I would create a country simulator MMO in which you establish your country/kingdom on a massive world with other players. You determine how your nation develops, from what they produce, to who they ally with, to whether you can declare war with another nation.
I tried to open my old post about the type of MMORPG I'd love to make, but the links now say I don't have permission... anyway, basically I'd try to get Jean Auel to approve and preferably co-produce a game based on the first book in her Earth's Children® Series, Clan of the Cave Bear. There's six books in the series which makes for possibly six expansions or perhaps have them as new land masses to be discovered and/or originate from. One of the best part of her books imo is the wealth of lore in them, from plant uses and clothing/tools to art to be learned and utilized.
edit: pvp would be totally optional, toggle for open world duels/battles between clans(no special rewards/drops, just for those who enjoy a bit of pvp) and then only in special arenas during festivals, unique titles being the only prize.
An alternate universe where Rome has conquered the earth. The MMO itself would be heavily arena based, where the gladiatorial sport has flourished worldwide.
- Player access would be confined within dozens of greater and lesser uniquely designed instanced cities, each consisting of the arena(s) it hosts, a marketplace, taverns, training grounds, sponsor buildings, team recruitment buildings and much more.
- Players would level up from PvP / PvE within the arenas only, with level gain providing spendable stat points and access to compete in higher class cities.
- Combat, stat allocation, gear and upgrades would be akin to that of the Dark Souls series in quality.
- The origin of all gear will be derived from rewards within the arena. From there, the gear can be traded, gambled or auctioned off.
- Players of the highest skill and renown will be allowed to compete in the most prestigious of cities, with all players being allowed to explore and spectate within that city regardless of their own skill and renown.
- Spectators will actually fill a seat within the arena. Various NPCs would fill all other seats. The roar of the crowd will play a very influential role within the arena (Think of arena mode in Smite).
- Ever changing Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly and Monthly tournaments would be in place to keep each city fresh and inhabited.
- All players will be able to gamble their hard earned currency on the outcome of a match or within a tavern playing various card / board games.
And since we can´t use any sci-fi or fantasy... I guess it would have to be sandbox or else we get the whole "division problem" of bullet sponges and "why is that dudes duster so damm bulletproof".
So... What i would go for would in essence be a SWG like game set in the old west whith UGC for quests and the possibility to build their own settlements. Pick a decently sized state in the US and model it as close to 1:1 as is realistically possible and simply let people go wild. To get the whole quest thing rolling we would provide about 10 hours of pre-made quests including a murder mystery and a bounty mission.
My guess is that weapon licenses will be the single most expensive part of development =P
Based on sales of Destiny / The Division I would: - Spend $50m on a good engine and a bunch of artists, - Make the gameplay really simple and repetitive but dish out loot with ever increasing stats - Sell a $50 season pass which promises 'expansions', - Spend the remaining $200m on marketing and hype. - Escape to my private island with the $1 billion I make on pre-orders and day 1 sales before the lynching begins.
The restrictions on no fantasy, sci-fi of recognised IPs are pretty harsh!
I guess I'd probably go for the dark / middle ages. In an ideal world I'd make as much of the earth as possible and make it completely open-world / sandbox. So, I'd probably go Viking and would get involved in setting up a community to make ships and go raiding. But I'd also love it if you could start as the chinese, making explorations west, or start in the middle east when the culture was better than today etc.
The dark / middle ages are a time when people were still isolated enough to be vastly different and hostile to one another whilst technology was just about good enough to go exploring long distances.
Alternatively, an MMO set after the fall of rome. Again, similar sort of thing, lovely sandbox and with rome falling, you've got great plots for uprisings / conflict, loads of possible factions whilst still having some great locations to visit.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
I'd model it after a place that really exists on present-day Earth, probably somewhere in the region of the Indian / Pacific ocean. Some hypothetical examples:
Kilimanjaro
Maldives
Nanga Parbat
Mauna Kea
Puncak Jaya
I'd try to replicate it as realistically as possible, paying special attention to details such as weather patterns, biomes, etc. If the setting is fantastical enough, players can fill in their own mythologies. I would populate the area with NPCs that follow their own set of behaviors, complete with relationships, etc. Then, I would allow players to select up to 8 of these NPCs at a time as their "avatars", following them through their natural lifecycles. Every avatar would have a set of social distances based on relationships to other NPCs/players. Players could "push" their avatars across these distances, but it would require some effort/esoteric currency. Things such as violence, unless it was to gather food or in a state of "war", stealing, would have drastic social consequences that would affect this currency.
