Everyone seems to be into dynamic events these days. Who can blame them, after all? I mean, who
wants to play a game with boring, static content? Roughly ten million people aside, more MMO
developers are beginning to take the concept of dynamic events seriously. As is the case with Firefall.
Firefall is an MMO FPS from Red 5 Studios. That’s right, the studio that seems to be gobbling up former
Blizzard employees like they were marbles in a Hungry, Hungry Hippos game. Firefall is the studio’s
current flagship and, if successful, is poised to make Red 5 a staple in the MMO industry. Firts, it has to
tackle the elephant in the room: Dynamic events.
Red 5′s Bryan Malloroy recently posted a Dev Blog on the Firefall website. In his post, Mallorory
describes dynamic events and what they mean to the game. According to Mallorory, dynamic events are
a tool the development team is using to beef up the PvE content in the game. Dynamic events are an
attempt from the developers to break the tried and true mold that has governed MMOs for pretty much
their entire existence.
So, dynamic events in Firefall will come in two flavors: The hard candy shell known as Global Dynamic
Events (GDEs), and the soft, chewy nougat known as Local Dynamic Events (LDEs). Those in the beta
have already gotten a taste for GDEs, but few outside of the development team have had experience
with LDEs. Where GDEs are meant to fill out some of the story elements surrounding New Eden (Firefall,
not Eve Online), LDEs are tailored for specific regions of the world and aim to be unique depending on
where they take place. Like any true dynamic event, both GDEs and LDEs will follow a loose structure,
favoring randomness over finely timed bandit raids and things of that nature.
More and more MMOs seem to be harkening to the idea of dynamic events, and for good reason. This
sort of content has long been what gamers have wanted from developers, but incorporating dynamic
events in an appropriate way has been nothing short of elusive. If Red 5 can make players feel like part
of the world with its dynamic event scheme, Firefall may be able to win the hearts of the masses. All of
that is easier said than done. Of course, so is everything else.
If you want to check out Malloroy’s dev blog, get all up in and around it at the Firefall website.
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