Last year, solo developer Brian—operating as developer Burgee Media—released Erenshor in early access on Steam to offer the MMO experience he was denied in his EverQuest years by a shoddy internet connection that made group play impossible. It’s a fully simulated, singleplayer MMORPG, with dozens of quests, zones, and computer-controlled “simplayers” who’ll group up, join guilds, and hunt their own loot.
It’s been a successful experiment: At time of writing, Erenshor boasts an impressive 94% positive review rating. And later this year, it’ll be adding new endgame challenges for both its real and simulated players: Erenshor’s getting raids.
In an update coming this summer, max-level players will be able to find runes allowing access to four raids, each consisting of an otherworldly plane aligned with one of Erenshor’s gods. Fighting in raid groups alongside 14 of the faux MMO’s simplayers, you’ll be able to advance through four progression tiers of a traditional endgame loot grind, going from farming trash for class-specific armor drops to confronting early raid bosses for capes, jewelry, and weapons—and ultimately, the gods themselves.
Burgee says the raid update will add over 120 new gear drops from more than 20 bosses and over a dozen spells and skills, amounting to “20 to 40 hours of content for the average player.” Additionally, a new raid UI will let players plan how their simulated parties navigate the boss mechanics they’ll be facing.
Which is all well and good, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping Erenshor’s simplayers will be able to emulate a different key piece of the endgame MMO experience: Messy raid guild drama.
I’ve always been a purely casual MMO player, but while I’ve only ever existed on the periphery of endgame raiding efforts, I’ve nevertheless built a deep appreciation for the powerful psychological effect that raid loot has on human psychology. MMO raids are a pressure cooker for character flaws: I’ve watched in guild chat as best-in-slot purples triggered betrayals that would make Machiavelli blush. The human condition only becomes clear once you’ve witnessed a guild leader gradually destroy his own marriage one preferential DKP dealing at a time.
It’s a morbid fascination, I’ll confess—which is why I hope Erenshor’s simplayers can capture some of that same sordid energy without the real, human cost. Luckily, while Erenshor developer Brian told PC Gamer in an interview last year that computer-controlled players performing maladaptive MMO behavior was fun to imagine “but not fun when it actually happens,” he’s since been rethinking that stance.
In a previous patch, Burgee introduced the “comically tryhard” guild Friends Club, an elitist bunch of progression-pushing simplayers who’ll engage in mild toxicity like minimizing your successes and refusing your “trash” if you try to trade with them. Speaking to PC Gamer over email, Brian says he maintains that “truly bad simplayer behavior would be anti-fun,” but we can expect Friends Club to dabble in raid drama once the summer update hits.
It likely won’t involve any simplayer divorces, but I’ll take what I can get. Even without the full spectacle of human folly, Erenshor’s raids look like a promising way to taste the thrill of endgame MMO loot without committing to the scheduling expectations—and the psychosocial hazards. And there will be more to come in the future: Burgee says “a fifth and final raid” will arrive in a later update, providing Erenshor’s last major content drop before its eventual 1.0 launch.
Erenshor’s raid update doesn’t have a release date—it’s coming sometime this summer—but you can start playing on Steam now.
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