Lastly, I would include some type of omnipresent, eternal, existential threat that players could work together to overcome in increments. This might be done in unusual ways; rather than "kill ten rats" a player might have one of his/her avatars speak to a shaman, who designates a "quest" for that avatar that involves something that may or may not be attainable within that character's lifetime.
The would be off-the-screen reproduction, where characters could choose mates for life, passing on genetic inheritance and traits. I would have time take place on a 1:1 scale with the real world, except for 1 day out of every month. On that day, 10 years would pass without any players being in control; every one of their avatars would follow whatever NPC behaviors had been trained-in over the month prior: some may die, others may have children, some may rise in status, others may fall in a simulated timeline. No player could take over another player's avatar once chosen.
The game may "reset" (or "revolve") when certain conditions were met; 200 years pass, the existential crisis is met or averted. Any avatar that had proven his/her worth at the time the game ends might continue on into the next game, for a requisite amount of currency.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Authored 139 missions in VendettaOnline and 6 tracks in Distance
I would get Chris Roberts from Star Citizen to hype up a trailer and some screenshots to raise another 90 million then take 10 years to make a game that looks great but is total shiit while I spend most of the money on hookers and shoes
You are a new star in the galaxy. You re stats are things like size, heat, age. You "quest" to create planets from farming asteroids and passing ice meteors. Your character is essentially the entire solar system you've put together. You can group up with other solar systems to "battle" black holes, ice ages and space monsters by sacrificing your moons or having upgrading a civilization on some of your planets which help with technology.
I would create a system of A.I. that can randomize environments, and have smart 'A.I.' NPCs. This way once things are set the worlds become huge, and even 'raids' can benefit from this that their environments are randomized everytime and the NPCs might even react a bit differently while using the same 'raid mechanics.
Thats for 'PVE' which also suggests that NPCs interact with each other and there are certain in game politics
The combat ofc would get a lot of attention to be action style combat, and for pve to include large groups to elite small ones
THe MMO engine would be optimized
The story would be 'cinematic' and short and not take too much time or money for development
There would be a lot of different mechanics for quests
Lots of mini games - gambling, sports, arena/duels, racing, platforming, dungeon builder/character creation
trophy collection from playing pve and pvp and player housing
may be even if possible have destructible environments
then development would be stream lined to add new races, new classes, balance for pvp, pvp maps, new raids/bosses, more quest mechanics, and more mini games and 'story'
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
I would make a card game, then a low budget PC game and then a AAA MMO.
I would hire a writer and director form Hollywood for a good story. A "people person" from Las Vegas that knows about lights, colors, and sounds. To create an in game environment that make players want to gamble.
Atlantis flooded the Earth using thier advanced technology and the players are the survivers.
They
have to deal with sharks, then adapting to living on/under the water,
then monsters from Mythology and finally Atlantis itself.
For me, I'd make an MMORPG built to last. I would not try to make the money back in one month, but rather over the span of 3-5 years. This would allow me to focus on the gameplay I am seeking, and hopefully others would, too. NOT everyone and their dog, but those with similar definitions for "fun."
I'd forgo "the usual" monetary goals of WoW and shoot for REAL numbers that keep the game afloat. I'd work on retention of the playerbase instead of mass market hooking for a constant flow of new players every month.
After this, the horizon is the limit. Pick a setting (Apocolyptic, Modern Day, or any other setting), work in the features I think would be good, and close my ears to all the whiney players that want what my game does not even come close to offering, yet be open to players actually interested in the game I'm designing, just for for tweaking ideas.
Mine would be an MMO set in the Aztec civilization. I have always been fascinated by the Aztec culture and think the harsh jungle,with creatures that attack you and brutal warfare would lend itself to a great game. Could even have shamans and warriors and the like. PvP could include capturing other players and sacrificing them to your God for a buff or faction wide bonus to attack or crit. As you take over a territory your city builds up and unlocks different technologies.
That would be so awesome. The whole sacrificing them to your God part was epic
I would be tempted to fund Pantheon, Rise of the Fallen and call it good.
