There will be no numerical stats in Emerald Kingdom. They do nothing but create uncomfortable hindsight. They ultimately force you to cling to a badly constructed character. Let me give you an example.

You find a new MMORPG. We will call it AwesomeMMO. The game is new, and everyone is talking about it. Unfortunately, real information about how characters grow and work within classes means when you level up, you have no idea where to put some of your stat points. You choose a fighter, so you dump a bunch of stat points on STR and DEX, thinking that being strong and moving fast are going to be key. Later on down the road you realize that your CON score, which you didnt pay much attention to because you have armor and your fast and you are strong…your CON score is low. And your CON score is what affects how fast you regenerate HP. It also affects how much HP you are awarded every time you level up. You’re level 50 now, and you have to fight 10 levels above you to get decent amounts of experience points. But you’re getting slapped around hard sometimes because you regenerate your HP slower, and you have less HP to work with.  There is now, no way to go back. You are stuck with this character that you built out of ignorance.

Some games try to fix this with “resets” or “rebirth” into a new higher class. (or the same class, just with your stats base lined) This results in your stats being defaulted, and you can then build again. Usually, resetting a character costs money, rare items and time…not to mention following some really boring and tedious steps. This is so wrong headed, I do not even know where to begin. Why would you think punishing your player is a good idea? It’s not. But the real question is: why would you punish your players for bad design choices you made? Character resets and rebirths are a kludge. A quick fix solution to a bad design problem.

Emerald Kingdom will not do this. Emerald Kingdom is looking at non numerical named stats that are dictated by two things:

  • The way you play.
  • What you choose to enhance, or emphasize less.

For instance, if you think Strength and Dexterity are what you need, we will offer ways to enhance those specific things. You may for instance work your strength through grinding, or a mini game, and go from “Weakling” to “Strongman”. These are not the names we are using, but you get the idea. But here is the kicker: say, later on you do not like the way your character has worked out. You begin working other attributes which emphasize Intelligence and Charisma more than Strength. You can raise those stats, let your strength slide. It will take time (but not thousands of hours!) but you will eventually see the change in your character. Without a reset, rebirth, etc. A real world analogy is, if a body builder suddenly decides he wants to be a Physicist, he is not going to have time to build his body the way he used to. His mind will expand, but the strength and body will be reduced because his focus is elsewhere. He will always be strong, but not the same as when he was oiling up for competition.

The wonderful thing about this idea that we are now developing is that it also works for character classes. If you are an MBA, you work in an office building with spreadsheets, balance sheets, numbers, etc. One day you decide to join the army. While you never completely lose the things you learned as a college grad, you de-emphasize those things in favor of becoming a soldier which requires a whole different skill set. After 10 years in the army, your primary skill set is combat not balance sheets. You remember your life as an MBA, but there would be a learning curve to get back into it after spending 10 years away from it.

The important thing to remember here is: when we choose things in real life, and become unhappy with what we choose…we have options to remedy that. Be it college, military, or life experiences. If real life were like an MMORPG…when we choose to do something we did not like, we would kill ourselves and hope to re-incarnate into something we want. Much like some people delete their character and start over. So, we asked ourselves: why? Why create a system like that?

The answer was: there is NO reason to create a system like that. In fact, it’s been done to death. It’s not fun. It’s not challenging. It’s gives users less choice. While our system is still in development, I think it’s going to be one of the more fun things to test. I really do.