Wild West Online Announced

I complain a lot about a lack of gaming news (to myself, at least) but I completely overlooked the recent announcement of a new MMORPG called Wild West Online (WWO) from new studio 612 Games. It will be set in … wait for it … the Wild West.

Initially I understood it would be a PvP game. But before you groan and click away, there seems to have been some miscommunication and MassivelyOP’s interview indicates PvE players will get their own play area as well. There is even talk of “community-run” servers, which makes me wonder if we’re talking about a sort of western-themed Conan Exiles here. (If so, I will rescind the “MMORPG” label.)

Also, apparently it’s illegal to talk about any future western-themed game without also mentioning Red Dead Redemption 2. So …

Red Dead Redemption 2!

WWO was going to run a Kickstarter campaign, but no sooner did I begin thinking about writing this post than I read that their private investors decided to come through with all the money they needed, so they cancelled the Kickstarter plans.

Thankfully that means I no longer need to tread into the sensitive topic of locking playable women behind a stretch goal. (It’s really bad PR.)

I’m a little skeptical about their claims of PvE content though. That PC Gamer “reveal” article made it sound pretty clear that it was a PvP game. Maybe they’re hedging now and putting in some content for PvE players? If so, it doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t treat PvE players as “second-class citizens.”

Still, I certainly won’t complain about a western-themed MMORPG, even if it runs out of steam (hyuk hyuk) after a couple weeks of PvE play. I’d probably enjoy just wandering around taking screenshots in a game like this. The images on their web site look pretty nice. I like that kind of scenery.

Now we just have to wait to see if it ever comes out. I’m going to go ahead and guess already that we won’t see anything more than an alpha in 2017, if that.