My own personal ideas are more mechanics based and lack a good world setting. If I had to choose a world setting, I would pick from one of the following:
Tower of God
Black Company
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka
I don't do PvP and if included, would only be a tertiary feature. Arena/special zone only. Don't expect any balance or ability adjustments to accommodate PvP. If you feel a particular build is over powered, play it yourself instead of whining about everyone else being unfair.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
And since we can´t use any sci-fi or fantasy... I guess it would have to be sandbox or else we get the whole "division problem" of bullet sponges and "why is that dudes duster so damm bulletproof".
So... What i would go for would in essence be a SWG like game set in the old west whith UGC for quests and the possibility to build their own settlements. Pick a decently sized state in the US and model it as close to 1:1 as is realistically possible and simply let people go wild. To get the whole quest thing rolling we would provide about 10 hours of pre-made quests including a murder mystery and a bounty mission.
My guess is that weapon licenses will be the single most expensive part of development =P
How about "Red dead online"? That serie would work perfect for a wild west sandbox MMO and Rockstar would seriously be the right guys to try their hands on the genre.
Just making a realistic wild west town and let people at it would work fine for a multiplayer FPS game (it would be pretty awesome) but for a MMO that isn't enough. You would need to add a few pinches of "Deadwood" for it to work. Let people mine gold, play poker, have player sheriffs and deputys as well as US marshals. Let players own establishments (for the deadwood feeling) and plot to make their saloon the top one.
Robbing the bank should be needing a bit of planning and need some risktaking. You need to get the right kind of danger, just having 100% gunfighting isn't enough in a MMO even if it works in a multiplayer FPS game.
Also, you need to get the right powergap between noobs and vets, that powergap can't be like in a fantasy MMO but you need a bit. You should still be able to die if a noob empties his Colt in your back or the whole thing becomes boring but players should still gain some skills as they play.
A WW MMO could be awesome, but wrongly done it would instead be aweful and up for a couple of months before going down the drain.
Gangsters can go to Civi; vice versa through repuation grinding
Civi have access to jobs that can earn them legit money
To see a player name, one must use a greet button or throw gang sign (possibly invoking pvp)
I would hire LA gang bangers and set them up with developers so they can get authentic accounts of life in a gang and how things works.
heavy artillery will be near non existent (Tanks, jets, etc)
Crafting will be cooking up various kind of fictional drugs
Quest will be spontaneous and area related; the ghettos will have opportunity for drug sales vs downtown areas will have different type of schemes.
I would use City names as servers (e.g. Chicago, LA, Vegas)
Stats would be based on how proficient you are at (e.g. Selling drugs, drive bys, robbery)
Players who wish not to dress gang colors can flag them selves by throwing gang signs.
Gang signs - Would be a major mechanic, depending on neighborhood you are in
Hire talents such as Ice cube, Snoop dogg, DJ QUIK, and other OG as marketing for my MMO
You could easily say GTA online, but if anything; the city would be closer design then what I am going for.
I would rather have a Shadowrun gangbased game in that case (is that fantasy or sci-fi?). It is further enough from reality so you wouldn't get the gloryfying gang violence stamp on you and the world is more interesting then the real one. You could still run it in LA even if Seattle or new Orleans would be cooler there.
Now I'm not sure how much of this would fall directly under "fantasy" or "sci-fi", my vision would be an amalgamation of multiple settings and genres blurring itself into something new.
I'd first start out with a MagiPunk/Steampunk setting on a
single planet, so many games tend to lean one way or another when it comes to either being 'fantasy' or 'sci-fi' or 'modern'. Essentially I'd like to blur all those settings and perspectives into a single new genre, which may contain pieces of these things, stands alone as its own genre.
I'd like to have a semi 'traditional' leveling process,
but I'd like to possibly experiment with a branching class system. I.E level 1-9 are 'Novice' levels, level 10-29 are class levels (Such
as fighter, rogue, mage, gunner, etc.), 30-69 Advanced Classes (Guardian,
Bezerker, Wizard, Comanndo etc), 70-100 Prestige Classes (Mystic Knight, Paladin,
Catacylsm Mage, Engineer, etc.)
