Once Human has undoubtedly been one of the breakout hits of 2024, with the free-to-play open-world survival MMO smashing the traditional summer lull and attracting hundreds of thousands of concurrent players from across the globe.
But there’s a conundrum at its core: in a multiplayer survival game, how do you keep devoted regulars from achieving world domination over a constant stream of new players, while still honouring their time investment with a game that’s consistently fun to play?
Once Human’s controversial, but interesting, solution to this is short-term seasons based around different gameplay scenarios with different story elements, survival mechanics and combat parameters, after which the slate is wiped clean for a new round.
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