MMO Ideas

[SegaAges]

Like them or not, they are here to stay. If you could put 1 and only 1 idea into an MMO and you knew it would be in there, what would it be?

This is mine: an ultimate hero. We all know there is no way we can all be the hero of the day, even though we want to be. We all can't be luke skywalker or frodo or gandolf or john connor, even though we wish we could.

After battles and stuff, there would be one "chosen one" and everybody would support this person. Of course, there would be perma-death (you die and your character dies), which would throw it in a loop. Why perma-death? If the hero is gone, the hero is gone, there will be no return unless you start the character at level 1 and rebuild him (a rebirth of the person, if you will). If you die, somebody else has to prove that they can be the hero.

There are huge incentives for helping the hero as well. Of course, the hero will be uber powerful and nobody else will be near as powerful.

Now not everybody wants to be the hero, but unfortunately, if you are the chosen one, it is your destiny, which means that if you try to login as another character on that server that you made, it switches and forces you to login as your hero. Now what if your other character needs to do stuff? Well the game designers will have to figure that out. Forcing you to sign in as the chosen one will eliminate people becoming the chosen one and then never logging in with that character ever again to save them.

"Many heroes have come before and now lay rest, but what they have lacked, hopefully you do not".

Throw out your 1 idea here. I say MMO, because I said so. I made the thread, and I want it to be on this topic.

[BHvrd]

All I know for sure is the most important aspect of an MMO is that it be a persistent world, they have come close, but they still haven't quite achieved that goal.

The persistence comes from maintaining and developing the state of the world in the game around the clock. Quite unlike other types of games, the plot and events in a persistent world game continue to develop even while some of the players are not playing their characters. That aspect is similar to the real world where events do occur regardless if they are directly or indirectly related to a person, as they continue to happen while a person is asleep, etc. Conversely, a player's character can also influence and change a persistent world. The degree to which a character affects a world varies from game to game. Since the game does not pause or create player-accessible back-up files, a character's actions will have consequences that the player must deal with.

If they can ever truly make a persistent MMO then it will be one HELLUVA game. Imagine logging back in the game and ogres have burnt down your house and you must take up refuge.

Some people may not be willing to accept those consequences, but it is truly what the genre is about and loses are to be expected, short of losing your character to perma death or some crap like that. Just persistent events where you are like OMG! New adventures around every corner.

The closest MMO to come to this is EVE Online from my experience.

[SegaAges]

All I know for sure is the most important aspect of an MMO is that it be a persistent world, they have come close, but they still haven't quite achieved that goal.



If they can ever truly make a persistent MMO then it will be one HELLUVA game. Imagine logging back in the game and ogres have burnt down your house and you must take up refuge.

Some people may not be willing to accept those consequences, but it is truly what the genre is about and loses are to be expected, short of losing your character to perma death or some crap like that. Just persistent events where you are like OMG! New adventures around every corner.

The closest MMO to come to this is EVE Online from my experience.

I didn't make it through your whole post and then already started thinking (Eve Online). Then I got to the end and saw you mentioned it.

I think one of those would be cool, but if people stay up as long as crank addicts already playing EQ and WoW, imagine what would happen if that happened. When a game like that comes out, they need to do server shut down to make people go to sleep, hehehe (SWG does a server restart every other day, and trust me, personally, I needed it some days).

[SpaceHarrier]

I don't play MMOs, therefore any idea I toss out there might already have been done. That said, for some reason I'd love it if you could terraform the landscape. Like, dig a hole and built an underground house, or (using machinery or beasts of burden) flatten hills or create hills where there were none. Cut down entire forests or plant new trees/bushes/weeds/crops. Divert streams or put rotten corpses in them to sicken a rival village..

I don't even care about the general purpose of the game, i.e. warfare or whatnot. I just want a game where everyone is trying to make a niche for themselves and keep re-landscaping the whole game, defending territory.. Perhaps clans could establish within certain limits and then there are some wild areas with random battles and areas for individuals to create without being taken over by clans. Some areas can't be established by certain archetypes or groups, etc..