My vision for the leveling process as well would be to make levels matter again, both in the sense that they are a reasonably difficult goal to be striven for - like our EQ days, but to also make levels matter in terms of Power. Unfortunately as we've seen in WoW, levels tend to matter very little and can be burned through in a matter of hours. (Didn't a streamer hit like 84 or something in 4-5 hours of play?).
For leveling I would be interested in looking at specific Class quests, Skill requirements, Hell levels and so forth. My goal would be to make sure people are fully identified with and invested in their character. I would also aim to explore options in having a AA sort of system (aside from a class 'talent' tree) that would allow for meaningful improvements to be made to your character regardless of level. Ideally on the '9th' of every level (9, 19, 29, etc) the player would be undergo a class quest, resulting in a defining and branching change or specialization.
I'd also like for there to be a large focus on player owned assets
and player involvement. From the get-go mechanics would be in place for
players to become leaders of villages, cities and nations - replacing
the initially generated NPCs as story arcs are completed. I would want my players to be as if not more invested in the game than they would be in their Real Lives. Because with investment comes passion, and with passion, community. (The dark side too, but whatevs.)
Crafting would be a huge focus of the game, and would be the driving
force of conflict for PvP on a guild and nation basis for medium to
higher level content as they attempted to get control of rare and
important 'nodes' which would be used to get rarer and important
crafting materials.
But I wouldn't stop there - I'd like to have a mechanic or option to allow player art contributions into the game, much like the dream that was EQNext. Be it from armor, to sword, to building assets. I'd want players to be able to submit their designs to a market place, and allow other people to purchase the use of it - with the bulk of the money going to the player who designed the asset.
Furthermore I'd like to allow players to form and join nations within the game, and to allow those nations to hire guilds. I personally envision a Game of Thrones style battle for the throne - or battle for supremacy between the players. As I mentioned before, I want players directly invested in the game and I feel there is no better way of investment than giving them the keys to the kingdom (so to speak.)
That isn't to say that there wouldn't be any PvE involvement as I would layer several dynamic NPC storylines that work both
independently and jointly with one another. Think of this along the
lines of evolving content, if you leave certain threats untouched they
will only grow in power and scope.
My overarching goal as the NPC storyarcs progressed and the player base evolved, a second teir of the MMO would
come into play - the players would eventually discover/create plans and
recipes for creating a magic fueled spacecraft to leave the planet and/or create devices to bore into other planes of existence. The
materials of which would require consistent control over the needed PvP
centric nodes. (Think things like Energon from Beast Wars, coupled with
rare research materials obtained through PvE storyarc efforts, and so on!)
From there on, the game would naturally evolve into separate themes depending on player actions - Spelljammer-like Space MMORPG, with a number of inhabited and
uninhabited planets in the surrounding vicinity, in additional to the
traditional MMORPG aspect on planetbound/stationbound locations.
Oy, this got pretty long. Hope I didn't bore anyone.
Main city is Sigil... you have all the "planes" and their crazy depth of levels as zones...
In addition, you can always do "pocket" dimensions to various names worlds... Ravenloft, Faerun, etc
The player base would choose "houses" to join and play in the Faction War.... imagine like 15 (Edit was 15 not 14) faction pvp or something like that... vying for control of Sigil...
I still don't know why anyone has not made this happen...
Personally I'd definitely look to see if I could stretch the rules slightly to create a MMOFPS instead. (A modern war version of Planetside essentially.) That has the highest possibility of becoming a really successful game worthy of the investment.
Otherwise, since it was specifically "fantasy" that was outlawed I'd just create a historical RPG, possibly set during the 100 Years War. Your character's weapon would determine their class (pick up a pike, you're a pikeman) and your role (pikeman beats cavalry beats swordsman beats archer beats pike) and group skirmishes would rely on your party engaging the correct threats to protect their teammates (essentially everyone is a tank for the guy next to them: as a pikeman I need to protect the swordsman from cavalry so he my swordsman friend can protect me from archers.)
Switching classes would be fairly common, but could only be done at certain locations (weapon racks; you wouldn't actually carry your sword and shield while you used a pike.) This would factor into typical PVE (you defeat one wave of enemies and now they're all archers on that far hillside so you have to switch to swordsmen/cav to deal with that), except in larger scale group PVE where people could remain specialized. This would allow PVP to fit a little better in the game (normally class counters make things shallow, but if you can switch mid-match to archers to deal with all those pikemen giving you trouble then it becomes a part of skillful competition, as it is in Team Fortress or Overwatch.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Comments
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
http://www.jeanauel.com/books.php
edit: pvp would be totally optional, toggle for open world duels/battles between clans(no special rewards/drops, just for those who enjoy a bit of pvp) and then only in special arenas during festivals, unique titles being the only prize.
