Former WoW and LoL Designer is Creating a New Fantasy MMO Ghost Here's Why You Should Be Excited
Nov. 2, 2023Former WoW and LoL Designer is Creating a New Fantasy MMO Ghost Here’s Why You Should Be Excited
Previously working at Blizzard and Riot, Greg Street or ‘Ghostcrawler’ is forming a brand new fantasy MMO under the studio Fantastic Pixel Castle codenamed ‘Ghost’.
Having worked at giants Blizzard and Riot, game designer Greg Street or ‘Ghostcrawler’ as he’s known online is creating a new MMO under a new studio Fantastic Pixel Castle. The “AAA MMO” currently doesn’t have an official name but quite fittingly is going by the codename ‘Ghost’.
Moving on to Riot Street has worked on the MOBA League of Legends, then went on to work on the yet-to-be-released MMO spinoff. He later left Riot earlier this year in March.
Having worked on two major games he’s caught the eye of NetEase who established Fantastic Pixel Castle with Street as studio head and game director. The studio is a first-party independent studio under NetEase Games. The team is made up of industry veterans who have worked on not only WoW and LoL, but Guild Wars 2 as well. This means there’s quite a stacked amount of talent, with years of experience going in.
While in the realm of fantasy, unlike World of Warcraft, Fantastic Pixel Castle has no plans for Orcs or Elves, trying to keep things fresh in this brand-new IP. In the Shardlands, players will be able to visit the Blue Shards which are private areas. The more public regions are called Red Shards will be more of a traditional MMO experience. Having private spaces and public ones adds a feel of a great world out there but also more party-friendly ones. Whether the private ones or more for group activities such as dungeons or just for your base will be interesting.
Matters of survival are key in Blue Shards, gaining resources, building bases and adventuring through wild lands. According to the website, your influence on them is permanent, and “you’ll never see the same Blue Shard twice” which sounds like a roguelite element. How many various Blue Shards is unknown, but could be an interesting way to keep gameplay fresh. But usually in a fantasy world peace isn’t prevalent, conflict usually drives the main story, so I wonder if we’ll be competing for resources in teams, whether that League of Legends style gameplay might seep in but in a wider world.
One thing you can count on is the focus on letting you play with friends, reducing those “barriers” you may find in MMOs such as level, faction, servers etc. If you’ve played MMOs such as WoW, for example, you will know that playing with a higher-levelled friend means different content, and a catch-up before you take on endgame content together. Jumping into the latest content or expansion can often mean being a certain item level needing certain gear or being a certain class. Hopefully, Ghost will give a balanced feel to classes, since this was Street’s expertise in previous games.
Speaking of classes, Ghost will still follow the traditional trifecta of tank, healer and DPS but will have “many ways to fill” them. There will be certain class options available at launch but others will be given as rewards in the game. It doesn’t go into detail about whether that means it is some sort of reputation grind, or content needed to be completed in order to unlock them. Hopefully, it works organically with the game’s content, so it doesn’t feel like a chore to gain and you only have to do it once across your account to avoid alt fatigue. If it follows the way Final Fantasy XIV tackles classes/jobs that would be great as it means switching classes isn’t a hassle. The details say it’s very “alt-friendly” so hopefully this means this.
Ghost seems to be heading for maybe a more realistic fantasy but there does seem to be more mystical elements involved going by the concept art. Of course, these are the early stages of development. I don’t think it will be quite the same setting asNew World, but more on the survival elements. Though we could be chopping down trees to craft things, if they have trees in the Shardlands that is.
Images show sword wielders and heavy armor which reminds me of theElder Scrolls Onlinea little, with bits of medieval-inspired fantasy. I much rather have a magical fantasy medieval MMO than a sci-fi futuristic one, more magic less space weapons, but we’ll see where Ghost will be heading with its post-apocalyptic setting.
Some of the best MMOs around also focus on less serious elements. While story, lore and fighting factions are driving forces for main storyline, I want some less serious content in between to keep things light. I think that’s why Final Fantasy XIV does so well, it’s a lot of story but also adds in a lot of fun mini-games and events to keep players coming back. Striking the right balance between a vibrant world and combat content is key. There are a lot of MMOs I wish I could get back into, but there are factors I just don’t really find fun or engaging. Ghost could really mix up the MMO space.
No release window has been shared but the AAA MMO Ghost will be coming to PC. A Twitch live stream will be happening on November 8th at 2PM ET.
For more news find it here inBlue Protocol Closed Beta Announced; Sign Ups Now AvailableandRemnant 2: The Awakened King DLC Preview.
Yuria
News Editor at Fextralife. Yuria is an avid PC gamer and Twitch streamer who enjoys online multi-player games and believes games should have amazing storylines not just great graphics.
