QUESTION
WHAT IS NOR?
ANSWER:
NOR is a universe that is neither metaverse NOR game. It doesn’t exist as any single “thing.” In simple terms, NOR is a platform for play.
This takes many shapes for many people, with the two most important being the city of Khora and the stadiums.
Khora exists within NOR, and everything in Khora revolves around the activities in its various stadiums. Chief among those stadiums is the Arena Perilous.
QUESTION
So when you say “play” I assume this means there will be games?
Yep. Specifically: games built around high skill ceilings. The adage “easy to learn, hard to master” applies to our games. You’re probably familiar with Counter-Strike and Starcraft, but other titles like Lethal League, Tetris, Rocket League, and Titanfall 2 are also our inspiration. We love games with high skill ceilings, and those are the games we want to make.
Our first titles are being built right now, spanning multiple genres and styles. We’re always looking for smart innovators, so if you’re building a game that might be a fit for NOR, don’t hesitate to contact nor@consortium9.co.
(Regardless of what we think about your game, you’ll at least get a courteous response.)
QUESTION
How much does it cost to play your games?
Nothing. Games inside the Arena Perilous are 100% free. Not only are they free, we’ve designed it so money can’t enter the actual gameplay. Players literally cannot buy anything inside the Arena. Outside the Arena, players can buy a lot of stuff and do a lot of things with that stuff (we’ll get to that), but they can’t bring any of that stuff into the gameplay.
We keep the Arena Perilous, and its games, pure. This means players can’t buy a powerful sword or gun or whatever and then bring that unfair advantage with them. The victory conditions of every player in the Arena are determined solely by that player’s skill. This also covers vanity items. No more sneaky “accidental” Pay-to-Win cosmetics.
We’ll say it again: our Arena games are 100% free, and players cannot purchase any unfair advantage. Ever.
QUESTION
Doesn’t everyone know “free-to-play” is a scam?
That’s why we aren’t calling our games “free-to-play” even though they are literally free to play. The term “free-to-play” was co-opted by games that are anything but free. Those games sell the illusion of skill by manipulating challenges to reward players who spend the most money. This is something nobody feels right about–from the casual player to the whale and maybe even to the developers themselves (maybe).
QUESTION
So no microtransactions?
No microtransactions. Our games themselves have zero purchase pathways.
QUESTION
And no “special items” that make you more powerful than other players?
Nope. We’ll make our Arena games as close to pure sport as possible. Our games won’t be about who spends the most money–they’ll be about who’s the better player. Just like an actual sport, the more time you spend playing our games, the better you’ll tend to become. But to spend that time, we want you to be having so much fun that you forget time exists. Some call it a “flow state”, others call it “being in the zone.”
Whatever you call it, we believe it’s far too rare in modern gaming.
QUESTION
Do you get why I’m extremely skeptical?
You should be. The game industry has been exploiting us for a long time. By “us” I mean anyone who loves playing games. Consortium9 is a company founded by gamers, for ourselves. Like you, we hate microtransactions and find them insulting and manipulative. Like you, we’re sick of losing to players who purchase victory instead of earning victory; e.g. losing to someone who figured out how to farm a virtual currency 15 hours a day for months on end so they can buy a game-breaking weapon. Like you, we loathe the manipulation and deceit that’s infected online games especially, and now that many gamers are rejecting microtransactions, the gaming industry is using cryptocurrency and NFTs as a new kind of cash-grab.
It’s a classic “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” because crypto and NFTs are becoming synonymous with all the other cynical ploys meant to extract as much money from each player as fast as possible, without any consideration as to whether or not that player actually enjoys playing the game.
In fact, these developers are actually going out of their way to build games that aren’t fun, so they can sell you the ability to speed up those not-fun games. As a perfect example of just how broken the system is, it’s become lucrative to make people pay to not play their game.
QUESTION
Cryptocurrency and NFTs are terrible for games. Agreed?
Agreed. Did I mention we’ll be using cryptocurrency and NFTs on our platform?
Well, we sort of do. For us, the potential power of crypto is not in tracking items or empowering the current exploitation of microtransactions. We play games. We love games. And we hate how this has infected development. We believe crypto is the answer to eliminating it. So our games have none of it.
QUESTION
WTF? Are you serious?
Very. But before we explain, please watch Dan Olson’s Folding Ideas video “Line Goes Up”. It’s an elegant breakdown of everything in this space, and a deconstruction of the hype.
QUESTION
So I watched the video and it seems like Dan’s criticisms could be directed toward your company, especially given your plans to use cryptocurrency and NFTs. What do you say to that?
This is where we part ways with some of Dan’s critiques because we don’t place the blame on crypto for why crypto-games are terrible. We place the blame on how the industry has financialized (and continues to financialize) video games over the past 50 years.
It’s not like the current wave of crypto-games are doing anything new. They’re simply rebranding the way the industry has always made money off games, which has always been manipulative in itself.
Crypto is a collection of disparate technologies, pieces of this and that, slowly formed over the last few years at a paradoxically massive speed. Crypto is not a “whole thing.” It’s many things. The current system of crypto was arranged in a specific formation to do all the terrible stuff we just talked to you about. But that arrangement isn’t the only arrangement.
QUESTION
You think you have a better arrangement?
Yes. And we intend to show you.
