A new MMO, Project: Gorgon, released to a Steam success that blew past expectations. The game is both developed and published by Elder Game, LLC, a studio started by two industry veterans. While Project: Gorgon has many of the trappings players might expect from a traditional MMO, the game takes pride in completely immersing players in its world. Quest markers and icons don’t appear to help navigate; instead, attention to the world and NPC dialogue is required. The same is true for skills, with characters gaining proficiency in everything from swords to dancing just by performing actions tied to that skill family.
Project: Gorgon has been in early access for quite some time, but it only averaged around 200 to 300 players concurrently. While the team behind the game undoubtedly wanted more eyes on the title, the in-game traffic was predictable. That didn’t turn out to be the case once 1.0 was released. Immediately after launch, the game’s population skyrocketed. Within a couple of days, Project: Gorgon went from welcoming a few hundred daily players into its world to thousands. Success is never bad for a new game, but it seems to have caught Elder Game off guard.
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Project: Gorgon’s Success Nears Overpopulation
According to data from SteamDB, Project: Gorgon garnered some attention leading up to its release on January 29, but that still only resulted in a high of 706 players the day before launch. From there, player numbers rapidly grew until they peaked at 2,236 on February 1. Since then, the population hasn’t hit that high, but it’s still seeing daily peaks of over 2,000 players. This unexpected surge of gamers bodes well for the overall success of Project: Gorgon, but it’s also creating serious stress on the title’s servers. That’s even after a second server was created to welcome those joining for the official launch. Thankfully, there hasn’t been any review bombing or other hostilities. Elder Game is aware of the issues and, via an in-game pop-up, noted that it’s being worked on alongside the addition of a third server.
The aim behind the second server in Project: Gorgon was to offer any new or returning Gorgonites a safe place for a fresh start. As it turns out, that new frontier is where the majority have seemingly flocked to. During peak play times, the servers buckle in player-dense areas like Serbule and the starting tutorial island, resulting in some serious lag. That often means it takes a few agonizing seconds between clicking to sell an item or advancing dialogue. The overpopulation also creates other ripple effects, like enemy and resource scarcity. While fans aren’t overtly unhappy, like World of Warcraft players with its new cash shop bundle, people have been vocal about the issue.
Online commenters have expressed a mix of emotions, celebrating the success but also bemoaning the latency and other issues related to the overpopulation. Of course, it’s great to see an underdog succeed. That said, success sours a bit when it means competing against several others for a single mob. It’s not the type of thing that will have MMO players requesting Steam for a refund in droves, but still annoying nonetheless. That said, there is an undeniable old-school charm about Project: Gorgon‘s commitment to immersing its players, so chances are that MMO-lovers will find their way to it regardless of temporary annoyances.
- Developer(s)
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Elder Game, LLC
- Publisher(s)
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Elder Game, LLC
- Engine
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Unity
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Early Access Release
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March 13, 2018
