The Wagadu Chronicles, set to arrive next year, promises to be a MMORPG with a difference.
Sure, more than a few RPG and MMORPGS have promised that and not all of them have delivered. But there are three things about The Wagadu Chronicles that have me paying attention. Firstly, it draws upon the “mythology, peoples and geology”, of the African continent and specific African nations such as Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Congo and Kenya. This, alone gives the game a distinctive look unlike any other I’ve encountered.
Secondly, you can server the Goddess of Beer and help ensure weddings go smoothly. I’m not sure how many actual in-game weddings there are, but the idea of enabling such events makes me grin. The Wagadu Chronicles is set to be more about roleplay than punching monsters in the face, though there is some combat, so you can expect there to be plenty of chill tasks, where diplomacy rather than flaming swords take the forefront.
In fact, developer Twin Drums, has set out to create a “..safe-space away from the aggressive, combat focus of many player driven MMORPG worlds but also to address an imbalance the developers saw in a genre over-saturated with Euro and Asian-centric fantasy.” I’m absolutely on board with this; yes, I love Dragon Age but call those enemies Darkspawn all you want, they’re still orcs and goblins.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, developer Twin Drums isn’t just a sea of white faces. Yes, the trailer certainly makes The Wagadu Chronicles look and sound appealing but I was dreading discovering that it was crafted by a team who thought diversity was just that band off Britain’s Got Talent.
The one question I do have is how is the game going to handle NPCs? The NPCs will, apparently, all be other players which sounds great on paper. But what happens when those players are asleep? On the one hand, it could lead to a genuinely dynamic world but on the other, you could check in and find that, even though it’s day in-game, the world is a ghosttown.
It’s early days for The Wagadu Chronicles so Twin Drums will have plenty of time to sort things out before it arrives in 2023. On top of the MMORPG, there’s going to be a pen-and-paper tabletop RPG as well, both of which have been part-funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign. You can express your interest by signing up at the official website which will also net you a 300 page PDF lore-book.
