http://www.vogelsap.com/theflock/"The Flock will have a limited time to be purchasable. The time left for you to buy the game depends on the amount of Flock lives left in the game. We commit ourselves to a hands-off approach and put the lastingness of the game into your hands.
With each death in the game, one life will be taken from the Flock’s population. When the Flock’s population reaches zero, the game will never be purchasable again. Only players who have The Flock in their Steam library will then go to the next phase and be able to partake in the yet to be announced climactic finale. After the ending, the game will go offline permanently and no longer be playable." - The Flock
This game is really interesting! I don't think that a game like this can survive? Flock 2 in the future?
Here's the trailer:
https://youtu.be/GMjScoeTymUBasically the gaming community decides when the game will end? That brings me to a conclusion that in the game, you are faced by many life or death situations. Maybe it's you kill it, or it kills you, but if you kill it there goes a Flock life? I don't know, I haven't looked into detail with the game, but a game that won't be playable after sometime? That might not sit well with a lot of people in the gaming world.
Here's a question from their FAQ:
Q: Why do this??!
As we’ve mentioned before we want to convey the extinction story as something to be experienced by the players in our multiplayer game. But we also have an important second reason, so bear with us for a moment.
Most indie multiplayer games lose their player base within a year. Even heavy hitters such as Titanfall and Evolve have a fast dwindling player base. The most popular games such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike still have a somewhat anticlimactic ending of their players’ experience. Because in the end at some point – and this can be after five years or two months – you’ll stop playing because you either got bored of it, you’ve seen it all or you, or your friends have no longer time to play.
We want to tackle that problem, and make sure The Flock ends with a climax after which the game will be fondly remembered. Much like a lot of single player experiences where you have a huge battle or a boss fight.
We have three design goals for this game. We want to make a:
1. scary/tense game
2. immersive experience (that you really feel like a monster, or being hunted as the Carrier)
3. and do it in an unconventional way.
The population plan ties into these design goals and strengthens all of these. We wouldn’t be doing this if we were making a competitive shooter or the next moba. But for The Flock it makes a lot of sense. Also, these three design goals – the things that we think makes our game special – won’t last forever. At some point the game will stop being scary, immersive or unconventional, whereas competitiveness lasts forever. You can’t keep playing a horror game forever, but it doesn’t mean the game has no right to exist.
So here’s the question we asked ourselves: isn’t it worth sacrificing the ability to replay the game after say two years’ time? What kind of experience will these players be getting? They would come online and find no one to play against or just a few players who are either really good or very new to the game. That’s not a fun player-experience. So isn’t it worth sacrificing that ability in order to improve the experience for most players when most players are playing the game? We do think so.
The Flock might be onto something! This could be a new way of gaming? What are your guys thoughts?
