MMO Concept I have thought of a space setting MMO concept that I wanted to share. The basic concept is that the player’s avatar is a soldier attached to an army. The army itself moves around and moves the player around as well and acts as a mobile bind point. In addition the content itself is suited for every player attached to the army and can react to the amount of people attached to the army that are online. The point of this is that it keeps people together and helps establish a way to have group based conflicts as part of the game play experience more often. How this would work is after a tutorial like introduction the player would be attached to an army. Once part of the army the player is sent to the army’s central hub, which may be a space ship or command center. Once there the player will be working with other players to achieve the army’s objectives. At the same time they will also be given team objectives and personal objectives. The player will be able to quickly travel from the hub to the places(hot zones) on the map where objectives need to be met. There can be a fair amount of flexibility in terms of what the army needs done at any given time so the player won’t be forced into one particular act. There will be advancement but the player will always be useful in the army they are in. The army itself will also move around and depending on what has been done by players already it will set different objectives and ask the players to do different things. The enemies will also be active so if objectives are not met then there can be consequences and the army can essentially move backwards through the progression. For example players work together to get through stage A then stage B then at stage C they lose so they go back to stage B or move to stage D. This could work through instancing or on open world concepts. I think instancing would be easier but it could also work as an open world where the player/s can kind of do their own thing as the army does it’s own thing as well. The players can detach and re-attach themselves to armies depending on what they want to do and where their friends are. There will also be guild based command posts and spaceships that can be created that will allow players more flexibility.

My first thought is that armies tend to have command structures, which if implemented in an MMO would limit players' freedom of choice. The flexibility you describe doesn't sound realistic in an organized military force; a large coroporation or syndicate hiring mercenaries might work, and that possibility naturally lends itself to a faction system. On the other hand, maybe you can find a way to make the game enjoyable despite the relative lack of freedom, such as having a stronger narrative structure. Then again, that would require a highly dynamic game world which changes in significant ways in reaction to the plot, which would seem to go against the MMO staple of a constant world where everything respawns.

It does sound like an interesting concept. It's always good to give players a motivation to co-operate - though most of them probably won't be too into the roleplaying, so just because the setting expects them to co-operate that doesn't necessarily mean they will unless there's also a mechanical incentive.