In many modern MMOs, intractability is an open-and-shut case, a solved problem. Chat systems, emotes, marketplaces, parties, trades, and guilds-- It seems like nearly every MMO dating back as early as the 2000s upholds these basic concepts of online engagements and intractability. Through all of these years, very little difference has been shown, and while innovations still certainly exist, these variations tend to be overshadowed, or simply ignored, by many modern games.

This blog is not here to critique modern intractability, as it has been something refined over decades of design research and development; rather, I wanted to highlight a successful example of an MMO game that had critically innovated where no other studio had dared touch. I want to explore how Sky: Children of the Light approached digital interactions, accessibility, and engagement opportunities.

It's hard to explain Sky's mechanics without delving a little bit into its history. Jenova Chen, the creator of the game, had made four games before it, testing out dozens of ways to nonverbally communicate to players in games. While nonverbal communication in itself is an art as old as time, he wanted to take it a step further and create new ways for players to communicate with each other using as few words as possible. He challenged himself to make a social game that could thrive without a chat.

The initial goal was to connect people internationally in a single social platform; for that to happen, though, language became a barrier. He toiled, developing and designing ways to mitigate toxicity and abuse in online spaces and developed his own game language, one that is easy to intuitively pick up and communicate with. Using simple gestures, unlocked based on progress throughout the game, players were able to communicate specifically with each other without the use of words, and for faster-paced situations or for newer players, Jenova Chen took his mechanic from Journey and gave all players the ability to make soft and loud calls to quickly communicate information.

While seemingly unintuitive on paper, his calling system for the game was revolutionary, as it had been the first time it had been applied at such a scale in a social space. With the added accessibility of the game being written for mobile and console. many around the world found themselves engaging with the now Guinness World Record-breaking game.

These days, Sky has grown significantly, with limited chat features added to help friends play with each other, and a Steam launch, the game has finally been able to hit all gaming platforms almost globally, and for good reason. To this day though, calls soft and loud are still the number one used communication feature.

Interview source pulled for official channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z51kIKNyc6M