What I've been waiting for in the ten odd years since I last threw a die in a role playing game is something that can encompass a global, or at least regional feel of social interactivity. I've spent a bit of time day dreaming how I think you could capture the feel of a traditional rpg fantasy world into a mmorpg and this is what I have come up with.
First, the game would have a distribution cap, that is, there would only be say 100,000 thousand licenses sold. Rather than raw sales the games profit would be based on subscription, which would be higher than competing games. If successful this creates a population cap of players, and thus the game can be better managed with the appropriate numbers of servers/support but moreso, it also provides a stable gaming environment and one that will mature with players. Ideally the subscription base is slightly below demand, which if successful makes even owning a license of the game valuable.
Second, the subscription buys more than just server time. A staff of game writers(overlords) provide a grand overture of the times and troubles throughout the land (hierarchy to be described below). A coherent story line based on the worlds extents would be worked out before release to provide a template of events for the writers. Bi-annual patches could be applied by the game writers's to help conform the world to the original story scheme. Ultimately the game would have a finite time limit of say five years.
The game world is a free-market, everything is for sale between independent players in world and out. The game would charge no tariff as subscription fees cover the lost revenue. This would further involve players into the game world as well as add a vital element of economic reality.
As an effort to create a balance, and stem anarchy, all licenses would come with a duality. A license would enable a typical player character of traditional adventuring fantasy type to exist, but in addition an NPC or a controlled character would exist. This is what I find to be the most interesting idea of this rant. The NPC, whether it be a shopkeeper, stone mason or guard or any other 'constructive' social occupation is what would anchor the world and provide true social interactivity. The way this would be accomplished would be by providing reward from hours logged as an NPC. This time would go towards overall account credits. What these account credits would be spent on could be a vast assortment such as: property, game power, or GM'ing rights.
I think that duality could be woven in to a fantasy game nicely too. The point isn't that hours would have to be spent on menial labor but rather living characters embody the entire world and those that participate in the running of the world are rewarded, whether this be for good or evil. Obviously, a character would only embody one game entity at a time.
Lastly, the GM would be brought back in to the game, controlling monsters and informing 'NPCs' of relevant story information. This would be accomplished through the aforementioned 'participation points or account credits' - the greater the NPC/GM participation the greater the GM's (or characters) power to manipulate world events. A hierarchy stemming down from the Game company to those with vested time/interaction would be given larger chunks of the game world story to enforce - or not?
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What I've been waiting for in the ten odd years since I last threw a die in a role playing game is something that can encompass a global, or at least regional feel of social interactivity. I've spent a bit of time day dreaming how I think you could capture the feel of a traditional rpg fantasy world into a mmorpg and this is what I have come up with.
First, the game would have a distribution cap, that is, there would only be say 100,000 thousand licenses sold. Rather than raw sales the games profit would be based on subscription, which would be higher than competing games. If successful this creates a population cap of players, and thus the game can be better managed with the appropriate numbers of servers/support but moreso, it also provides a stable gaming environment and one that will mature with players. Ideally the subscription base is slightly below demand, which if successful makes even owning a license of the game valuable.
Second, the subscription buys more than just server time. A staff of game writers(overlords) provide a grand overture of the times and troubles throughout the land (hierarchy to be described below). A coherent story line based on the worlds extents would be worked out before release to provide a template of events for the writers. Bi-annual patches could be applied by the game writers's to help conform the world to the original story scheme. Ultimately the game would have a finite time limit of say five years.
The game world is a free-market, everything is for sale between independent players in world and out. The game would charge no tariff as subscription fees cover the lost revenue. This would further involve players into the game world as well as add a vital element of economic reality.
As an effort to create a balance, and stem anarchy, all licenses would come with a duality. A license would enable a typical player character of traditional adventuring fantasy type to exist, but in addition an NPC or a controlled character would exist. This is what I find to be the most interesting idea of this rant. The NPC, whether it be a shopkeeper, stone mason or guard or any other 'constructive' social occupation is what would anchor the world and provide true social interactivity. The way this would be accomplished would be by providing reward from hours logged as an NPC. This time would go towards overall account credits. What these account credits would be spent on could be a vast assortment such as: property, game power, or GM'ing rights.
I think that duality could be woven in to a fantasy game nicely too. The point isn't that hours would have to be spent on menial labor but rather living characters embody the entire world and those that participate in the running of the world are rewarded, whether this be for good or evil. Obviously, a character would only embody one game entity at a time.
Lastly, the GM would be brought back in to the game, controlling monsters and informing 'NPCs' of relevant story information. This would be accomplished through the aforementioned 'participation points or account credits' - the greater the NPC/GM participation the greater the GM's (or characters) power to manipulate world events. A hierarchy stemming down from the Game company to those with vested time/interaction would be given larger chunks of the game world story to enforce - or not?