[quote name='ddn3' timestamp='1326825655' post='4903715'] I'm seeing a couple of powerful trends in gaming which have the potential to dominate the industry. I think this is one of them. -Unified game world with multiple game "views" (Dust 514) -Free to play everything with tiered service model (Battlefield Heros, Free Realms, etc..) -Procedural worlds with strong physical modeling (Drawf Fortress, Minecraft, etc..) -Open instanced multiplayer worlds, join anytime (Minecraft, Guild Wars, etc..) -Cloud based gaming (Onlive, Gaikai, etc..) -Casual gaming (web, mobile, social games etc..) Of course they all have existing precedent but as time goes on, I think these models will start to dominate the gaming scene. -ddn

Amazing!

ddn3, I've also recognized these trends which have subconciously inspired me to develop a Collaborative Cloud-based Game Development Platform that consolidates a Interactive Lobby, Content Creation Tools, Game Systems/Mechanics, Microtransactions, Marketing and Online Distribution into one a single product. The question I'm asked the most often is Do you think you can pull it off?
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I think you can! I agree with your assessment and will also add that such a system would not just benefit "games" but any pro-creative act be it software engineering, pure mathematics, art, music etc.. Imagine a cloud based virtual environment where one programmer writes up a algorithm using visual forms much like legos, while his peers (separated by 100s of miles in the real world) review the construct, copying and improving, all source controlled and versioned. After they run and debug it they can post the entire process as an annotated YouTube video tutorial for others to learn from..

-ddn

Interactive Lobby

lobby for RPG character ?! if have the Chosen RPG-character ( as few NPC ) then may be lobby for One : Chosen One !! .

Multiplayers On-Line Hidden Objects ( very popular Style ... ) :

[media]http://www.facebook.com/v/210569652349941[/media]

Multiplayers On-Line Hidden Objects ( very popular Style ... ) :

My apologies Morphia, but, I don't understand what you're trying to get at.

One World, Multiple Interfaces is a design philosophy. I'm a big fan of Text-based gaming, especially web-based collaborative games. I enjoy text-based games so much that I'm integrating multiple text-only game engines (MUD, Interactive Fiction, Grid-Game and Action-Text) into my Super 3D Game Platform's Shell. A Command Line Interface (which also integrates IRC and Scripting Console). With S3GP Shell, Text Games co-exist on the 3D Client.

One aspect you might give consideration to is the strong utilsation of clan/guild builds. Teamwork is often a core component of such situations which could lend itself to the discipline you would want for the larger scale activities.

I am looking at a design for a MMORPG based on a solo game (Bioshock) with at least 2~3 interface modes where there is :
1) a FPS interface (your gaming machine) for combats and exploring, and
2) a bunch of NPCs to order around to do the grindy stuff (help in combat too) - the RTS elements of rebuilding the ruined City the game is set in, and
3) the Tablet/Palmtop interface for minigames that have results in the main game, interplayer communications (mail, auction house, etc..) and some NPC task management.


You can find a series of posting covering it at :

http://irrationalgames.com/community/forums/bioshock-general-discussion/bioshock-first-person-mmo

http://rapturerebornmmorpg.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

which cover alot of different advanced aspects
(better NPC AI, modular object world instead of 'static' levels, auto-generation of parts of game world (terrain and quests), and player created assets)

Its all alot of features most companies (who are stuck in the WOW mentality) wont be touching for years leaving us in the backsliding feebleness most MMORPGs are today.

Hi TechLord. Even if I like your idea a lot, after thinking about it for a while, I don't see it working. First of all, what would be the Commander's role? And why would anyone listen to him? Besides, both the Commander and players must co-exist online at the same time to communicate and carry on tasks. I just don't see it happen... You could think about it as to a Guild from WoW, except that Commanders have a top-view interface over the battlefield and tell players what to do, where to go... While this is nice in theory is kind of hard to implement in reality. That's just my point of view; it was not my intention to rain on your parade. I will be following this topic. ;)

I recall some two tiered game along time ago with 2 leaders of opposite sides and a bunch of player fighting.
The commanders coerced their minions into following orders by setting goals (markers/whatever) that awarded advancement when they were carries out.

I dont remember whatever came of that game. I wouldnt doubt they would need a way to almost instantly replace a commander who dropped out.

Likewise any large number of players trying to work together (in a coordinated way) needs a replacement system to feed in replacesments for anyone who drops out (which with 50 players would likely be one every 30 second the way people play these days).

Waiting for enough players even to gather is usually a problem and really needs to be some continuous thing with ad-hoc groups.

One possibility is that a particular game mode is almost like a specialisation. For example, if an RTS guy "harvests" an area it would yield say 50% of the material to be found there, but an RPG guy could manually check everywhere and get 100% of the stuff. Or an FPS guy could drive a vehicle, but it's FPS style and he doesn't have the options to change gears, upgrade the car, etc, so he's much slower than a dedicated racer. The racer could be a courier transporting stuff from town to town. An FPS guy could have a door hacking tool which is slow and/or sometimes fails, or a puzzle guy could be a dedicated hacker that other people can call on as required. He could also hack stuff that other players can't such as surveillance systems.