- Player access would be confined within dozens of greater and lesser uniquely designed instanced cities, each consisting of the arena(s) it hosts, a marketplace, taverns, training grounds, sponsor buildings, team recruitment buildings and much more.
- Players would level up from PvP / PvE within the arenas only, with level gain providing spendable stat points and access to compete in higher class cities.
- Combat, stat allocation, gear and upgrades would be akin to that of the Dark Souls series in quality.
- The origin of all gear will be derived from rewards within the arena. From there, the gear can be traded, gambled or auctioned off.
- Players of the highest skill and renown will be allowed to compete in the most prestigious of cities, with all players being allowed to explore and spectate within that city regardless of their own skill and renown.
- Spectators will actually fill a seat within the arena. Various NPCs would fill all other seats. The roar of the crowd will play a very influential role within the arena (Think of arena mode in Smite).
- Ever changing Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly and Monthly tournaments would be in place to keep each city fresh and inhabited.
- All players will be able to gamble their hard earned currency on the outcome of a match or within a tavern playing various card / board games.
And much much more...
And since we can´t use any sci-fi or fantasy... I guess it would have to be sandbox or else we get the whole "division problem" of bullet sponges and "why is that dudes duster so damm bulletproof".
So... What i would go for would in essence be a SWG like game set in the old west whith UGC for quests and the possibility to build their own settlements. Pick a decently sized state in the US and model it as close to 1:1 as is realistically possible and simply let people go wild. To get the whole quest thing rolling we would provide about 10 hours of pre-made quests including a murder mystery and a bounty mission.
My guess is that weapon licenses will be the single most expensive part of development =P
This have been a good conversation
- Spend $50m on a good engine and a bunch of artists,
- Make the gameplay really simple and repetitive but dish out loot with ever increasing stats
- Sell a $50 season pass which promises 'expansions',
- Spend the remaining $200m on marketing and hype.
- Escape to my private island with the $1 billion I make on pre-orders and day 1 sales before the lynching begins.
I guess I'd probably go for the dark / middle ages. In an ideal world I'd make as much of the earth as possible and make it completely open-world / sandbox. So, I'd probably go Viking and would get involved in setting up a community to make ships and go raiding. But I'd also love it if you could start as the chinese, making explorations west, or start in the middle east when the culture was better than today etc.
The dark / middle ages are a time when people were still isolated enough to be vastly different and hostile to one another whilst technology was just about good enough to go exploring long distances.
Alternatively, an MMO set after the fall of rome. Again, similar sort of thing, lovely sandbox and with rome falling, you've got great plots for uprisings / conflict, loads of possible factions whilst still having some great locations to visit.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Kilimanjaro
Maldives
Nanga Parbat
Mauna Kea
Puncak Jaya
I'd try to replicate it as realistically as possible, paying special attention to details such as weather patterns, biomes, etc. If the setting is fantastical enough, players can fill in their own mythologies. I would populate the area with NPCs that follow their own set of behaviors, complete with relationships, etc. Then, I would allow players to select up to 8 of these NPCs at a time as their "avatars", following them through their natural lifecycles. Every avatar would have a set of social distances based on relationships to other NPCs/players. Players could "push" their avatars across these distances, but it would require some effort/esoteric currency. Things such as violence, unless it was to gather food or in a state of "war", stealing, would have drastic social consequences that would affect this currency.
Lastly, I would include some type of omnipresent, eternal, existential threat that players could work together to overcome in increments. This might be done in unusual ways; rather than "kill ten rats" a player might have one of his/her avatars speak to a shaman, who designates a "quest" for that avatar that involves something that may or may not be attainable within that character's lifetime.
The would be off-the-screen reproduction, where characters could choose mates for life, passing on genetic inheritance and traits. I would have time take place on a 1:1 scale with the real world, except for 1 day out of every month. On that day, 10 years would pass without any players being in control; every one of their avatars would follow whatever NPC behaviors had been trained-in over the month prior: some may die, others may have children, some may rise in status, others may fall in a simulated timeline. No player could take over another player's avatar once chosen.
