Chaos is Coming
Chaos is Coming
Chaos is Coming
Chaos is Coming
Popularium was founded by a team who share a common belief—games should be fun and built in concert with the community. We go where our team knows the fun is buried and work with our community to unearth the joyful heart of a new game. Our quest for fun has led us to create not just games but new genres of games. Magic: The Gathering brought TCGs to the world, Hearthstone set the standard for digital card games, Xbox Live connected gamers on consoles—and PCs—together for the first time.
Now, at Popularium, we have teamed up to push and mix up the boundaries of gaming, trying to discover where the next frontier of fun lies. Chaos Agents is our first game exploring this next frontier. Equally as important in the development of our games is our community. Even in the earliest stages of their development, we will provide you with the means to impact where we go.
The Chaos Agents Playtest—conducted by the Altareth Chaos Broker Training Academy and their esteemed Chaos Mentors—is the first opportunity for you to join us on our voyage into the unknown, wherever it may lead us. But no matter what the result, we know one thing for certain: it’s going to be fun.
The World is a Playground: The Philosophy Driving Popularium
Gaming is the fastest growing sector of the entertainment industry. Rapid expansion and a plethora of choices in the manner and scope of gaming experiences are wresting power from the hands of studios, who once had unlimited control over which games to produce, build, and distribute, and placing this power in the hands of gamers.
Now, the world is our playground. Gamers have the tools, time, and network access to play, experience, watch, and even build games their way. Streaming platforms have become global hubs of community, uniting—and activating—legions of audiences. Gamers are pushing the boundary of user generated content which blurs the line between fan and creator. Studios are fighting this accessibility and democratization, creating confusion and division that drives away their consumer base. We think this is a mistake: gaming’s future lies in gamer empowerment.
This is what drives us at Popularium. In collaboration with our friends at The Lydion Magazine, our team at Popularium has published The World is a Playground, a multi-part magazine edition that features stories and articles from our team at Popularium on what drives us to build the games we do.
The World is a Playground
From The Lydion Magazine comes The World is a Playground; a five-part series on gaming. Each edition focuses on a unique emerging territory–the rise of streaming platforms, the role of community, gamification, and digital assets–on the shifting landscape of the gaming industry.
Part 1: Games as Storytelling Engines
In Part 1, Popularium team members Jon Bankard, Jen Yi, Chris Ryall, Arka Ray, and others explore the evolution of games into engines for the creation of stories driven by gamers, who in turn are turning into content creators with the advent of streaming.
Part 2: All for One and One for All
In Part 2, gaming industry veterans such as David Hoppe (Gen Con), Dave Nemetz (Inverse, Bleacher Report) and rising stars such as Jyro Blade and Kore Bundt dive deep into the growing role and importance of gaming communities in the development process of games and the changing relationship between developers and their communities through evolving release models such as Early Access.
Popularium Stories
Popularium is comprised of dreamers from across the gaming, entertainment, and tech worlds—all of whom are passionate about gaming and storytelling in all their forms.
Our love of games is about more than the engaging, momentary entertainment they can offer. We also appreciate gameplay for offering rich, valuable experiences that transport us to fantastic new worlds.
Just as well-developed game worlds provide stories that help us make sense of the seeming chaos of the real world, we in turn want to offer story-driven games that help others create meaningful experiences of their own.
As a way to introduce ourselves and our community, we’re happy to share some of our stories that dive into our collective love of gaming, and reveal the motivations behind the games and experiences we are building at Popularium.
If you enjoy these stories, you can find more contributions from our community at stories.popularium.com.
My Nights In The Old Republic
I plop down on the carpet as the familiar Star Wars opening crawl takes over the TV screen, filling me in on events that occurred a long, long time ago. 4000 years before Episode I. Whoa. That was unexpected. That must be the “old” in Old Republic.
Geeking Out
I’ve been hiding for my entire life, but that’s about to end.
Life is Strange
I’m a 31-year-old man on my third glass of whiskey, and a game where you play as a high-school girl is bringing me to tears.