Who Exactly is the Dark Zone for?
There’s no doubt, the Dark Zone is a unique take on multiplayer competition. The enemies are harder, the loot has the potential to be outstanding, and it’s all with the creeping fear that you might be in another player’s crosshairs at any moment. At least that’s the idea.
Needless to say, the Dark Zone needs fixing, which it will likely get, rewarding players more for going rogue (or at the very least punishing them less). But for our purposes, assume it works as promised. Truth is, it’d be a lot of fun. If you’re traveling the Dark Zone with the intent of getting in a firefight with some tough NPCs, there’s certainly plenty to choose from. However, there’s also no goal beyond stumbling upon enemies.
The structured plunge, with tough fights and alluring rewards at the end, that characterizes and succeeds in so many MMO endgames, including Destiny’s, simply isn’t there. It’s possible the “Dark Zone Activities” teased to be added in May might alleviate this a bit, but until then, there is no way to know. Currently, while the aimlessly-wandering loot grind might appeal to some, for others, it just lacks depth.
So what about players attracted to PvP? Even with future balancing, it remains to be seen just how many people will gravitate towards the free-form, kill-others-for-their-loot framework in the long run. Absolutely nothing would make me happier than to see a fascinating meta-game emerge out of the Dark Zone, but unfortunately, there’s no strong evidence of that yet.
It all stems from the question of what drives people to keep coming back for competitive multiplayer? Is it the diversity of the gameplay moment to moment, or is it an innate, competitive spirit? Probably a mixture of both. But due to how unstructured the competition is in the Dark Zone, the chances of a fair fight are pretty slim.
Also, add in that the end goal isn’t even the clear winning of some kind of ‘game’, but is instead the taking of someone else’s loot. Keeping in mind that as you get stronger, it will become more likely that the gear you steal isn’t even an upgrade, that particular carrot eventually becomes meaningless. Because of this, it’s difficult to see the Dark Zone having the mass appeal and long legs required to make The Division a mainstay on the level of Destiny.
