In open worlds ”storytelling is key”, says Willits, just like the ”sheer variety” of things to do. Games will connect more but they won’t ”necessarily directly” compete.
”One of the reasons getting the message out about RAGE has been difficult is because it’s such a different game,” said id’s Tim Willits in an interview. Rage is a first-person shooter set in the near distant future where Earth has suffered a terrible cataclysm.
It’s an open world shooter full of quests and places to explore, some of which id recognise that some gamers won’t ever discover, at least if they only play it once.
”Storytelling is key in open world games, and then just the sheer variety of things you can do. We have games like Skyrim, where there’s just SO much you can do: you can develop your character the way you want, you can develop the game the way you want and play it the way you want, and that’s a great trend I hope will continue to grow,” he said.
”But it’s the social aspect of games which is hugely important.”
”In the future, I believe we will have many more games where the choices that you make in your single player game will affect games that other people play. Yes, we have massively multiplayer games now, but they’re so connected and tied-in and you’ll have a much more social component to many bigger games.”
The creative director uses Bethesda’s Fallout games as an example. ”Just think of Fallout. If you went off to do something and you’re playing through and you made one faction more powerful. Maybe, when your buddy gets there that faction still is,” noted Willits.
”That’d just be cool! If things that you did in your game affected the universe, where you’re not necessarily directly competing, but different people’s outcomes are affected by what you do.” Rage releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC October 4th in the US, 7th in Europe.
Check out the full interview between Tim Willits and MCV.
