Some of them are going to play during the Spring Festival.
For RPG lovers, the year 2023 that has just passed has been quite a happy year.
The RPG masterpieces such as "Baldur's Gate 3", "Final Fantasy 16", and "Fallen Lords" launched this year have performed quite well, and many manufacturers have also followed suit, launching a large number of RPGs and MMORPG (hereinafter referred to as MMO) works, such as "Kingpower and Freedom", "Zhuxian World (Beta)", etc., which are dazzling and difficult to choose for a while.
However, for RPG players, especially MMO players who are accustomed to long-term play and have an average of "hamster + liver emperor" per capita, what is needed is not a meteor that crosses the sky, but a high-quality long-term operation product that can be trusted.
Because of this, another interesting phenomenon has emerged in 2023. After trying out the new MMO and quickly losing its freshness, many players invariably poured into another MMO masterpiece that was launched in the same year - "Ark of Destiny".
Looking back on the grand occasion of the full opening of the "Ark of Destiny" national server on July 20 this year, due to too many players entering at the same time, the queuing time once became a hot topic, and even some servers were so popular that they forced the official to carry out a "circuit breaker" operation. To this day, the popularity of the game is still at a high level, and it can be seen in the lists of different places such as wegame and Internet cafes that it is still firmly at the top of the popularity list. Judging from various external player community positions, content platforms, live broadcast platforms, etc., the popularity of players' discussions, the number of creators' creations, or the popularity of anchors all confirm the high popularity of the game "Ark of Destiny" from the side.
Recently, "Ark of Destiny" also launched a new expansion pack of "Dream Arrival", and simultaneously released a movie-quality CG of the big world view, which made this MMO head product once again the focus of players' attention, and also made more people understand how "Ark of Destiny" kept itself in the MMO head queue for a long time.
A CG that can be called the industry benchmark
After talking about the version update content, let's take a look at this CG.
Generally speaking, getting familiar with the gameplay mechanics of an MMO game is not too long, and a few months is enough time to become a skilled player, but then the game begins, and you need to devote more time to accumulating resources, acquiring equipment, and earning honors.
In this process, it is inevitable that problems such as declining interest and enthusiasm will occur, leading to the emergence of depitization.
There are two key elements to solve this problem: first, the fresh experience brought by the official constantly updated plot, so that players always have new content to explore and a new plot to understand; Second, the official has demonstrated its technical strength and operational determination through forms such as CG, so that players can believe that the game can become more and more fun, more and more advanced, and have the motivation to continue playing.
The CG released by Ark of Destiny this time can be called the standard answer to the second point.
This "Ark of Destiny" world view plot CG, the official can be said to be extremely attentive, even if it is compared in the global MMO market, the quality and presentation effect can be called rare, and it is second to none in China. In particular, the appearance of the super-popular fantasy army captain Abresiud is "heaven and earth subversion" in a gesture, and the last sentence "Nightmare is destined to override reality, everything has just begun" is even more oppressive, pushing the fate of the continent of Asia Krasia in "Ark of Destiny" into the unknown.
Through this CG, "Ark of Destiny" not only shows its high technical strength and investment to the fullest, bringing players unprecedented confidence and expectations, but also allows players to get a glimpse of the truth behind the main story of "Ark of Destiny", and leaves a lot of room for imagination.
When more and more peers choose to abandon the "burning money" CG and use text and memes to create "canned plots" to fool players, "Ark of Destiny" chooses to increase investment, improve its technical strength again, and bring players the most immersive plot experience with more shocking CG.
It is foreseeable that this CG will become a new benchmark in the domestic MMO industry, and will also bring stronger influence and appeal to "Ark of Destiny", which is expected to help it reach a higher level in the MMO market.
After talking about CG, let's take a look at the sincerity of the "Ark of Destiny" operation team.
