Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Interview
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Q: How much should a solitary player be able to affect the world? How should this change if he teams up with other players in social groups?
A: I'm a huge proponent of players being able to impact their environment to a reasonable degree through their actions. There are several qualifiers to that statement though. One being that the way players impact the world cannot greatly restrict the gameplay of others. For example, one cannot be allowed to raze a newbie village where the bootstrapping content for new customers is found.
Making a lasting alteration to the population of a portion of the world, working your way into an organization that causes the world's inhabitants to treat you differently or liberating a piece of the world from an adversary are just a few examples of what I feel can be compelling ways to impact the world. The extra effort that goes into this kind of thing usually makes more sense to be spent on content that large numbers of people can enjoy, but I have no 'design principal' that would prevent me from implementing some crazy event that a single player could complete.
