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The creator of PUBG is at the helm of a new MMO-like world simulator, but he's not sure how moderating the content will work.
The latest project from developer PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions is currently entitled Project Artemis, and it's a large-scale planet simulator that isn't quite a game. When lead developer Brendan Greene sat down with PCGamer for an interview, he shared some details on what the project actually is, and what issues he envisages might crop up as a result of creating a "free digital space".
"If we're building something like this, do I moderate it? Can I moderate it? I don't know yet," Greene admits, citing the sheer vastness of Project Artemis. "I think I have to. I think it's a moral obligation to make sure we can stamp out Nazis. But I'm not sure yet. I think I need to employ some people smarter than me to think about this."
Moderating is an important factor when ensuring players' safety while in-game. Whether it's the 2000s-style bleeping of bad words in text chat circa the likes of Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin, or a matter of monitoring voice comms as in Ubisoft's Zero Harm in Comms initiative, developers have myriad ways of trying to keep spaces free from extremism, trolling, and other antisocial behaviors. PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions will need to be doubly on the lookout, then, if Project Artemis shapes up to be the massive open-world exploration simulation that Greene has in mind.
Although Greene recognises his obligation to keep players safe, there isn't much information yet on how players will interact with each other in the project. It sounds like a sandbox world where you can pretty much do what you like, and Greene uses Facepunch Studios' Rust as an example of the variety you can achieve in such games if it's done correctly. "There's a bunch of stuff you can do [in Rust]. Most people build bases and attack each other, but there's a bunch of other stuff that's possible within that. No one's telling you to do it a certain way. I'm just all about creating these massive emergent spaces and trying to do it as big as I can."
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