First off: does anyone know what happened to that awsome fun genre of games known as the adventure game?
Second: does anyone care?
[Can you think Zork cross with modern engines and online play?]
I've recently been doing some thinking on the state of games in the world. Did you folks know that EA owns practically 70% of all games on the market?! Yikes! Now wonder all the games are exactly the same, or useless. They are all sequels to some game, movie, cartoon or else clones of a game produced elsewhere that happened to be successful. The last original game was Black and White, and that was a long time ago already. Now everything is either an "Everquest Clone or a Counterstrike Clone" as one reviewer (whom I forgot the source) put the state of E3 this year. They are ALL the same!.
I have an idea though. Since massively multiplayer games are great inventions, and fantasy adventure games are always more fun than should be allowed - why not unite the two. Instead of having a fantasy MOG running on reused D&D rulesets (without even giving the credit!) where the push is to level and level and level some more in order to get better hitpoint and stats and spells and such, why not turn it into a good old fantasy adventure MOG.
Make the world not just BIG, make it HUGE! (side note, run everything off a single 'server', most likely a server cluster, but it would appear as a single server...) Don't focus on making dazzling spell effects, instead focus on creating an immense amount of interweiving plots that can be player altered! This doesn't mean ignore spell effects, or character models or the 3D landscapes - no not at all.
Also, have the characters start with only a Race, Gender and Philosophy. As they decide they like certain skills, they'll end up forming their own classes, archtypes, etc. Give no experience for killing monsters. Have thier skill at the sword go up when using a sword, yes! Have their skill at horseback riding go up when travelling mounted, yes!
Set it up so that it is entirely player driven economy. Have factions based on Diety/Philosophy/Race, etc. Guilds/Associations/Kingdoms can form among the players, they can go on quests with each other, battling foes and such along the way. The foes should be realistic -- if there's a Giant Wasp, is there also many little wasps around the land? If there's an Troll-sized spider, are there also spiders so small they can barely be seen?
NPC's would exist solely as means of spurring on quests, and as hazards along the way. Players would be given the opportunity to play as dragon's and wreak havoc among a city of Men, but only for a short while (until that famous arrow hits the missing scale, and such). Paid Content-Masters (note, I use not the term GM or DM) would provide new material for plots and arrange great events that could take place. There would be NO communication from one side of the world to another -- this isn't IRC! Perhaps mail could be sent, but it would have to be carried by a mail carrier. Or a bard-type you travel and sing the message. Travel time would be very important, as it has everything to do the the adventure game feel. Pehaps wizards would be able to teleport once in a blue moon over short distances, once they are acceptably able to use magic. And opposing factions could assail each other. Mmmm, and we could even use 'Save Points' to return to when you died! Yes, that is a perfectly adventure-game style way of dealing with death. No saving while on a boat or any sort of non-walking trasportation. Perhaps one could ride dragons and griffons, and make hot-air balloons! The height of technology would be a crossbow or a chariot! Oh, it'd be fun, and original. An Adventure MOG. Shall I coin the acronym MMOAG
Anyway, I'm looking at Gamebryo as the rendering engine, as crystal space and a few others I've looked at seem inordinately complex. Also, Gamebryo supports PC, PS/2, Xbox and Gamecube, so I could conceivably go cross-platform with it. PC is the main focus though.
A few friends of friends are looking into this as well, and if there's potential, then perhaps we form a company and start doing a prototype. If not, we wrap it up here and I add it to yet another thing that proves I have Da Vinci Syndrome (never actually implementing any of the ceaseless ideas I have).
Be safe, folks.
Modified: 2003 05/29 22:29
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