The first ARC Raiders Expedition has finally launched, and players are finding out that their unlocked Workshops have disappeared. In many live-service games —Escape from Tarkov, Once Human, or ARC Raiders, for example —periodic wipes are par for the course. They reset all players to level one, remove most of their items, and basically start everything over. Different games do it slightly differently, but ultimately, it’s a balancing mechanic that ensures that everybody will always have something to do. Otherwise, the more advanced players would unlock everything, explore everything, and then sit around twiddling their thumbs or wander off to another game.
One of the biggest downsides of periodic wipes is that it tends to punish the casual players who maybe don’t have time to make much progress before the rug is pulled out from under them. It can be disheartening to reset over and over, seeing only the beginning of the game multiple times. ARC Raiders decided to mix things up by introducing Expeditions, a periodic wipe that players can opt into. In other words, those who don’t feel ready to reset don’t have to. To get raiders to participate, developer Embark Studios added incentives like permanently increased...
