Thursday 28 February 2013

Crytek Reveals the Many Faces of Free-to-Play

Behind the tittersome names, in Crytek's Warface and Gface there lies a more serious message and an unmistakeable declaration of intent. Crysis developer Crytek has previously made clear its intention to wholly embrace free-to-play over the coming years. In the short-term, this involves Crytek aiming to deliver a polished and persistent multiplayer experience with its upcoming shooter, Warface. Meanwhile, the developer hopes to realise its longer-term free-to-play aspirations via its social platform, Gface. Most intriguing is Crytek’s vision for the development of connected single-player experiences, which represent a crucial missing piece of the free-to-play puzzle.

Warface is squarely aimed at people who buy the latest blockbuster FPS for the multiplayer.

Warface is Crytek’s multiplayer free-to-play FPS, powered by the potent CryEngine 3 and squarely aimed at people who frequently buy the latest instalment of a blockbuster FPS for the multiplayer experience. Its service-based nature is intended to address a key weakness of the traditional, product-orientated competition by offering a high-quality shooter that provides a persistent, ongoing experience. There is to be no more starting from scratch year after year and losing progress, levels, perks and weapons: Crytek wants to offer an alternative to the hamster-wheel by way of steady and continuous forward momentum.

Warface’s traditional competitive game modes are currently spread over ten maps, while its in-game weapon customisation and slide manoeuvre will be familiar to veterans of the Crysis series. Its four soldier classes play sufficiently differently from one another to promote teamwork and its weapon and equipment unlocks come in a steady drip-feed as progression is made through the ranks.

Complementing the PvP modes is a co-op PvE experience, which offers the chance for teams to compete for leader-board placement to earn in-game rewards. The co-op mode is restricted to two levels per day (one new, one rolling over from the previous day), but it nonetheless represents a welcome opportunity to take a break from shooting your friends in the face and to band together to achieve a more structured goal.

For all of the customisation options available in Warface, it offers a disappointing dearth of choices for the ethnicity of your soldier avatar, though this could and should be easily rectified. A more thoughtful introduction to its three different in-game currencies would also be beneficial. However, it’s encouraging to discover that the best items and weapons can only be obtained in exchange for the currency that has to be earned through play and cannot be bought.

The best items and weapons can only be obtained in exchange for the currency that has to be earned through play.

Underpinning the introduction of Warface is Crytek’s social platform, Gface. Crytek differentiates the function of Gface from that of superficially similar platforms like Steam and Origin by highlighting that it is not a distribution platform with social features added on, but has instead been built around the notion of free-to-play’s inherent inclusivity. The browser-based Gface acts as a library instead of a store, where every player can access all of the games, facilitating friends playing together.

Gface will initially focus on Crytek’s own free-to-play offerings but it’s the developer’s intention to expand to include third-party titles in the future. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli hints that not all of these titles will necessarily be the multiplayer free-for-all that is often associated with free-to-play, though his opening gambit on the subject is initially alarming.

“I think the notion of a single-player experience has to go away,” Yerli confidently declares. “However, I’m not saying that there will be no single-player experiences ... it could be it’s called Connected Single-Player or Online Single-Player instead.”

“Online and social can reignite single-player in a new type of context and provide benefits that will make you want to be a part of a connected story-mode rather than a disconnected story-mode. Sure, if the technology forces you to play a traditional single-player game online, that doesn’t make sense but if it’s offering actual benefits to be online then you want to be part of it.”

I think the notion of a single-player experience has to go away.

Yerli is unwilling to talk specifics, but you don’t have to look far to understand the kind of games to which he’s referring: From Software’s seminal Demon’s and Dark Souls, Thatgamecompay’s Journey and almost every racing title under the sun already offer connected single-player experiences. Even stalwart single-player titles like Atlus’ Catherine and Telltale’s phenomenally successful The Walking Dead pepper their experiences with simple but connected updates about the decisions other players are making.

Imagine, then, if the world of The Walking Dead was a persistent one, shaped by the decisions of players in it. Your already weighty choices could be shown to affect not just AI ciphers but real-life survivors of the digital zombie apocalypse. Could a game like The Walking Dead work within Crytek’s vision of a free-to-play future?

“I would actually say that The Walking Dead on Gface would make more money than anywhere else,” Yerli proclaims. “The Walking Dead would be a primary example of how, with some innovation, it would work even better with the free-to-play concept.”

Unfortunately, Yerli won’t be drawn on specifics of how this might be made to work, preferring to talk more about potential future concepts than make outright promises. Clearly, though, Crytek strongly believes the free-to-play model can be a viable and innovative alternative to the industry’s current structure across all genres and experiences.

Back in the here and now, Warface represents the company’s promise to introduce a quality free-to-play multiplayer experience, while Gface is to offer groups of friends an accessible and consistent way to play together. If Crytek applies the same commitment to producing viable, engaging connected single-player experiences, it may yet change the entire face of the free-to-play landscape.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherent the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.


Source : ign[dot]com

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