Multiplayer mode in inZOI

Q&A
1 
Here is my opinion on the multiplayer aspect of the game.

It is a single-server MMO multiplayer game. You start from scratch, creating and developing a single character—and a family. To buy a house, you must complete missions to earn money; without a house or money, you can't progress. Game codes and mods are disabled; using mods in multiplayer results in a ban from multiplayer access.



The game also features passes that apply only to multiplayer modes; these passes can be purchased with real money—costing up to 10 euros—and the associated items can only be obtained through multiplayer gameplay.




In the multiplayer game, there is grass and a day-night cycle, but you cannot speed up in-game time, and there is only one game mode.



In multiplayer, players can visit each other and steal or borrow money.


Chat and voice chat are prohibited.
Violation of rules: Using profanity, insulting others, or hate speech results in reports from other players. In-game penalties: The moderation system imposes temporary bans for toxic behavior in chat.


Maybe someone has read this—perhaps it will help—regarding what the multiplayer might look like; this is just my opinion.
2

Heya​:four_leaf_clover:

I’m interested in seeing what the multiplayer team eventually creates, but honestly, I really would not want it to work like this.

The battle pass idea especially worries me. If I already bought inZOI, I don’t want multiplayer to suddenly introduce €10 passes with items that can only be earned there. What happens if one of those passes contains clothes, furniture or hairstyles I would love to use in my normal single-player game? Am I supposed to pay for the pass and grind multiplayer just to get them? And if they are time-limited on top of that, we are getting into FOMO(Fear of missing out)/live-service territory, which is really not something I want from inZOI.

I’m also confused about some contradictions in the idea. It says chat and voice chat should be prohibited, but then immediately talks about punishment for profanity, insults and hate speech in chat. If there is no chat, what exactly is being moderated?

And banning multiplayer access for using mods also seems strange considering Kjun’s roadmap already says they are working toward allowing players to enjoy official inZOI mods together in online multiplayer.

The “single-server MMO” idea also seems much more restrictive than what Kjun has described. Their roadmap includes hosted sessions that can be saved and resumed, other users entering your house, host tools to manage participants and game rules, and then larger dedicated-server multiplayer later. Personally I much prefer that approach because sometimes I may only want to play privately with a friend rather than enter one giant MMO environment.

And… players being able to visit each other and steal money?? I would need a LOT more explanation and permission settings around that. If I’m playing a normal family — or even controlling a child Zoi — do I now have to worry about another player entering the household and taking our money? Or waiting to catch the child Zoi after school and rob it? Borrowing or gifting money between players could be cute, but stealing immediately introduces griefing unless the host explicitly enables it.

I also don’t really understand why multiplayer would need to start from nothing with missions, mandatory money progression and buying a house before you can progress. That sounds more like an MMO progression loop than “inZOI, but together”. I’d rather multiplayer extend the life simulation we already have: visit each other, live together, build, travel, run businesses, hang out, have parties, etc. How cool would it be to actively have a friend player as a business partner? This would be something I’d like to see. What would those missions even be? Those standard “Dailies” like “Log in today”, “Earn 500 Mew”, “Rob a Player Zoi”? This gives me those F2P Mobile Game vibes which I personally really don’t want for inZOI.

Kjun has also repeatedly emphasized that multiplayer is optional and should be able to exist independently from single-player, and I really hope that stays true. I don’t want desirable single-player content locked behind multiplayer progression or paid passes.

Multiplayer itself could be really fun. I just don’t want inZOI to become a €10 battle-pass MMO where I have to complete missions to afford a house while worrying that someone is robbing my kid’s household xD

3

I think the point here is this… In the Russian-language internet, there’s a joke about “you can rob caravans”. But this phrase is deliberately written with a misspelling, so instead of the word “caravan” you get something resembling the word “cow”, and it could be interpreted as “a caravan made up of cows”. And it all started because of a letter from a schoolboy who asked someone to write a game for him, and he did it something like this (I’ll fix the errors so the translator works, but there were a lot of them):

“Hello. I’m Kirill. I would like you to make a game, 3D-action. Here’s the thing… The player can play as forest elves, palace guards, and a villain. And if the player plays as elves, then the elves are in the forest, the houses are wooden, palace soldiers and villains attack. You can rob caravans…”

So it becomes clear to everyone that this was written by a very young schoolboy. He has some kind of nice picture in his head, but he has no idea about the game mechanics as a whole, he just wants these “elves, houses in the forest, and the ability to rob caravans” and sincerely believes that’s enough to send his ideas to a game publisher and get results from them.

