chris-wilson
Latest
Grinding Gear's Wilson talks F2P ethics in Path of Exile
Gamasutra reports that over five million people have signed up to play Grinding Gear's Path of Exile title. The company hasn't disclosed how many of those people are actually paying for the free-to-play Diablo-style game, but Path of Exile's critical and financial success invites a closer examination of its business model. Unlike most F2P titles, Path of Exile completely avoids gameplay gates and delaying mechanisms and thus avoids the dreaded pay-to-win stigma. Microtransactions are purely cosmetic, and Grinding Gear's crowdfunding campaign has now morphed "into a permanent rewards-based structure for monetization." Managing director Chris Wilson tells Gamasutra that PoE's supporter packs are a big part of the game's success story in addition to traditional microtransactions, the latter of which offer "enough money to run the company on" by themselves. Wilson says that players want to support PoE because its business model puts gameplay first. "We've been careful when designing the game so there's no paying for game content or advantage in the game," he explained. "We've purposefully divorced any game mechanics from the monetization."
Path of Exile 1.0, Steam, and sweet, sweet revenge
If you're in need of a healthy dose of monster-bashing, clicky goodness, nothing is better for you than the soon-to-be-Steamed Path of Exile. I'll let that sink in. Yes, I did. Grinding Gear Games is finally taking the game out of open beta on October 23 and simultaneously releasing on the Steam network. Version 1.0 of the free-to-play action RPG will include several new improvements such as a new prestige class (awesome: wields ethereal weapons like boomerangs!), three new areas filled with sub-zones, and new PvP modes. The release also marks the conclusion of the third act in which we face off against Dominus himself. Well, himself and legions of dead, demon-y things. And, that's just the beginning.
Path of Exile interview reveals plans for player-generated races
Although there is no Some Assembly Required in the title, don't let that fool you; today's focus is on one of the founding precepts of this column, player-generated content. It's just not sandboxy player-generated content like we've covered before. Today's special edition explores the PGC proposed for the decidedly non-sandbox action RPG Path of Exile. At GDC I sat down with managing director Chris Wilson and technical director Jonathan Rogers to discuss Path of Exile and their idea of adding player-run races to the game. A fan favorite, these timed gaming experiences are currently only officially sponsored events grouped into seasons, the first of which just concluded. However, devs would like to give players the opportunity to create and host unofficial events (meaning results won't have any bearing on the seasons) to allow players to enjoy this wildly popular facet of the game in a place where they can practice skills, test themselves against friends, or just enjoy a unique challenge.
Path of Exile version 1.0 is six months away, one expansion per year after
The free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile went into open beta this past January, and the next step is putting together a version 1.0, Grinding Gear Games co-founder Chris Wilson told us this week at GDC 2013. Starting with about 250,000 registered players, the game has since grown up to around 2 million, with the devs fixing bugs and providing weekly patches since then.The weekly patches, which have been adding new skills and items to the game, will continue to roll out. But version 1.0 is going to be the game's full release, when the "open beta" tag comes off, and the game "will be reviewable," according to Wilson. The update will add a full story to the game's Act 3, including lots of new monsters and items, and "do the stuff we had to cut corners on" throughout the game's development, Wilson said.After that, "we intend to do expansions over the next five to ten years," Wilson told us. The team has no set plans for releases, and if they can put a major feature together in less time, then Wilson says they'll do it. The game already had a lot of success with "races," which are special events that challenge players to speedrun the game under special conditions. But in general, he said, given the current player base, "adding a new act to the game is probably a once a year thing."
Piles of dead demons: A hands-on with Path of Exile
Path of Exile makes me smile. It isn't because of the gritty, dark setting or how a swing of my mace scatters disembodied monster pieces in every direction. It isn't the interesting design of the passive skill tree or the inclusion of PvP. What makes me smile is knowing that the kid inside me has finally found a worthy successor to the action RPG Diablo II. Oh, and it's free-to-play. Grinding Gear Games begins the PoE open beta on January 23rd, 2013. This week I massacred hordes of various dark abominations with Lead Programmer Jonathan Rogers and Producer Chris Wilson in the brand-new Act III content. And after my demo was finished, I almost felt bad for Diablo III.%Gallery-170186%
