(had this idea a while back, and now reading up on some Wavinator posts I thought it might be good to post it) One of the problems I''ve had with MMORPGs is that they just don''t get me truly immersed into the game. Sure, there''s trees, hills and lakes, but, if I can''t cut that tree down, can''t dig a hole in the hill, can''t make splashes in the lake, then it doesn''t feel all that real. But then, I realize what a headache it would be to programm those things in a way that would allow a player to influence the world around him or her. And more importantly, do players WANT to be able to affect the world around them in the first place? Then, there''s the thing where all MMORPGs pretty much end up looking alike, with minor differences. Fantasy, combat etc. --- Well, what if a world can be created, where the things that happen are ALL new to the player. What I mean by that is that the world is SO unlike Earth, even unlike anything we might find in this universe, that there''s simply no comparison for it. What that does is give the programmer free reign. Imagine a world for example that doesn''t have gravity (just as example). Or a world without friction. A world without objects. A world without life. Whatever you can think of, just anything that is unlike what we know. I think that a world like that will raise less questions in the player''s mind (why can''t I cut that tree down) and will make it easier for the programmer to create a world where players will find immediate immersion. --- The world I''m thinking of is a virtual one. Image yourself... you as the player turn on your computer. The game automatically starts so instead of your normal startup messages, you just get a black screen until the game kicks in and displays a futuristic boot (this startup thing can be disabled but I thought it might be a nice immersion touch). From that moment on, you as the player become someone living in the (distant? not too far? close?) future. A future where some brilliant programmer has created software that lives inside the web. Scientists, hackers, governments, nobody has been able to get rid of it. And human beings are suffering, because the software is highly addictive. Humans live to log on and live their lives in that virtual world (nice doom-scenario, considering how many already pretty much live their lives on the computer) --- How does this fit with Wavinator''s ideas? Well, first off, it''s got a little bit of Sci-Fi in there. There''s a world that COULD happen, but we''re hoping it won''t (well, not all of us I bet). What would the influence on society be, an addictive ''drug'' like this Virtual Reality? Would the online characters become immortal? Would they become actual personalites, even when their real life players die? Also, it''s a great way to get rid of those little things we keep having to do. Walk? Run? Might not be necessary as players might be able to just ''think'' their characters to another place. Eat, drink? Nope, don''t need that. Load gun, aim, shoot? What gun? Shoot at what? --- I really think a virtual world is a perfect setting for something new. A new way of thinking. A way to get rid of cliches (even when they''re good ones). A way to put every bit of original thought into a game. Just emptying my mind...

That is a good point. As much as using a well-known world can convey a common ground for the players, a completely made up world can be useful because you''re free to make whatever worlds you want.

Another thing is that you wouldn''t necessarily have to have something totally unusual. You can make some really unusual things happen in a seemingly normal familiar world.

Take The Highlander for an example. A lot of the time, it took place in a modern-day familiar world, but beings that are immortal and killing each other to gain power is not part of our everyday world


Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.
What a plight we who try to make a story-based game have...writers of conventional media have words, we have but binary numbers

NAZRIX:

Right. As the game is programmed by a human, he can put as many normal things in there as he wants. Just as he can put abnormal things in there.

One more thing... He might even change thr programming from day to day (patches, something MMORPGs benefit and suffer from, but in a world that itself is a programm, patches do make sense).

This is another thing that would make the game interesting, as the designers could constantly change things around. Just to take a well known example: a wizard casts a fireball. One day this might result in harming another player, another day it might simply do nothing but create some light in the sky (just to give an example of what a patch can be used for).