Albion Online Improving Solo Play – What It should Have Done All Along

The Albion Online team released a video yesterday that talked a little bit about the state of the game, the cadence for future updates, and what they’re working on next.

A main point of their discussion was more emphasis on solo play now that they have released the main game and the core game they originally planned on releasing.

Now, it’s important to know that I’ve been a fan of the Albion Online team and the game they’ve developed for quite some time. Though I opted to not play at launch, I did play in the earliest phase of Alpha, Press Alpha, Closed Beta, and Open Beta. I’ve seen the game develop over the years and experienced their direction changes first hand.

I really do believe they messed up by not including a more solo player-centric experience.

Let me explain.

Although I believe a strongly in group play, I also believe strongly in integrated community play. In a sandbox (like Albion Online) I do not believe that community-centric play is diametrically opposed to solo play. I think back to Ultima Online where I was essentially able to play solo yet still be the best Blacksmith on the server. Then there are time when I played with a community, and I was able to still play solo but rely on a community of people playing solo.

Albion Online didn’t accomplish that solo knit community.

Albion Online focused too heavily on group-centric PvP and mass PvP. If their goal was simply to great a Zerg vs. Zerg pvp game, then they accomplished their goal. If they were aiming for a sandbox with a thriving community experience, then they missed the mark.

I don’t know that they can fix this issue now. It’s probably too late on their established servers. If they ever were to release a new server, a more PvE-minded sandbox community approach would go a long way toward bringing someone like me into the game again.