Awakening Griefing Problem Continues to Worsen

Griefing is still a major problem in Dune: Awakening, and some players are starting to think it could affect the game’s future. The open-world survival MMO set in Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi universe has been a smash hit by many metrics, but as with many popular things, it didn’t take long for some fans to ruin it for others. While the team behind Dune: Awakening has taken some steps to stop players from harassing others, it seems that the issue is far from over.

Less than a week after release, Dune: Awakening players began to express frustration with the endgame, especially regarding the PvP Deep Desert. Some users took to crashing ornithopters into others to kill them in one hit without taking any damage. As these complaints circulated, Funcom responded and promised to fix the “goomba stomping,” but griefing remains a problem, even after some updates.

Dune Awakening Ornithopter Stomp High Ground

Dune: Awakening’s Ornithopter Can’t Stomp Anymore, But It Still Has the High Ground

Dune: Awakening’s ornithopter is no longer a death-from-above menace, but its dominance in PvP may be grounding deeper issues beneath the sand.

As Redditor RandoFinder pointed out, some users have started landing ornithopters on top of unsuspecting players harvesting spice so the solo player gets eaten by a Sandworm. It’s the same griefing tactic Dune: Awakening players noticed in the Deep Desert, but now people are using it in other areas of the map, like Hagga. While RandoFinder says they managed to deal with the griefers, they foresee long-term problems with the game and its community unless something changes. In their words, Dune: Awakening “has some massive issues ahead” because of the “all-out war” between these unscrupulous players and everyone else on their server.

Dune: Awakening Players Say Continued Griefing “Is Going to Ruin” the Game

Funcom recently issued a massive Dune: Awakening patch that quadrupled the size of the map’s PvE portion of the Deep Desert, largely to address the PvP issues that were frustrating players. However, that fix does not seem to have done much to resolve the underlying complaints, as users have adapted their strategies to frustrate others in PvE areas. That shift has worried some members of the community, with RandoFinder going on to say it will “ruin” Dune: Awakening and “force the vast majority of players” to quit.

How Funcom will handle these complaints going forward is unclear. For now, though, these issues don’t seem to have hurt the game’s performance much, if at all. Not long after its launch, Dune: Awakening became Funcom’s fastest-selling title ever, surpassing one million copies sold in a matter of weeks. Players and critics alike have praised the title’s RPG elements, atmosphere, and survival mechanics, though others are less enthused by some of its gameplay systems, its endgame, and the amount of bugs present at launch.