This past week Midnight Society, the game development studio headed by YouTuber Dr Disrespect, announced that Deadrop is the title of its first game. Deadrop is a first-person shooter and an Escape from Tarkov-like. Squads will venture into a futuristic skyscraper, loot, battle opposing squads, and extract, with loot droppable upon death or carried over to the next round. Deadrop remains early in development, but Dr Disrespect does talk about the game frequently on YouTube. His latest revelation is an idea about Deadrop's ranked play.
On a recent YouTube stream, Dr Disrespect pondered out loud regarding the possibility of a ranked mode in Deadrop. There is no ranked mode for Deadrop yet, of course, as the game is just months into development. But Dr Disrespect is already thinking about what a ranked mode might look like. One key point for Dr Disrespect is the idea of having ranked take place in a "separate sort of structure" compared to standard Deadrop rounds.
The idea Dr Disrespect is putting up isn't to necessarily segregate lower-skill players from higher-skill players, or even to deny access to a different area of the game to those who aren't high enough ranked. It's the opposite, in fact, as Dr Disrespect offers up the idea of an area open to all players but with higher stakes that more experienced players would be drawn to. "Maybe the items in there have a different value system," is how Dr Disrespect characterizes this different structure.
On one hand, Dr Disrespect's idea is certainly intriguing. High-level players would feel more confident going into this more challenging structure, while less-skilled players would stick to the original area where they could gain experience and earn less powerful loot. On the other hand, it has to be asked whether this design choice is more in service of Midnight Society's monetization goals -- its plans for NFTs.
Even six months into development, Midnight Society has made clear that Deadrop will heavily integrate NFTs and the blockchain. It plans to allow players to freely trade in-game items on its own NFT marketplace. It should be easy to see how a "high-level" area akin to a ranked mode could prove lucrative in this light. Rarer, more expensive NFTs could fill this area, drawing more experienced players toward it just for the income possibilities alone.
Clearly, much remains to be said regarding Midnight Society's plans for Deadrop, both regarding game design and its NFT monetization. Skepticism surrounding the project and Dr Disrespect's involvement remain high, but few would disagree that more competitive online multiplayer games are overall good for the industry.
Deadrop is currently in development.