By the way, I don't mean terraform in a "Populous" or god-sim kind of way either. I mean you actually roam your area, and set up the means for creating the changes you like. Basically a world that is in constant change around you.. wander at your own risk, but reap the rewards kind of thing.

[monkeychemist]

even though I hate MMOs I will make a quick suggestion. OP suggested the ultimate hero that is untouchable (well almost). I was just watching the anime series "Afro Samurai" in which there is a #1 best fighter in the world and he is untouchable...except by the the #2. The #2 can challenge him for the #1 spot. The #2 can be challenged by anyone else. This would support the permadeath idea that SegaAges suggested all while keeping a vicious cycle going.

So maybe you guys that like those sort of games can petition whoever owns the rights to Afro Samurai and get them to make an MMO?

[SegaAges]

even though I hate MMOs I will make a quick suggestion. OP suggested the ultimate hero that is untouchable (well almost). I was just watching the anime series "Afro Samurai" in which there is a #1 best fighter in the world and he is untouchable...except by the the #2. The #2 can challenge him for the #1 spot. The #2 can be challenged by anyone else. This would support the permadeath idea that SegaAges suggested all while keeping a vicious cycle going.

So maybe you guys that like those sort of games can petition whoever owns the rights to Afro Samurai and get them to make an MMO?

The ultimate hero is also needed to kill the ultimate villain (who enjoys attacking the children! the children! who is going to save the children?)

[DeputyMoniker]

If they can ever truly make a persistent MMO then it will be one HELLUVA game. Imagine logging back in the game and ogres have burnt down your house and you must take up refuge.

That's a cool idea but think about the drawbacks:
1) How many Chinese guys would die from playing too much?
2) In my opinion and my experience, FFXI has reached such limited success because it's too hardcore. If you don't have time to static, seeking party outside the Crawlers Nest for 12 hours was very common. You play when you're scheduled to play or you just don't get to play. Great game but too hardcore. Logging on to find my Mog House fucked up would have happened one time before I looked for a new game to play.

[boatofcar]

I don't play MMOs, therefore any idea I toss out there might already have been done. That said, for some reason I'd love it if you could terraform the landscape. Like, dig a hole and built an underground house, or (using machinery or beasts of burden) flatten hills or create hills where there were none. Cut down entire forests or plant new trees/bushes/weeds/crops. Divert streams or put rotten corpses in them to sicken a rival village..

This is a GREAT idea.

[BHvrd]

That's a cool idea but think about the drawbacks:
1) How many Chinese guys would die from playing too much?
2) In my opinion and my experience, FFXI has reached such limited success because it's too hardcore. If you don't have time to static, seeking party outside the Crawlers Nest for 12 hours was very common. You play when you're scheduled to play or you just don't get to play. Great game but too hardcore. Logging on to find my Mog House fucked up would have happened one time before I looked for a new game to play.

Like I said many people wouldn't be able to handle it, but it's truly what the genre is about. If the gameplay was fun and the events were interesting it wouldn't matter.

I was in a space station in 0.0 space in Eve Online and logged in and it was gone, it got taken by another faction! All my items were locked in that base and I put a bounty out to retrieve the items, I have tried going there myself and got dusted, I need to affiliate myself with the new owners, lol. My point is, it's to this date one of the best experiences I've had in any MMO. All my items sit in Everquest 2 collecting dust. Wow, I have a house full of shit, who needs gameplay!

Only problem I have with Eve Online is the questing is hella repetitive, but 0.0 is an experience.

I'm holding out for the new Star Trek game, so far it sounds amazing and being able to do missions on foot and in space is what i'm talkin bout. Hope they get the gameplay right.

[Icarus Moonsight]

What Monkeychemist was talking about sounds like a No More Heroes MMO.