Directional Melee Combat (meme)

For the avoidance of any doubt - Dune: Awakening will NOT feature Directional Melee Combat (DMC)

Confessions of a false prophet

Discord Meme

DMC is regarded as a meme on the official Dune: Awakening (D:A) Discord, but it was not always so. Below is the recounting of events from those who were there to witness them unfold.

May it serve as a warning of how the unchecked troll mob of the DMC horde can run rampant across the server.

The early days

When the Official Discord Server first opened in August 2022, there was a flurry of activity from thousands of people joining, excited for a new Dune Survival MMO.

Naturally, a large portion of these new Sleepers were from other survival games, such as Chivalry 2, Mordhau, Mortal Online (MO), and Last Oasis (LO) - which share a similar melee combat mechanic (explained below) - "DMC".

These players were adamant that, because melee is a primary form of combat in the Dune universe, D:A should have it too - despite the dev and other staff confirmation that it is not where they want the combat system in the game to be.

D:A will be "Combined Arms", and it's a difficult balance to ensure Melee, Ranged, Vehicles and Special abilities maintain a fun and dynamic PvP (and PvE) experience. However, none of this logic and reasoning placated the DMC horde.

The DMC Channel

The General channel was constantly being filled with increasingly toxic "debates" over why DMC should be the primary melee system of the game, and it drowned out other discussions and started to drive people away.

This was at a time before the paid moderation staff were in place, and as an effort to "contain" the mob, a channel was created for them - #directional-melee-combat-discussion. This worked for a short time, it split the "discussion" (now mostly trolling and flaming any dissenting opinion)

However, it was not enough, and decisive action needed to take place.

The Great Culling

In early 2023 it was decided that, for the sake of the community, the DMC trolling had to be shut down. It felt like overnight; dozens of trolls were banned in a Great Cull as the banhammer obliterated the DMC army in their sleep.

Many rumored that Natascha, the Senior PR Manager was the one who gave the order - but we cannot tell for sure. When the sun rose, the chat was eerily quiet. The DMC channel was left smoldering and archived, never to be seen again.

The trolls died in the dark.

The Meme is born

Over time, the battered and bruised veterans of the chat began to heal - and those who once fled from the mob began to return. In mid 2023, a paid moderation team was put in place - now Dan, Paulo, Ian and others stand guard over the Sleepers as they live and chat in (almost) peaceful serenity.

As days became weeks, and weeks became months, the harrowing DMC Dark times became legend - some of those who still fly the flag do so in hushed whispers.

For the most part, it became a meme... the "Original Meme" of the D:A community, and so bears the name of a website dedicated to house many of the silly ventures Sleepers get up to - https://directionalmeleecombat.meme/

There is talk of a man on the inside at Funcom, who has taken the trolling into nearly every meeting, event and even in 1-2-1 reviews. We do not know his true motives, for he is a Lord of Mischief, known only as... Ignasi

Game Mechanic

This section describes DMC as a game mechanic outside of D:A

Directional Melee Combat otherwise known as DMC, is a play style and mechanic characterized by a more complex form of melee fighting than just “Aim and Click”.

Typically, the weapon attacks are from the right, left, top and bottom. Swords and pointy weapons also have a center strait on stab. Parrying and shield block also make use of these directions.

Games such as Mortal Online 2, Mordhau, and Chivalry 2 exhibit these play mechanics. These games are also known as Slasher games.

Most of these games are first person combat where the player will usually need to make use of extra keypresses to direct the location of attack, parrying and blocking on the enemy. Which requiring more skill with the keyboard or controller.

The appeal of some of these games is that they are highly competitive and require a degree of player skill. This tends to be a disadvantage to new players and players who prefer a more casual play style.

And some will favor players who have had a lot of practice with the game mechanics, over newcomers.

Compatibility with games using modern/futuristic weapons

Although many of DMC games contain weapons like the bows and arrows and thrown weapons. They are not easily compatible with games that contain more modern weapons, like assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and hand grenades. It's unclear if they would work well with mage classes that can cast root spells and highly destructive AOEs either. As this is mainly a melee combat style, close combat is a requirement. In a game with ranged weapons a DMC player would seem to be highly disadvantaged