The game may "reset" (or "revolve") when certain conditions were met; 200 years pass, the existential crisis is met or averted. Any avatar that had proven his/her worth at the time the game ends might continue on into the next game, for a requisite amount of currency.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
http://baronsofthegalaxy.com/ An MMO game I created, solo. It's live now and absolutely free to play!
... ok let me try again
No fantasy sci fi or existing IP?
You are a new star in the galaxy. You re stats are things like size, heat, age. You "quest" to create planets from farming asteroids and passing ice meteors. Your character is essentially the entire solar system you've put together. You can group up with other solar systems to "battle" black holes, ice ages and space monsters by sacrificing your moons or having upgrading a civilization on some of your planets which help with technology.
I will play an Assasin
http://baronsofthegalaxy.com/ An MMO game I created, solo. It's live now and absolutely free to play!
Thats for 'PVE' which also suggests that NPCs interact with each other and there are certain in game politics
The combat ofc would get a lot of attention to be action style combat, and for pve to include large groups to elite small ones
THe MMO engine would be optimized
The story would be 'cinematic' and short and not take too much time or money for development
There would be a lot of different mechanics for quests
Lots of mini games - gambling, sports, arena/duels, racing, platforming, dungeon builder/character creation
trophy collection from playing pve and pvp and player housing
may be even if possible have destructible environments
then development would be stream lined to add new races, new classes, balance for pvp, pvp maps, new raids/bosses, more quest mechanics, and more mini games and 'story'
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
I would hire a writer and director form Hollywood for a good story. A "people person" from Las Vegas that knows about lights, colors, and sounds. To create an in game environment that make players want to gamble.
Atlantis flooded the Earth using thier advanced technology and the players are the survivers.
They have to deal with sharks, then adapting to living on/under the water, then monsters from Mythology and finally Atlantis itself.
I'd forgo "the usual" monetary goals of WoW and shoot for REAL numbers that keep the game afloat. I'd work on retention of the playerbase instead of mass market hooking for a constant flow of new players every month.
After this, the horizon is the limit. Pick a setting (Apocolyptic, Modern Day, or any other setting), work in the features I think would be good, and close my ears to all the whiney players that want what my game does not even come close to offering, yet be open to players actually interested in the game I'm designing, just for for tweaking ideas.
Apparently, this $250M is NOT from investors.
VG
I would be tempted to fund Pantheon, Rise of the Fallen and call it good.
My own personal ideas are more mechanics based and lack a good world setting. If I had to choose a world setting, I would pick from one of the following:
I don't do PvP and if included, would only be a tertiary feature. Arena/special zone only. Don't expect any balance or ability adjustments to accommodate PvP. If you feel a particular build is over powered, play it yourself instead of whining about everyone else being unfair.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Factions would be gangs with various subsets.
No Direction, open huge city
Gang neighborhood will shift
Players can choose Gangster/Civi
Gangsters can go to Civi; vice versa through repuation grinding
Civi have access to jobs that can earn them legit money
To see a player name, one must use a greet button or throw gang sign (possibly invoking pvp)
I would hire LA gang bangers and set them up with developers so they can get authentic accounts of life in a gang and how things works.
heavy artillery will be near non existent (Tanks, jets, etc)
Crafting will be cooking up various kind of fictional drugs
Quest will be spontaneous and area related; the ghettos will have opportunity for drug sales vs downtown areas will have different type of schemes.
I would use City names as servers (e.g. Chicago, LA, Vegas)
Stats would be based on how proficient you are at (e.g. Selling drugs, drive bys, robbery)
Players who wish not to dress gang colors can flag them selves by throwing gang signs.
Gang signs - Would be a major mechanic, depending on neighborhood you are in
Hire talents such as Ice cube, Snoop dogg, DJ QUIK, and other OG as marketing for my MMO
You could easily say GTA online, but if anything; the city would be closer design then what I am going for.
Just making a realistic wild west town and let people at it would work fine for a multiplayer FPS game (it would be pretty awesome) but for a MMO that isn't enough. You would need to add a few pinches of "Deadwood" for it to work. Let people mine gold, play poker, have player sheriffs and deputys as well as US marshals. Let players own establishments (for the deadwood feeling) and plot to make their saloon the top one.
