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A MMOG That Could Have Been
Grimwell has up the first in a series of articles from a Massively Multiplayer game that underwent development but was never published. Entitled The Colonies, the game was intended to provide a massive world space where repercussions from player actions could be felt and maintained. From the article: "'It's been 500 years since 1957.' That phrase is what I've always used when describing where the game was to take place. 1957 was the hopping off point to a future that never happened, one that could be seen then. Today we see post-apocalyptic grunge with worn down leftover implements of civilization or we see high technology sterility. In 1957 technology was still magical and the future was an exciting place to be going to. So imagine 500 years post 1957 as seen in magazines like Astounding or in B-Movies of the period. That one simple phrase hints at the tone and style of the game. The name tells you the rest." Update: 06/11 20:58 GMT by Z : Added link. sigh.
"Entitled The Colonies, the game was intended to provide a massive world space where repercussions from player actions could be felt and maintained."
Eve is a massive world in space and it's entirely pvp based with pvp occupations other than fighting. Has a playerun economy with prices that fluctaute based on player supply and demand (also greed :p).
Stated goals from site:"1 Create a world in which the players had genuine effect on the worldspace. 2 Create a world large enough that it would never feel small. 3 Enable game world interaction beyond the 3-d game client. 4 Encourage a sense of ownership in the player. 5 Develop a crafting system that would allow seeming limitless invention and creation of items. 6 Develop a real money transaction system that would allow players to make money but never cause players to feel that they had to spend money to play. 7 Create a story arc that would lead naturally to expansion."
Can players effect the world? Yes player run economy. Is it large? It's fucking huge. It could take me literally a real life day to go from one end to the other in a slow ship. But it's not so big that you're spending all your time traveling since most of the action takes place in the centerish. Interaction beyond the game client? I'm not sure what that means, if you aren't playing the game you aren't interacting with it and that takes a client.
Encourage a sense of ownership? Yup. This is MY ship, MY blueprint, MY resources, MY station, MY space, MY market etc. The crafting system is the only thing it doesn't quite meet. It works and is functional but to there is no true invention. You can modify blueprints so they are more resource effiecient etc. but you can't create your own item. #6 balance between earning $$$ and the need to have $$$ to play? It's there. Because skills train in real time you should never need more money then you can spend (no point buying a battleship if you can't use it for another month). #7 does it have a good story that we can mess with? Yes Right now we just finished a story arc involving a stolen dreadnought.
I'm betting it was never published because they realized it already exists and unlike traditional fantasy mmorpgs a game like this is a niche game so it wouldn't have trouble competing.
If you're interested in trying eve-online after hearing this shameless plug for it send me a PM with a email address or post it in a reply to me and I can give you a free 14 day trial key (no CC needed).
There are 11 types of people, those who know unary and those who don't.
I've been playing Second Life http://www.secondlife.com/ for a while now and it succeeds by satisfying all of the requirements that you think are a problem. The world is, for the most part, built by the players and the main sources of interest are in building or socializing with each other. It is true that most players put a bit of hard cash into the game. However, since this is an over 18 game I don't see that is a problem - pushing four bucks into the game every so often is nothing to an adult. So, what's not to like with these goals? Second Life is growing by leaps and bounds, precisely because socializing and building are more interesting to many adults than the usual time-consuming level grind.