Have anything like this ever been done before? Just a thought.

I think there is a car game out thats MMO actually. I worked at walmart for a whiel and someone returned a game with cars on the front because they didn''t know they had to pay to play it. motor city madness i think maybe? Yea i done a google search on it an this popped up
http://pc.ign.com/articles/091/091639p1.html?fromint=1
I''m not actually sure if it is MMO now that i look at it, but you do have to pay to be a part of this massive community, it is multiplayer, and it is online.. so it does fit the MMO title.. just not in the traditional sence of MMORPGS where everyone is in the same world.

Want motor city online a MMO game? They shut it down though because the new players couldnt have fun cause of all the veterans being so good or something like that.

I''m currently working on a similar idea for an hovercraft racing game. Well, not actually MMO, but rather "persistent". Races are pretty standard stuff (multiplayer up to 12 players), but each player has an account, earns some credits when winning races, and can upgrade his hovercraft, buy new ones, buy some equipment, etc.. I''m not really sure if that idea has already been used in another racing game.

Wasn''t motor city online cancelled ?

Y.

Hmm, an MMO racing game eh? That has a lot of potential...

It would work best as an illegal street racer community. Players could go online and join races that have been planned. As they gain status from winning races or souping their cars, they get to start races themselves for others to join.

Wins from races gives money and status for souping cars, buying new cars and rising through the rans of the community.

In order to stop the "veterans" problems you could make it so each race has a minimum and maximum "ranking" level or perhaps car abilities to keep things relatively even in the races.

Perhaps even throw in different types if races that are best raced with certain types of car to help promote car purchases. EG rally style tracks, urban tracks, drag racing, no-rules derby style races, truck racing, etc.

I''ve had a couple ideas about this.
I was thinking, you could allow players to design their own tracks as well as racing.

Racers own one or more vehicals, which you can upgrade, trade, buy/sell etc. And you enter races with your vehical. (Like Damocles explained)

But then, with enough money, players could design their own tracks (with variable properties, like gravity and vehical type, so that many different race styles can be made).
These players can then open their tracks to other racers, charge an entrance fee, and offer a prize to the winner(s).

Something like that. I haven''t really thought it out in detail yet. But you''d have this all in a persistent world, and race tracks would have a real location that you have to travel to (in the game world) to take part in the race.

Uhm... Perhaps something to do with spectators at the races, and advert space on racetracks. So that racers who are better and more exciting to watch get more money, and designers who make better tracks, and attract better racers get more money.

The first major one I can recall was Sierra''s(?) Nascar Online, which from what I understood was server stored user accounts which were logged into for a race which started at a specified time. I am not sure of the scematics more than that, but it has been somewhat done.

i remember seeing a mmo racing game a while back (probably about a year ago) that just totally flopped. Dont remember the name though.

"Hmm, an MMO racing game eh? That has a lot of potential..."

- I did sound like it to a company and was persued.. and in the end shut down.

The reason is that the majority of sports/racing game players see no point at all in paying a monthly fee. Most of them couldn''t care about it, as long as they can log on, race, have a leaderboard, etc... and that is already provided with regular multiplayer games.

What developers are finding out about the genre is that really only the RPG fan croud are actually getting into them, and really now since the originals (UO, EQ, AC) there hasn''t been that much of a climb in the overall playerbase either, mostly players from the originals moving on to a new one, then going back to the original, etc.

Racing might be a little too focused for and MMO. Now if you take racing Genre (custom specs and such) mix in maybe some GTA, and possibly even some car combat...(not all at once mind you, but seperated) and you might have some potential...(just don''t go GTA or car combat in your custom racing car )