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Lets create a new MMO! Did you like The Sims?
CodeMath
Member Posts: 10
So I used to play The Sims Online and absolutely loved it. It was my first MMO, at the ripe age of 11. To this day (I am 20 now) I STILL want it back. There were people working on a revival version but it got shut down after EA decided to come out with the sims social(which is disgustingly horrible) and threatened them with a lawsuit.
There are no MMO's that exist like this today, other than something like Second Life which tends to be TOO immersive, complicated, and loads slowly/bugs out for many people. The amount of possibilities, profit, fun, and general success are endless if it could be pulled off right, not to mention how many people it will make happy! What I am thinking of is something original - although it will no doubt be influenced by certain aspects of The Sims, it will be its own game. I need your help, opinions, support, anything. If I can find enough interest in pushing this project forward, I will begin a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to hire a worthwhile team(this step will probably take awhile, as I do not want to start a campaign prematurely. I want a solid foundation of what the game should be). Consider this topic a brainstorming session. Any and all ideas you have about this game will be appreciated. Here are some rough ideas off the top of my head:
PLEASE REPLY WITH COMMENTS, IDEAS, CRITICISM, QUESTIONS! This will be a community built game, come be a part of making something great!
Email: codyjm123@gmail.com
AIM: codyjm123@gmail.com
Skype: code-math
Twitter: www.twitter.com/codemathmusic
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bingomusic
Feel free to contact me in any fashion.
There are no MMO's that exist like this today, other than something like Second Life which tends to be TOO immersive, complicated, and loads slowly/bugs out for many people. The amount of possibilities, profit, fun, and general success are endless if it could be pulled off right, not to mention how many people it will make happy! What I am thinking of is something original - although it will no doubt be influenced by certain aspects of The Sims, it will be its own game. I need your help, opinions, support, anything. If I can find enough interest in pushing this project forward, I will begin a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to hire a worthwhile team(this step will probably take awhile, as I do not want to start a campaign prematurely. I want a solid foundation of what the game should be). Consider this topic a brainstorming session. Any and all ideas you have about this game will be appreciated. Here are some rough ideas off the top of my head:
- 1) Freedom, as much of it as possible. In a real life sort of way. Freedom to build relationships, develop skills, gamble, craft, collect, gather, auction, explore, party, build. Which brings me to my next point (feel free to expand to this list, I just threw this **** out off the top of my head)
- 2) Building. What I'm thinking is very similar to The Sims system of building. Virtually total freedom to build whatever you want within a set of given materials. A very, very large set of materials with new stuff added constantly in updates...we don't want things to get stale in this department, as this is where most of a person's creativity will go to. Total freedom in this aspect like in Minecraft or Second Life could easily cause problems/griefing/abuse.
- 3) Socializing. Of course one of the largest aspects of a game of this nature. You want people to be able to connect and socialize effortlessly. Possibly even some sort of social media integration to give it a more personal feel (completely optional of course). Friend/Enemy List, Chat, PMs, etc. etc. I want to emphasize COMMUNITY here.
- 4)Graphics. Another Sims Influence here. It should look realistic yet slightly cartoonish as well. We want to be somewhere in the middle of these two. Maybe even say **** it and go cel shaded?
- 5)Sound FX, Music. I can handle this almost exclusively, and whatever audio I am not able to engineer, I know people who can already. I usually produce electronic music so there may be a slight influence of that in the music. Im thinking relaxing and/or happy classical/elevator type music with electronic undertones.
- 6)Gameplay. I want something like the sims have set up (select an action/multiple actions for your person to complete) but I dont want this to be a ripoff of what they did, or honestly anything relatable to it. Maybe simply the very core foundations of the sims gameplay. I would really like to hear what other people have to say about this section as it is one of the most important aspects of a simulation type game, and can be approached in very unique ways.
PLEASE REPLY WITH COMMENTS, IDEAS, CRITICISM, QUESTIONS! This will be a community built game, come be a part of making something great!
Email: codyjm123@gmail.com
AIM: codyjm123@gmail.com
Skype: code-math
Twitter: www.twitter.com/codemathmusic
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bingomusic
Feel free to contact me in any fashion.
