Warframe developer Digital Extremes has provided one of the biggest free-to-play games around, and it’s done so for more than a decade. As the game continues to expand with its new horror-themed Shadowgrapher update, the game is now celebrating its 13th anniversary, offering longevity unlike many other live-service games.
As Digital Extremes continues to survive in a market where new live-service games falter constantly, creative director Rebecca Ford explains that it’s important to keep your community in mind whenever you create a new update for an existing game. Even outside of live-service titles, games like Fallout 4 have released poor updates that have decimated fan reception, and the Warframe team is well aware of that.
“We take the community very seriously”, Ford told IGN in a recent interview, adding that “it’s all fun and games until it isn’t from the community side”. While fans will argue over what updates are worse than others, Ford explains that listening to the complaints of fans is “a priority” always.
“It took us 13 years to build even a day of goodwill that we would get today,” the creative director said. “And it nly takes you one day to lose it all. So, you know, we have to be very cognisant of what we say and how we say it about our game, our community, and our devs. It is a really impossible thing, I think, now to even speculate on how to do community if you’re aspiring to do aa live-service game these days.”
Ford explained that “there is no right answer” to manage a community for a live-service game, explaining that “there’s also a generational thing happening now” with a new line of gamers that have grown up tied to the internet.
“I’m not saying it in a problematic way, but what do people expect when you’re 18 and going to college on campus?” Ford said. “What have you seen online at this point? That is the type of community that you’d be managing if you’re making an 18-plus game and stuff, and there’s a very psychological gap now, in a good way, of like, what the next generation of gamers expects. Many people have only really seen one console generation, and in that generation, they weren’t exposed to the same IPs that you and I were when we grew up. So it’s a very different kind of person you’re hoping will join your community.”
As Warframe continues into its 13th year and beyond, Digital Extremes is still working on brand new content for the online RPG. Ford adds that “the future is always a mystery” as the studio continues to create new content that fans actually want. After years of expansions, updates and the like, continuing to listen to the community is an essential part to making Warframe’s longevity last even longer.
