to go find quests on their own. You're meant to get lost in the city not have an automatic guide telling you what to do.
3. What's the genre, and what's the backstory?
A: Barrier City takes place in a sci-fi setting, in a version of our world in the year 2225. Around the year 2050 a number of concerned individuals got together and decided they had enough of the bullshit of modern society, so they set out to found their own city based on shared personal beliefs and goals, that of uniting, of abandoning greed and focusing on pushing everybody forward. Eventually the rest of the world fell apart, leaving pockets of civilization here and there.
4. Will the game be open world, or focused mainly on the city?
A: There will be open world areas to explore, including settlements, natural environments and abandoned cities.
5. What about PvP?
A: There will be "no" open world PvP of any kind, ever. It would completely ruin what the game is all about: community and adventure. There might be arena-styled PvP matches in dedicated lobbies, but these are not a priority.
6. How will players get around the world, instant teleportation?
A: There are no plans for an instant travel system. This may change after play testing, but the game is meant to be explored and lived in. You don't log in to Barrier City to go from point A to point B and just "get it over with". There will be a transit system in the city, as well as some limited transportation outside. Perhaps a giant hover boat might take you across the desert.
7. Will there be a class system?
A: There will be no classes. Players will choose their skills as they play.
8. How many skills will players be able to learn?
There is no set number, but players will be able to learn every skill. In my own personal experience with such systems, I find that people gravitate towards specific roles within a party anyways based on what needs to be done.
9. Will there be vehicles or mounts?
A: There will be vehicles. Mounts are currently not in the plans.
10. What are the death penalties in the game
A: When a player dies in the game they will respawn at distant location, without their gear. They will have to run back to their body to recover their items. Without any consequences the game would become too easy and there would be no incentive to skillfully navigate dangerous areas. And that's what adventuring in this game is about, skill, risks, and rewards. If you can just die and get right back to the fight like nothing happened, there's no sense of thrill nor accomplishment.
11. How will you handle quests?
A: Quests will be optional. That said, if you want some special piece of gear, you will likely have to quest for it but you won't be forced into it. There will be no quest pop-ups, and NPC's won't have quest markers above them, stripping away the pressure to get on a quest-treadmill just because you feel obligated to do so.
12. Explain player navigation in the game.
A: There will be no mini-map, only a general world map. Waypoint navigation will also not be in the game, nor will automatic pathing. Players will have to rely on their own skills to figure out where they are, or ask someone for directions. This creates a sense of community, and offers you the chance to actually adventure. Maybe you'll get lost, maybe you'll take a wrong turn and have to figure your way out of your predicament. But you will overcome it.
13. Will there be player housing?
A: Yes. Players will start off with a small apartment and work their way up, if they so choose. There won't be mega-mansions though(probably?).
14. What about crafting?
A: Crafting will be part of the game.
15. How will character creation be done?
A: The character creation system will feature a gene-based customization where players will choose one perk over another, for example a 10% increase in health regeneration, or a 15% boost to stamina regen. Another example will be a 15% resistance to environmental toxins, or a 15% boost to poison resistance.
16. Will there be a Cash Shop?
A: There will be an in-game economy with NPC shops, but there will be no "cash shop" in the sense that you buy items with real money. One of the foundations of Barrier City is that you earn your gear through gameplay, not through your wallet. It is a key characteristic of the design and always was.
17. Will it be Free To Play?
A: No. Barrier City will not be free-to-play. It will have a monthly sub that will make sure everyone is on equal terms. There are several reasons for this.
- When you buy a piece of hot gear via your wallet, you lose out on the thrill of acquiring it through raw effort and skillful gameplay. It becomes just another item, but if you go through challenges to acquire it, then you feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, and everyone who sees that gear has a certain amount of respect towards you because they know you put in the time and effort to get it.
- Free To Play games attract bots, gold sellers, credit card fraudsters, and hackers en masse. This wastes the Game Master's time, as they have to deal with investigating and banning players, time that could be spent on refining the game or helping legit players.
- F2P also creates inequality, those with thick wallets can buy whatever they want while others just look on. Yes, it can be argued that they get to experience the game for free, but then the game relies on whales to fund itself, and at the end of the day I need to circle back to my previous point: you're supposed to earn your items through gameplay, through overcoming challenges and obstacles whether solo or with teammates. That is in the spirit of the game.