I''ve been thinking of doing this for a while, and it sounds to me like it would be kool. Have sort of a gang war with the programming team (being police) interacting with the players. Sound good to anyone?

Nope.

Since you just joined the forums today, I'd like to be the first to say: that kind of ambition is generally frowned on here. Expect to get lots of messages about making text adventures, tetris, buying c++ books, etc. Hopefully, that should explain the lack of replies to your idea thus far.

Brian J

edit: I checked out your profile and see you are a vb programmer...however, no matter what your experience, anyone who suggests an MMOG will virtually never be taken seriously. I'm not advocating this, it's just one of the truths of the forum.

[edited by - bjmumblingmiles on April 15, 2003 11:07:24 PM]

Sounds coo

I just made my tile engine... that enough? lol it renders a 10*10 map lol... and im not joking about it... and i got better ideas for games than the one posted above

Mecha Engineer (Making Real Humanoid Suits)

Hey Darc, I see you made it here....

one of the most common mistakes in making games is biting of more than you can chew... grow some programmer fangs first

A design flaw in what you explained here is that there simply can''t always be insider people on-line to be police, making the system ineffective.

Try to take it one step at a time. First make a racing game. Then expand it to be able to damage other, a bit like deathrally, etc.

Although your originality/ having ideas is a good thing, this one wouldn''t work.

Good Luck

Srry if you guys got the wrong message, but i''m wasn''t going to be the one who was gonna program this one. I have a relative whos an amazing programmer(owns a business in ontario), I was just gonna help

While I personally appreciate those with big ambitions I do find the idea a little (read a lot) unoriginal. Personally, any time I see someone who says anything like "I have a new idea X and it''s just like game Y only different" isn''t giving themselves the chance to actually come up with something different. Sure MMOGs are as abundant as apples and some people don''t like that. For me I say bring them on as long as they are different.

Personally I would buy games that are like Everquest but add a little something extra or give a whole new world to explore. That''s just me. The idea doesn''t have to be completely original but I don''t agree with starting ideas based solely on something that has already been done. That kind of cloning is IMO weak.

Now towards your actual idea, an MMOG like GTA. Your gonna have a lot of problems there. GTA had a great physics and collision system and that kind of calculation will be taxing for a MMOG. Second, GTA3 was pulled off the shelves of many stores for a while because of some of it''s questionable content. Imagine the hell that lawyers will put you through with a MMORPG that tries to push these same issues. Not only can it be addictive and cause people to quit working to play, but now they are doing so for a game that will outwardly show aggression to everything lawful.

All that being said, and as much as I actually hope such a violent game never gets into the hands of anyone other than the most mentally stable of adults, I do think that it would sell faster than Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls a few years back. Why? Same reasons people buy Eminem records or watch Dennis Rodman play basketball or buy GTA3 + games. You just want to see what they do/say next. People are fascinated with how far they can push limits. South Park. The language and violence gets worse every season but each season it is accepted because we are jaded by the previous season. We figure, well it''s just a LITTLE worse and that isn''t tooo bad. To the credit of the South Park creators, there are usually good moral stories to be had from the cartoons and the world could use more of that kind of direction. I personally think however that there are more respectful ways of presenting this information. Sadly though we would probably not watch movies that peacefully present good moral values. This is why you never see Hallmark Hall of Fame movies in the theatres.

Anyway, back on topic The guys here are correct. Without previous experience with video games and a good solid programing, math and design background, a person can never hope to finish a MMOG on his own. Design away, but by design I mean write up a formal document that details every grain of sand in the game. When you get that done, create some models, implement the basic engine and use it to get yourself a job in the business. Keep playing with it in your spare time. Make it scalable graphically so that if you do get around to finishing it in a few years you will still have a product that at least looks decent.

On the other hand, I suppose there are some capable of completing a project this size, but it would simply take years. No one person or small group can ever possibly do it quickly enough to make it marketable.
Modeling creatures, character, terrain alone would take a single person over a year creating a single model a day. Everquest has well over 100 unique zones, hundreds of creatures, even more items.

Personally, I am not too shabby with 3D Studio Max and I can concieve making at most 2 humanoid type models in a single day and that is being very hopeful and assuming I have great concept drawings to work from. Sure I can just whip out some poly characters but then you got to texture them, animate them, make them think. And that''s just the creatures.

But don''t let me discourage you I''m sure it can be done just not in the timeframe required to actually market a game. If you started today and were capable of generating an engine that produces graphics as promised by Eeverquest 2 you would still have years of developing yet and by then those graphics will be in the shelf with Pac Man. I suppose there are ways of designing a high amount of scalability but even there it can only take you so far before the entire system will need a rework.

Anyway, that''s a lot of info for my 2 cents, but there it is

Webby

Since when did I say it was gonna be 3d? Sure gameplay will suffer horribly but I wasn''t thinking of making an insanely realistic version like GTA 3 or 4, I meant theme wise and graphics more like 1 or 2.

Well this place has certainly become a little more jaded than last I stepped in... Take it the MMOG craze is stronger than ever then, and still the genre of choice for newcomers?

I''m a little leery of why you''d bother having something like this MMOG... Anything interactive would be destroyed in short order in this kind of game, as I''m sure anyone who''s played GTA can agree - at some point you get curious and go blow shtuff up

I''m assuming you didn''t mean just standard multiplayer when you said "Online Game", although I might be wrong...

Press to test... *click* Release to detonate...