If there is one thing that I hate when I am playing online, it is rage-quitters. They can drain some of the fun out of the game by being sore losers, and help give gamers a bad name. Evolution Studios also seems to have a problem with rage-quitters, and aim to do something about it in their current project DRIVECLUB.
“I like the idea that you don’t have to be in first place…I want everybody to enjoy the thrill of racing,” explained Game Director Paul Rustchynsky. He continues:
“It’s demoralising when you make a mistake and it costs you the race. With DRIVECLUB we challenged ourselves to design a better game that deals with this aspect of racing. What we’ve come up with is a racer that constantly gives you new goals to aim for, whether you’re way out in front of the pack or find yourself spinning out of control because you pushed your car a little too far.”
In DRIVECLUB, there is more to every race than just placing first. In every race, there are also a number of challenges that players can take on. These challenges include maintaining a high average speed, holding a racing line, or pulling off an impressive drift. Rustchynsky states:
“In so many racing games there’s that ‘all or nothing’ mentality. One moment you’re in first place, and then suddenly you crash and you’ve lost everything. The preceding few minutes of superb driving count for nothing…With DRIVECLUB, if you’re racing online and you make a mistake it’s not game over. You don’t lose everything and you’ve still got dynamic Face-offs to keep playing for.”
Thus, taking first place on a track is only part of the race. If you rage-quit during a game, you lose more than just the race. You also lose all of the points that you could have gained if you finished the race. This does not just affect you; these are points that go towards your club. Rage-quit, and you lose points for both yourself and your club.
If you have played Evolution’s last title, MotorStorm RC, then this system might seem a little familiar. The game came with small challenges that you could complete for bragging rights with you friends. DRIVECLUB has taken this idea and expanded upon it. Rustchynsky explains:
“We tested an early version of our challenge system in RC. It was a lot of fun and we got some great back-and-forth rivalries going between players, but we always found that after a while one of the players would reach their physical limit and the competition would dry up.”
“One moment you’re in first place, and then suddenly you crash and you’ve lost everything…With DRIVECLUB, if you’re racing online and you make a mistake it’s not game over.”
He continues:
“In RC there were no rewards off the back of it, other than ‘Ha, I beat you!’ and that was great, but we wanted to make sure we evolved that so there’s a reason to keep jumping into challenges over and above the bragging rights…As you improve, there’ll always be someone else out there to chase. This idea that it’s not over when one player puts the pad down, it just works so much better in DRIVECLUB.”
This all sounds good. As stated before, I hate rage-quitters. I understand being competitive, but rage-quitting is just bad sportsmanship. While DRIVECLUB’s system probably won’t stop all people from just dropping their game, it may help. In this game, you drive for more than just yourself; you drive for your club. We will see whether or not Evolution can stop people from rage-quitting when DRIVECLUB releases later this year.
