Myself being very much into the history of society and social interaction, I truely enjoy strolling through a city and just exploring every building, talking to every NPC and seeing what they have to say, even if its a "Welcome to my shop!". Morrowind by far gets my tip of the hat. For some reason, maybe its the voice acting, maybe the way the towns are layed to actually be the size of REAL towns, or maybe that houses actually have living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, but just the social interaction makes a game come alive. I would love to produce a game that takes the complexity of a town (think Thief-series), the NPC interaction of Morrowind, and the overall sense of community in Everquest to create a more social-oriented game, where people can be just that. You log on to your shop owner, who has just woken up from taking a nap upstairs above his little cafe in a town reminicent of say Tours, France. After heading downstairs, you greet your customers, maybe grab a bit to eat, and tell your NPC shopkeeper the tasks you would like him to do today because you're off to a friends. You stroll down the street, seeing familar faces that have been in the game for as long as you have and wave as they tend to their own shops or songs or whatever profession they have decided to partake in. You reach your friends, a cobbler (shoe maker) who has just finished up an order for one of the government officials (perhaps a consignment style quest) and has decided to join you for a day at the theatre. You both stroll through town, talking about how business is going, how the wife or potential wives are doing, and if feeling the need, jump into a little OOC to ask about school, work or whatnot. You arrive at the theatre owned by another one of your friends so he has reserved you one of the best seats in the house...okay, you get the picture, basically a game of alternate living, somewhat like The Sims Online but on a much MUCH grander scale. Now I realize the near impossiblity of this game concept taking off given that most of our audience will be wanting MOBs, spells and "phat lewt". But I really do feel that there are people out there, like myself, who instead of wielding a sword and magic wand, would much rather spend our times socializing, talking and just overall enjoying a living, breathing, online city. Call it a 3D chatroom, call it a MMOCT (Massively Multiplayer Online Chat Client) or whichever you like, but I know plenty of people who chat and play RPGs to get the social interaction that sometimes may not be present in real life. You can gain admirers with EBoots and Epics, but you gain friends through socializing, and enjoying the presence of others, which doesn't always have to be over a dead gnoll. Tyler 'Calaf' Roehmholdt The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx [edited by - Calaf on March 14, 2003 5:04:32 AM]

One thing, Calaf...

LEARN TO USE PARAGRAPHS!

(Sorry about shouting).

quote: Original post by Calaf
Now I realize the near impossiblity of this game concept taking off given that most of our audience will be wanting MOBs, spells and "phat lewt". But I really do feel that there are people out there, like myself, who instead of wielding a sword and magic wand, would much rather spend our times socializing, talking and just overall enjoying a living, breathing, online city.

You''re not alone. The Sims was the top seller and Game of the Year (by several accounts) the year it was released (2001, right?)

It''s always a question of scale. How big do you want the cities to be? How big would the world be (does the world consist of countries, states, cities, etc, or is it just one region - be it country, state, county or city)? The larger the scale, the more assets you need to create, unless part of the game play is having the players create assets to share (attribution then becomes very important, and players should receive in-game rewards for their dedication, such as cash for every other player who downloads a copy of an item they modeled, textured and uploaded). Even then, players need a base set of assets to play with and gain world/environment familiarity (see The Sims again).

It''s a good idea, but one thing we constantly reiterate is that "it''s not the idea but the execution that counts." Or, more formally, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" (Thomas Alva Edison).

Cheers!

I agree completely with Oluseyi on needing to understand not only the importance of execution but you also need to realize the work the scale will require. You want a lot of NPCs, fine, but remember that for your purposes you need to make each one different and memorable. That''s fine for the first 10 maybe even the first 100 but if this is global scale you''re talking about 1000+ maybe. That''s A LOT of characters to come up with. And that''s not even to mention complexity of dialog for each INDIVIDUAL NPC, after all if the focus is social, then you don''t want too many NPCs using the same greeting and dialog options.

Not saying it can''t be done, just saying that for a huge project its a ton of work and you have to take that into consideration when designing it.

quote: Original post by Calaf
...okay, you get the picture, basically a game of alternate living, somewhat like The Sims Online but on a much MUCH grander scale.

Well, I guess that is what The Sims would like to be, and perhaps what it will be one day. But right now, even a game as massive as that can''t do it.

I''m not certain where you are heading with this post. If you are just advocating the virtues of such a game, then I entirely agree. That sort of social element is very much what I would like to see in my own game, although the ''dead gnoll'' is just as important, I don''t necessarily see the two as being mutually exclusive.

If, however, you are hinting at forming some kind of team to create such a game, then as the previous replies indicate, it is a very difficult, perhaps impossible task requiring years of work even for a professional outfit and what counts more is the lines of code/textures/models/music you can produce rather than the ideas.

Hoffs

Just advocating virtures right now. This is my first look into game development so I don't think I want to embark on anything this massive until a few more years down the road, both by my skills, experience and knowledge, and available technology so I could make this sort of happen. For now though just wishful thinking.

Tyler 'Calaf' Roehmholdt

The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx

PS: Thanks for the paragraph reminder, I'll make use of the from now on. *laughs*

[edited by - Calaf on March 14, 2003 5:44:19 PM]