Comments
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I love the modern subrubia theme. I find that it's refreshing in a sea of Fantasy, and a lake of Sci-fi theamed MMOs. However in response to the origonal poster. I liked the idea of The Sims Online, however the game itself wasn't very good. You only controlled one Sim which wasn't a problem untill you realized that often you were just grinding craft skills in a house full of other people doing the same thing. This left you with one of two things to do while grinding. Read a book, or talk to the other people in the lot. The SIms Online could then be boiled down to an interactive chat room, not really a game.
In modern MMO'dom I'd say that The Sims Online was a early version of Second Life. Second Life has a lot of what the Sims Online was in it but even that "game" if you could call it that lacks a central purpose and driving reason to "play" it. If they did have a new Sims Online which would be awsome, I'd hope that they had some form of legacy system. You shouldn't control one sim but rather a whole family. Sims should age and die just like the single player version and you should be able to marry off sims to other players and recieve them from others as well. Kids that you can't take care of (or chose not to) should be taken and adopted to others. Think of the digital genetics you'd see. Family trees would grow massive and span whole servers.
Lastly for each family I'd say they'd need to have family goals akin to quests in other MMOs. Something to drive the player forward. These goals could unlock special objects, rare furniture, or uber saught after lots. It could even unlock special Sim traits like Vampires, Witchcraft, Plant Sims, Zombie Sims, and so many other cool things. Just some ideas to add to your own. I liked the Sims Online but I felt like it couldn't hold a candle to any of the single player versions.
Wow, thanks a lot for that buddy. I do agree here wholeheartedly, The Sims Online lacked a central purpose, but lets remember it was also one of the first sims games to be released. With the aspiration/wishes/karma systems in the sims 3 it makes forming a purpose/goals much easier if something of the same concept was implemented. Genetics are also a very awesome suggestion and if implemented correctly could change the whole way these "life sim" type games are played, but how would we choose who controls the offspring if two different player's sims were to marry and have children? Im thinking maybe just a 50% chance for one person or the other to get control of the child.
I would say that with some sort of aspiration/wish system each one you fulfill gives you points you can redeem for certain items/unlocks/etc. I would like to have some sort of luck/chance system for more rare items, maybe like a breeding system for animals where a certain pair bred together have a chance of producing a rare type of offspring. Same general idea for plants and gardening. This would help build an economy as well.
True but it's not the same as an MMO, its a "social game" in the sence that you have to ask your friends for help but you don't truely interact with other players on a meaningful and active level.
ah. i've never played it myself.
Although I do reference The Sims a lot, it will not relate to it in any way. It will be its own game and chances are you won't even realize that it was inspired by The Sims. It is just the only game franchise that I would be able to compare my idea to.
I am currently looking for more people willing to devote some creative time to the project. Depending on how much of a role you play (which is completely up to you) you may be paid and/or credited for your work.
Send me a PM if you are interested, along with some general ideas you may have.
I've been playing The Sims 2 for years and still have it installed. Finally got all EP's and SP's. Gawd I love that game. I think I don't do anything in it anymore but invite old man winter over so I can watch them all beat on tin cans and yell in the new year. Just hate it when the cops show up and close it down (in game).
Patterning an mmorpg after a simulation life has been a long time dream for me. Only I love Final Fantasy settings.
Btw, all my sims have elf ears now that someone made a CAS replacement. Only those that come with the game are human.
My only beef is the setting. You can go Medieval with custom content but the objects are boring and since a sim lives most of his/her existence in doors the dark brick walls get depressing. Regular ordinary houses are fun for a bit but not enough escapism from reality for me. Not enough is left of the mermaid cc to warrent underworld civilizations. And I never really got into outer space tho I did a few houses like that for my aliens.
ZONING IS A BEATCH!
But yeah, simulation life existence would be awesome TO INCORPORATE in an mmo if done right. I propose one bar to represent all needs instead of many single bars covering each (bladder, hunger, sleep, etc). Then you could pick and choose what you char did to level the bar. I'd say have it act like a stamina bar. Have a wide variety things you could do to lift the stamina bar. Note I also play Mabinogi so a lot of ideas also came from them. If Mabinogi did not lag and d/c so much it would be as close to what you describe.