So it seems to me that we often deal with very young players here as well :slightly_smiling_face: They write a few details, and sometimes even involve AI in the design — and as a result we get these topics where a person often contradicts even themselves, not fully understanding what they actually want to get. And we take it too seriously and start asking questions, reasoning about what the author meant by this… Maybe sometimes we can just smile and let the kid express their ideas :wink:

4

Really? Because this whole text doesn’t look like a kid’s post to me. In english, there is nothing about Robbing caravans… it specifically says “lending or stealing money from Zois”… I am honestly totally confused by your reply xD. This is what I see in the post (I’ll put it as screenshot because the formatting on phone is weird. The part in the […] is the OP):

Screenshot_20260826_214905_Chrome
Screenshot_20260826_214905_Chrome1080×1966 322 KB

Edit: I mean, the OP also asks for opinion, so that’s what I did. But now I get what you mean. Even if it is a kid, which I’m not sure, they asked for opinions and that’s what I gave. And I don’t think I was too harsh?

Edit 2: Okay, it was weirdly translated for me again. Now I get that with the Russian meme about a kid wishing for those things. Sorry, misunderstanding on my end​:sweat_smile:

I don’t know if I like the approach. We don’t know the age of the person and the forum is for engagement. It comes across a bit as patronizing and “yea we don’t have to take their ideas seriously. They are a kid”. I’m all for expressing ideas. So I take the suggestions seriously, because I don’t know the person behind the screen and reply to them neutrally. But I do understand your reasoning​:four_leaf_clover:

5

Well, the translation on this forum sometimes works wonders too, so I understand what made you misunderstand my words :grin:

And no, you weren’t too harsh at all. It’s just that I can sometimes be quite blunt when I simply run out of patience reading certain messages passively — those that contain statements capable of turning the game into something absurd. But you always stand out for your diplomacy! :heart:

It just seems to me for some reason that the author of the thread is unlikely to be genuinely interested in our opinions on this matter. But maybe I’m just imagining things.

6 
I wrote the game with a multiplayer setup in mind, so I didn't design it for a single-player experience where game progress and content would be saved.
7 
It was a multiplayer game played with mods and cheat codes. The game was weak and boring because you just have everything handed to you—you enter a money code and get it all. What kind of fun is that? It makes no sense for a multiplayer game to be like that.
8

Translation is witchcraft here sometimes, as we established xD.

I really appreciate your opinion and yes, I can understand the frustration as well. Just recently there was a post again where the AI reply was still in the text like “Here is how you can connect your ideas:” (not in this post. A different one). That classic AI model reply and just copy pasted. I think I’m also too nitpicky sometimes and I know that I edge on with some people for that.

Like, I present 20 links and quotes to them and nothing comes of it and I might come across as “urgh, not this dude again, rolling out a whole essay”. I get that that’s annoying.

And I also appreciate your bluntness to be honest and really value what you say​:four_leaf_clover:

9

Thanks for explaining your reasoning​:four_leaf_clover: I think for me the main difference is simply that this sounds much more like any MMO/live-service structure than multiplayer for a sandbox life sim.

The missions, fixed progression, separate economy, battle passes and restrictions make it feel like a different game mode built around grinding and unlocking things, while I would personally rather see multiplayer expand the sandbox inZOI already is.

It also doesn’t really seem to align with the multiplayer direction Kjun has described so far, especially with hosted sessions, adjustable rules and official mods being planned (not cheats!). So I think we simply have very different ideas of what inZOI multiplayer should be, which is okay​:four_leaf_clover:

10

You see, the thing is, you never actually described what players are supposed to do in this game mode.

Chat is disabled, there’s no communication. What are they supposed to do for $10 or €10 a month? Just walk their character up to another one, click an action like “Talk about the weather”, and the other player has to “Accept” or “Decline”?

I think in a mode like this, things will very quickly devolve into the main fun being to run around with frying pans in your hands and hit everyone you meet.

What missions should players complete for progression? Now, if you can answer that question — then yes, the idea starts to make sense. But not just one task, an entire cycle: what could players do day after day that would actually be interesting to them, and what would it lead to in the end? Come up with at least 10 activities — then this can be considered an actual “proposal”. But right now it’s more like “I’d like an MMO where everything would be cool, even though I don’t know exactly how”. That’s what I’m getting at, you understand?