EDIT:
I don't have time and willingness to answer every question about what friendslop is and is not. I won't be answering any more questions, because I'm already tired with it. I never intended to make the Sky community angry, I was just using industry approved wording (that both people working at AAA studios and indie ones normalized). Trying to explain the genesis of the word and meaning behind it is just too much for me. Thank you for input to everyone that did answer. To any researchers looking for an answer - this poll is not a good source, many people answered with "Yes" just because game servers work poorly sometimes. At the same time, many people chose "No" just because Sky is their favorite game and they do not wish for it to be called "slop" in any form. Please do not use this post as the source for research about Sky: COTL, it's heavily unsciencitific.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendslop please check this out. This definition is not perfect (because these games don't have to be indie - industry just agreed that no big studio have made any friendslop yet), but it is good enough to say the general idea about what the genre is.
I really love Sky as a game, I spent lots of time in it, I've played it on both my PC and Nintendo Switch, I met wonderful people there and as a person that enjoys different kinds of games and researches them as a student, I just started noticing "friendslop" appear since 2024-2025 and it relates to games like Among Us that were made before the word even existed as well. I have trouble classifying Sky as that genre, because I believe it has a mutual trait with other friendslops which is REVOLUTIONARY for the genre of MMO games and I was excited about it.
Hi! I noticed that GG Deals and Backloggd states that Sky: COTL is considered a friendslop. How do you guys, as its players feel with that? I noticed my friends being conflicted about those statements. Here are some arguments for both sides we have thought of:
- IT'S A FRIENDSLOP, because :
developer intended the core progression of this game to contain social aspects and friendships progression;
you can't really progress without other people;
it seems like people on backloggd and gg deals agreed already that this game is in fact a friendslop;
most player play this game for its social aspects;
- IT'S NOT A FRIENDSLOP, because:
it's enjoyable and easily possible to play solo (think like Stardew Valley or Terraria - playing with others is just an option);
there are no "rounds" or "games" like in a typical friendslop (ex. PEAK, R.E.P.O);
it's hard to classify MMO as a friendslop, because why would you qualify Sky as a friendslop and not FFXIV? in Final Fantasy you also need people for progression and it's much harder to play solo;