The Division Was Originally Planned to be an MMORPG

It's hard to believe that Tom Clancy's The Division is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, but here we are.

Following its buzzworthy debut at E3, The Division didn't exactly light the world on fire following its March 2016 release. Over time, however, it built a very devoted following on the back of an excellent looter shooter gameplay loop. There's even hints of elements from modern-day extraction shooters present as well.

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To honor the franchise's 10th anniversary, the game's developers recently played through missions in the original game. It's actually been an ongoing series, titled Devs Playing, that provides an excellent look inside the game's development.

It's an excellent deep dive into what made everything in The Division come together, including what the game once looked like during its early conceptual stages.

The Division Was Supposed to Be an MMORPG-esque Game

Drew Rechner, Creative Director for Massive Entertainment, explains how the core gameplay of The Division came into place as he's playing through the Broadway Emporium mission. He said that both Division games were designed around a combat loop called "OPE - Observe, Plan, Execute."

Essentially, this is how the game ties into its cover-based shooter mechanics. The game is balanced around taking your time, finding cover, planning your attack, and then executing it. Originally, though, the game looked less like a traditional third-person shooter and more like an MMORPG, as Rechner explains.

It actually took us a while to actually reach that because when we had started working on The Division, it was still an MMO with World of Warcraft-style gameplay. That skill component wasn't there, there wasn't those traditional shooter aspects. So we were constantly trying to balance how much shooter is there, how much skill is there, and we eventually came on this.

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To be honest, you can see the MMORPG roots in the final product for The Division, even if most of the game's content is instanced rather than taking place in a massive multiplayer online world. One thing that sticks out to me is that the original gameplay for The Division plays you in traditional MMO form, from the typical World of Warcraft-style combat, a hotbar with skills, and everything else you'd expect.

It sounds like, though, that the team had a hard time incorporating that into their OPE philosophy, which led to a transition to the cover-based shooter we see today. It's still an interesting trip down memory lane that has us wondering what if, especially with MMOs falling out of favor and extraction shooters all the rage today.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

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