MOST IMPORTANT WOULD BE SIMULATION EXISTENCE IN WILDLIFE AND MOBS. I want landscapes realistic. Mobs need to breed and raise young or be killed into extinction. Get rid of ridiculous spawning. That is so unrealistic. Get rid of rabbits and squirrels that can kick your askit. Unrealistic. Have farms where you could breed mobs and put them back in the environment.
AND PET BREEDING! OMG WE NEED PET BREEDING! I want a game full of pets you can breed and dragon mounts you can breed and the colors come out different every time!!!!!!
Of course you MUST take care of some MMO issues first before this can be done. PvP vs. PvE at the top of the list. I don't see why games cannot release and run two versions of themselves to satisfy this rather than bothering with multiple servers. That way PvP rogue/archer stats will not reflect on PvE rogue/archer stats, etc.
Plus other issues like beautiful world but able to run on low end PC's. Game makers have got to stop building their games using super computers. If they used an old PC to build the game they'd know if it ran on an old PC.
I thought about that as well, and I think it should be mainly a life sim but still have lots of RPG aspects, e.g you can go out into the wilderness and fight monsters, level up, explore, get gear/items etc. but you still have needs you must keep met (so you would need to bring food/water and such) and you still have the ability to get a lot and build a house or whatever you'd like from scratch on it. This would also help it cater to a larger audience. I'm also thinking about instances - but a limit on how frequently you can do them. Say you do an instance - once you finish you are not allowed to go back for a day or so, that way we stay away from just sitting around doing instances over and over to progress. I've got a day off from work today so I'm going to try and get the Think Tank finished and opened up to the public as well as compile the brainstorming that has already been done that I feel would go with what im looking for.
This is a long term project, as in 2-4 years long so if anyone is interested in getting in on the ground floor now is the time to do it. We have the ability to make this something great, especially not having a publisher breathing down our necks or telling us what needs to be added. This is a total community game, even though the team will have the final say we want to incorporate stuff that people actually WANT and not what *we* think people would like/want in a game. Which is why im so open to suggestions right now.
I would play a SIMS type game if it was more like EVE. Instead of fleets of ships you control armies of SIMS or armies of characters.
Closest game to this is Granado Espada which is being relaunched again in 2013.
If you want to create a game, then it would be good to start by saying what you can contribute to the project. If you're a skilled programmer or artist or musician or whatever, then say so.
But if all you have is ideas and will have to rely on others to do all of the real work, then even if you could organize a team, why wouldn't they just ignore you and make the game they want to make, not the one you want them to make?
If he has money or a needed IP, then that's what he can contribute. There are a lot of things that someone could conceivably contribute to a game project, but ideas aren't one of them. If you want people to care about your ideas, you have to have something else to contribute.
I wouldn't call relying on a kickstarter campaign "taking care of all funding needed". I would credit that, if it happens, to the community. Other than that sounds like you have something to contribute to me. Ideas still count for something in my book too but I agree it's a good thing you can do more than that.
You're totally right. I will be taking care of the funding in the sense that I will set up and run the kickstarter campaign start to finish myself, but like you said if it comes through well enough then I have noone but the community to thank for providing the actual funds needed.
I have opened the forums for the public to view and join, if you would like to provide ideas or be a part of this project please feel free to register and let your suggestions fly!
Here is a list of ideas i've put together so far: http://mmothinktank.forumotion.com/t2-compilation-of-possible-ideas-so-far
The normal URL of the forum is here: www.mmothinktank.forumotion.com
Hope to see some bright minds there soon!
fortunately there is a game in production extremely like the sims online just without breaching the EA copyright. Its called Vitare before you turn round and slate me let me explain something alot of stuff has been completed for the game they are making but they are not displaying it fully yet on the site till it is ready to show the game fully. the pictures on their site are not the finish product they are old pictures. they have 4 programmers 3 moderators for the forum and 3-4 art team members and are looking for more possible help. I am only a member of their forum not a representive but I would not be suprised if they would welcome your support and funds. these are old TSO players doing this alot of people from TSOR have ended up here. Come join Vitare is due for release in 2013 and most likely will go into closed beta in the next 2-4 months.
their site is www.vitare.net