Since the launch of "Ark of Destiny", it is not difficult to see that the national server team has continued to provide a large number of high-quality version of content, and continue to bring players a fresh experience. Looking back at the traditional MMO terminal game, either the major version is usually updated every quarter, or the update is painless content, and the operation of the "Ark of Destiny" national server can be described as "volume".
And the quality of each version of "Ark of Destiny" has not decreased, as can be seen from the expansion pack of this update Dream Advent . This expansion update is quite rich in content, just the Dream Legion Captain ยท Abreshud This new boss is enough for players to figure out how to conquer it for a while, not to mention the fact that several new dungeons and gameplay have been launched at the same time, as well as a new "Ancient Equipment System" and "Jewelry-Bracelet", etc., the playability has been greatly improved.
This is actually exactly what MMO players need: constantly enriching content, constantly raising the ceiling, and increasing difficulty. If you look back a little, you will find that every large-scale expansion update of "Ark of Destiny" also revolves around these three points.
A good game will naturally attract good players. An interesting phenomenon is that many MOBA players have also flocked to this game, and many of them are well-known celebrities, all attracted to Ark of Destiny. The shy, King Ning and Baolan, who are well-known to the old IG, are also veteran players of "Ark of Destiny". Brother Shy has repeatedly opened "Ark of Destiny" with Baolan in live broadcasts, and the program effect is full.
It is understood that Brother Shy is already a veteran fan of "Ark of Destiny", and he has given many comrades-in-arms Amway, and his love for the game is also visible to the naked eye. With the release of the expansion pack of "Ark of Destiny", The Shy will also reassemble with Baolan and Ning to live broadcast the crusade against the Captain of the Dream Army, and it will be fun for new and old players to gather in the live broadcast room.
While more and more peers are perfunctory players with numerical changes, small updates, etc., "Ark of Destiny" chooses to provide players with a steady stream of new exploration directions and goals through continuous and high-quality large-scale version updates, so that players always have something to do and have fun.
To a certain extent, this also offsets the boredom brought about by the inherent gameplay mode of the MMO category, and the investment and love of a large number of star players and ordinary players also proves that the efforts of "Ark of Destiny" are not in vain, and the product's leading position in the MMO market has become more and more stable.
A two-way race between the game and the player
What's more worth mentioning is the extremely high playability of the game itself, which has created the phenomenon mentioned at the beginning of this article, the more "sophisticated" players love this game, and more and more MMO players who are used to playing games like "dragonflies" have also taken root in "Ark of Destiny".
To truly become the ultimate choice for the majority of players, playability is essential, after all, players come to experience the game itself. The playability of "Ark of Destiny", in the author's opinion, is a two-way rush between high-quality games and high-quality players, creating its unique and irreplaceable playability.
Players who have followed "Ark of Destiny" believe that they all know that the game has a "Crazy Wednesday" meme. This meme** has been updated every Wednesday in "Ark of Destiny" to update the Legion Commander dungeon CD, and then there will be an interesting phenomenon, a huge player base will pour into the game to play dungeons. Although the difficulty and operation threshold of the dungeon are not low, players are still happy to die again and again, and start again and again. Along with this behavior, more professional regiment commanders, professional commands, professional strategies, and so on are derived.
This phenomenon is interesting. The game environment of the national server has actually been moving in the direction of lightweight, maybe this is the trend, but it doesn't mean that this is the only way to retain players. "Ark of Destiny" has opened up such a new path, its game design fully stimulates the enthusiasm of every MMO enthusiast, and this enthusiasm also leads to a continuous virtuous cycle between officials and players, launching more and more interesting and challenging copies, and players also get a more unique experience and a sense of achievement in the process, and gradually accumulate the irreplaceable playability of "Ark of Destiny".
In addition to the hardcore advantage of playability, the people-friendly attitude of "Ark of Destiny" in terms of operation is also remarkable.
