Yeah, they ripped that concept straight out of Final Fantasy XIV’s playbook… FFXIV implemented a system where you can solo dungeons by taking a group of NPCs with you. The NPCs level up from raids, so players who prefer soloing will be able to grind an entire party.
…And FFXIV had ripped it straight out of even older games like EverQuest (where it is common practice to multi-box and have control of an entire party at once.)
That seems to be the lifecycle of feature implementations for MMOs. It’s sort of a given that MMO players tend to be familiar with other MMOs, so word naturally spreads when one MMO creates a cool new system. And other MMO devs are able to basically see that other game implementing it as a feature test, to gauge how popular it may be in their own game. So when one MMO adds a cool new system, the other MMOs typically do the same relatively quickly. They’re all just copying each others’ homework.
Yeah, they ripped that concept straight out of Final Fantasy XIV’s playbook… FFXIV implemented a system where you can solo dungeons by taking a group of NPCs with you. The NPCs level up from raids, so players who prefer soloing will be able to grind an entire party.
…And FFXIV had ripped it straight out of even older games like EverQuest (where it is common practice to multi-box and have control of an entire party at once.)
That seems to be the lifecycle of feature implementations for MMOs. It’s sort of a given that MMO players tend to be familiar with other MMOs, so word naturally spreads when one MMO creates a cool new system. And other MMO devs are able to basically see that other game implementing it as a feature test, to gauge how popular it may be in their own game. So when one MMO adds a cool new system, the other MMOs typically do the same relatively quickly. They’re all just copying each others’ homework.