I'm gonna be talking about two games, so I want to start with a description of both incase you haven't heard of them:
Brighter Shores is a newly released MMORPG from one of the original creators of RuneScape. This isometric, point-and-click game openly embraces its inspiration from the creator’s previous work. However, aside from this connection, little was known about it prior to launch.
Cube World is an open-world RPG that initially launched with great success in an alpha release back in 2013, only to be abandoned by its developers shortly after. In 2019, the game was released on Steam in an updated beta version, which is the one I'll be mentioning.
When Cube World launched on Steam it came with many changes, but perhaps the biggest one was the newly implemented Region system. No longer could you freely explore the world however you wanted and slowly progress your character with vertical power boosts. Instead, both your combat equipment and traveling tools were location bound to the zone where you first found them, with the only permanent progression being insignificant out-of-combat perks.
This design led to a repetitive gameplay loop: enter a zone, gradually grind for better gear, unlock travel tools like gliders, defeat the boss, earn a small permanent boost (such as a +2.1% swimming speed increase), and then move to the next zone to repeat the process.
This was AWFUL.
Not only is the whiplash of suddenly going from hero to zero for no good reason going to instantly get the majority of your players quitting the game then and there, what exactly does a mechanic like this even solve? Instead of trying to find a way to improve on the flaws of the existing system - which made progression feel pointless at times due to enemies scaling to your level, or gave you no reason to return to low level zones - you are now forced to essentially play a new character in every region. Ok? How is this any better?
Anyway, finally onto Brighter shores. Uniquely, this game is split into distinct pieces called Episodes, where each offers its own area, story and skills. With the game's launch yesterday, players quickly found out that your combat skills and gear both do not carry over between these episodes. Worse still, even your non-combat skills like Cooking or Foraging either have a very limited interaction with other episode content, or are straight up only useable within this one space.
Why? Not only is it clear that a majority of players are put off by a system like this (as seen in the Steam reviews), but for a game that proudly embraces its RuneScape heritage to impose strict limits on how skills interact—and which ones you can use—feels contradictory. Make it make sense.
As a sidenote - some people have dug up the developer's previous comments on progression, and are now speculating that these early episodes serve as a kind of tutorial, after which you will reach zones where the limits on skills are more relaxed. This to me does not make sense, specifically because of the zone combat skills. They are basically copies of one another with a different name, as they use the same exact gear and have no gameplay differences. Surely, if they were supposed to be made available simultaneously later on, they would have some strengths and weaknesses comparatively?
Anyway, finally getting to the core of this post, on why I am mentioning these two games together. When Cube World launched on Steam, there was a ton of negativity and criticism early on. Seemingly everyone hated it, and you could barely find one positive thing about it. But only 24 hours later and there was a complete 180. If you were active in the game's communities on Steam, Youtube, Reddit, Discord etc, you were suddenly swamped with people finding reasons why the Region system is actually great, how it has huge potential, how you cannot criticize the game because it's in Early access (???).
In reality, the people who professed love to this awful Region system were just doing it for... i don't know. Love of the developer? Trying to combat toxicity on the internet? Who knows. What I can say for certain is that it was all just lip service as they didn't like the system either, given that the game essentially lost all of it's playerbase a month or so post launch.
Now in that game's case, it was all ultimately a pointless discussion because the devs took the money and ran for the second time. So no matter the public opinion, nothing would have ever changed. But it seems the same cycle is happening to Brighter Shores. I really hope that in this case, players could learn from history of games like Cube World, like Helldivers 2, like Space marine 2 etc and understand that, even if you personally think a system is OK or even fun, you should consider the opinions of the majority and admit to issues, rather than trying to constantly blow smoke up Andrew Gower's ass while stonewalling all concerns.
You can find a game fun and you can want the developer to suceed all while allowing people to share criticism and ask for improvements. The game's purportedly in Early access, and if that word means what you think it means then now's the last time for big changes to be made - like rethinking this awful episode system that will kill the game.
Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts. I had to put this stuff to paper, infuriating to see history repeat again.