On New Year's Eve this year, the official directly pulled the famous pianist Lang Lang onto the island of Ilios in the game, bringing players a surprise cyber ** performance, which can be described as full of sincerity. This event has received almost 100% praise from players, from the official operation of the event in the early stage of strict secrecy, to the official release of the event in the form of surprises, and the rewards of the event full of sincerity to players, such as: Lang Lang personally played the track**, Lang Lang theme wallpaper, and many sincere benefits, and even have the opportunity to get tickets for Lang Lang's offline ** meeting, so that players can gain more fun inside and outside the game.
What's more worth mentioning is that the above-mentioned Lang Lang's surprise activities are customized for the "Ark of Destiny" national server, that is, only players in the national server can get such a surprise, which shows that the "Ark of Destiny" national server team is also full of sincerity, a whole "pet fan". There is also this Spring Festival, and the national service limited to the New Year's Island was also launched, which incomparably reflects the intentions and sincerity of the official.
Not only customized content, but also in the operation of activities, publicity activities are also to provide players with a good experience. Considering the increase in game pressure that may be brought about by the reduction of players' game time during the Spring Festival, various "direct give" benefits such as the "New Year Burden Reduction Care Activity" and the "Dream Version Update Gift Pack" have been specially launched. Judging from the official event information revealed so far, from January 31st to February 2nd, players will be arranged with a full range of activities and performances, as well as rich benefits such as optional appearance boxes that can be received after logging in for 3 days.
On January 31, Baolan, Ning, and Theshy reunited in the Ark live broadcast event, February 1 Spring Festival party activities, February 2, "Ark of Destiny" Chinese New Year's Eve activities, etc., can be described as unstoppable. Especially in the Ark Chinese New Year's Eve event on February 2, star player Chen He will become a welfare officer, join hands with LPL famous commentators Wawa and Xiao Jue to send blessings and benefits to players, and spend Chinese New Year's Eve with star players, which is indeed full of happiness.
While more and more peers are reducing operating costs by reducing benefits, update frequency, version quality, etc., and improving user stickiness by intentionally increasing the complexity of activity tasks, "Ark of Destiny" chooses to do the opposite, bringing players real benefits and happiness, truly attentive content, and the confidence to play for a long time.
As one of the core players of MMORPG games, frankly speaking, the author believes that this category has developed for about 30 years, and although it has derived different types of focus, few of them can continue to show vitality while sticking to their original intentions. From the old three generations of MMOs represented by "Cyber Genesis", "World of Warcraft", and "Ancient Century", to the new generation of MMOs revitalized by "Ark of Destiny", in fact, this kind of game is mainly around the core gameplay and social driving force to continuously sublimate and iterate.
However, in this process, there are also a lot of "fast food" that looks like cats and tigers. In other words, many of these products are basically far from the essence of MMORPGs - a mechanical combat experience, rather than a simple numerical crush; Focus on teamwork, not just filling in the difficulty.
Focusing on Ark of Destiny itself, the core selling point of the game since its release is that it is a new generation product that returns to the essence of MMORPG. In fact, we can split the definition of MMORPG in "Ark of Destiny" into two dimensions: a mechanical-based action RPG that always provides a refreshing combat experience, and a bonded MMO that insists on creating teamwork challenges. One person, one sword, challenge fate; Gather three and gather five to protect the ark.
If it is said that operational activities and welfare marketing can be implemented by many game manufacturers, the essential content of MMORPG based on core gameplay and social driving force cannot be imitated and copied casually. Because it requires the entire project to adhere to this product design and operation concept from beginning to end. It can be said that "Ark of Destiny" is one of the few games in the MMORPG market in recent years that combines "mechanical-based action RPG" and "focusing on teamwork to challenge the essence of MMO", and at the same time has a new generation of audio-visual performance.
Because of this, it is not difficult to understand why many players will "spend time in the flowers" of MMO, and finally choose "Ark of Destiny", which also makes "Ark of Destiny" firmly among the top in the domestic MMO market.