triptoy2002
Dalayan Adventurer
I wanted to share some of my musings about MMOs, and the direction I wish they could take. I know that much of this could not be done without an inordinate amount of work, but hypothetically, this would be cool if done properly.
Imagine a game that had smooth, fast gameplay, along the lines of Assassin's Creed, Force Unleashed, etc. Set that in a free realm type world such as Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto (though not as modern as GTA). Pedestrians roaming around shopping, doing their thing, and you are able to mingle freely. Incorporate the climbling/parkour aspect from Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell. Also allow stealth such as practiced in Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, and FPS type games (ducking behind walls, doors, line of sight being very important). Allow character leveling, such as is standard in MMOs and many RPGs (such as Final Fantasy console games).
Now incorporate Total War type battles (check out the videos about the upcoming Shogun 2), battles where you (or NPCs) gather forces and wage large scale war. You can arrange to be an infantry soldier, an archer, the general of the entire battle (one side at a time of course), any role you wish. These battles take place in real time as in RTS games. You could even be uninvolved and happen accross a battle as such on the field, and decide to wade in and support a side, or just slaughter everyone that crosses your path, regardless of side. Maybe just watch.
The game starts you out on a world that is very primative, imagine you are just a dude (or a chick) in a tribe, in an area where there are a bunch of tribes (ever watched the movie Mongol?). The primative society advances socially, technologically, and years are counted in real time, like maybe a 5 minute hour or something, which would put you at around a year per real month. Maybe even faster is better. Devise a system of political influence, allowing you to gain supporters, and rise to head of your clan, tribe, nation, etc, or allowing you to give your support to another, and help them to rise in power. Maybe you want to be the right hand of your tribe leader/king/whatever, or maybe you want to support a friend in his rise to power. Your call.
Create a market that your character can be a part of, maybe you don't want to kill stuff, but maybe you do want to craft, operate a shop in the local marketplace, be an architect, or even a laborer. As your society advances, it hits some of the same basic stages of development that humans in reality hit. Go from tribal to more organized, creating cities, moving through the medieval and renaissance periods into a modern age, eventually building space ships and cruising the galaxy. There would be other planets out there, each going through the same types of development, each in their own way of course, based on their circumstances, their social influences, and the real players that may or may not have been there to add the chaotic/organized element. Add in space battles, such as you would expect in Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, etc.
In this hypothetical game, you could form empires on the small or large scale, even incorporating worlds into an empire if you so chose. There would have to be some sort of safeguards to prevent highly advanced civilizations from coming down to a primitive world and totally enslaving/destroying it if a real player happened to have that as a starting point. Worlds that were populated purely by NPC's would be open season for enslavement, etc. The game engine would have to constantly be creating more worlds based on sets of variables, and providing them with an overviewed history that would influence their development.
There would have to be various resources that would be useful on all planets, continents, nations. This game would in many ways have the feel of a Real Time Strategy type game, but at the same time would allow you to play at a much smaller level, as one man (or woman) if you wish, blending in and not really making a political mark. Or you could kill random people, leaders, any NPC, for a strategic reason or for no reason at all.
Sounds to me like a game I'd enjoy playing. I was having this conversation with some of my gamer-nerd friends, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Impossible to incorporate all of this, I know, but was an interesting discussion.
Imagine a game that had smooth, fast gameplay, along the lines of Assassin's Creed, Force Unleashed, etc. Set that in a free realm type world such as Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto (though not as modern as GTA). Pedestrians roaming around shopping, doing their thing, and you are able to mingle freely. Incorporate the climbling/parkour aspect from Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell. Also allow stealth such as practiced in Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, and FPS type games (ducking behind walls, doors, line of sight being very important). Allow character leveling, such as is standard in MMOs and many RPGs (such as Final Fantasy console games).
Now incorporate Total War type battles (check out the videos about the upcoming Shogun 2), battles where you (or NPCs) gather forces and wage large scale war. You can arrange to be an infantry soldier, an archer, the general of the entire battle (one side at a time of course), any role you wish. These battles take place in real time as in RTS games. You could even be uninvolved and happen accross a battle as such on the field, and decide to wade in and support a side, or just slaughter everyone that crosses your path, regardless of side. Maybe just watch.
The game starts you out on a world that is very primative, imagine you are just a dude (or a chick) in a tribe, in an area where there are a bunch of tribes (ever watched the movie Mongol?). The primative society advances socially, technologically, and years are counted in real time, like maybe a 5 minute hour or something, which would put you at around a year per real month. Maybe even faster is better. Devise a system of political influence, allowing you to gain supporters, and rise to head of your clan, tribe, nation, etc, or allowing you to give your support to another, and help them to rise in power. Maybe you want to be the right hand of your tribe leader/king/whatever, or maybe you want to support a friend in his rise to power. Your call.
Create a market that your character can be a part of, maybe you don't want to kill stuff, but maybe you do want to craft, operate a shop in the local marketplace, be an architect, or even a laborer. As your society advances, it hits some of the same basic stages of development that humans in reality hit. Go from tribal to more organized, creating cities, moving through the medieval and renaissance periods into a modern age, eventually building space ships and cruising the galaxy. There would be other planets out there, each going through the same types of development, each in their own way of course, based on their circumstances, their social influences, and the real players that may or may not have been there to add the chaotic/organized element. Add in space battles, such as you would expect in Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, etc.
In this hypothetical game, you could form empires on the small or large scale, even incorporating worlds into an empire if you so chose. There would have to be some sort of safeguards to prevent highly advanced civilizations from coming down to a primitive world and totally enslaving/destroying it if a real player happened to have that as a starting point. Worlds that were populated purely by NPC's would be open season for enslavement, etc. The game engine would have to constantly be creating more worlds based on sets of variables, and providing them with an overviewed history that would influence their development.
There would have to be various resources that would be useful on all planets, continents, nations. This game would in many ways have the feel of a Real Time Strategy type game, but at the same time would allow you to play at a much smaller level, as one man (or woman) if you wish, blending in and not really making a political mark. Or you could kill random people, leaders, any NPC, for a strategic reason or for no reason at all.
Sounds to me like a game I'd enjoy playing. I was having this conversation with some of my gamer-nerd friends, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Impossible to incorporate all of this, I know, but was an interesting discussion.
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