Robbing the bank should be needing a bit of planning and need some risktaking. You need to get the right kind of danger, just having 100% gunfighting isn't enough in a MMO even if it works in a multiplayer FPS game.
Also, you need to get the right powergap between noobs and vets, that powergap can't be like in a fantasy MMO but you need a bit. You should still be able to die if a noob empties his Colt in your back or the whole thing becomes boring but players should still gain some skills as they play.
A WW MMO could be awesome, but wrongly done it would instead be aweful and up for a couple of months before going down the drain.
I would rather have a Shadowrun gangbased game in that case (is that fantasy or sci-fi?). It is further enough from reality so you wouldn't get the gloryfying gang violence stamp on you and the world is more interesting then the real one. You could still run it in LA even if Seattle or new Orleans would be cooler there.
Now I'm not sure how much of this would fall directly under "fantasy" or "sci-fi", my vision would be an amalgamation of multiple settings and genres blurring itself into something new.
I'd first start out with a MagiPunk/Steampunk setting on a single planet, so many games tend to lean one way or another when it comes to either being 'fantasy' or 'sci-fi' or 'modern'. Essentially I'd like to blur all those settings and perspectives into a single new genre, which may contain pieces of these things, stands alone as its own genre.
I'd like to have a semi 'traditional' leveling process, but I'd like to possibly experiment with a branching class system. I.E level 1-9 are 'Novice' levels, level 10-29 are class levels (Such as fighter, rogue, mage, gunner, etc.), 30-69 Advanced Classes (Guardian, Bezerker, Wizard, Comanndo etc), 70-100 Prestige Classes (Mystic Knight, Paladin, Catacylsm Mage, Engineer, etc.)
My vision for the leveling process as well would be to make levels matter again, both in the sense that they are a reasonably difficult goal to be striven for - like our EQ days, but to also make levels matter in terms of Power. Unfortunately as we've seen in WoW, levels tend to matter very little and can be burned through in a matter of hours. (Didn't a streamer hit like 84 or something in 4-5 hours of play?).
For leveling I would be interested in looking at specific Class quests, Skill requirements, Hell levels and so forth. My goal would be to make sure people are fully identified with and invested in their character. I would also aim to explore options in having a AA sort of system (aside from a class 'talent' tree) that would allow for meaningful improvements to be made to your character regardless of level. Ideally on the '9th' of every level (9, 19, 29, etc) the player would be undergo a class quest, resulting in a defining and branching change or specialization.
I'd also like for there to be a large focus on player owned assets and player involvement. From the get-go mechanics would be in place for players to become leaders of villages, cities and nations - replacing the initially generated NPCs as story arcs are completed. I would want my players to be as if not more invested in the game than they would be in their Real Lives. Because with investment comes passion, and with passion, community. (The dark side too, but whatevs.)
Crafting would be a huge focus of the game, and would be the driving force of conflict for PvP on a guild and nation basis for medium to higher level content as they attempted to get control of rare and important 'nodes' which would be used to get rarer and important crafting materials.
But I wouldn't stop there - I'd like to have a mechanic or option to allow player art contributions into the game, much like the dream that was EQNext. Be it from armor, to sword, to building assets. I'd want players to be able to submit their designs to a market place, and allow other people to purchase the use of it - with the bulk of the money going to the player who designed the asset.
Furthermore I'd like to allow players to form and join nations within the game, and to allow those nations to hire guilds. I personally envision a Game of Thrones style battle for the throne - or battle for supremacy between the players. As I mentioned before, I want players directly invested in the game and I feel there is no better way of investment than giving them the keys to the kingdom (so to speak.)
That isn't to say that there wouldn't be any PvE involvement as I would layer several dynamic NPC storylines that work both independently and jointly with one another. Think of this along the lines of evolving content, if you leave certain threats untouched they will only grow in power and scope.
My overarching goal as the NPC storyarcs progressed and the player base evolved, a second teir of the MMO would come into play - the players would eventually discover/create plans and recipes for creating a magic fueled spacecraft to leave the planet and/or create devices to bore into other planes of existence. The materials of which would require consistent control over the needed PvP centric nodes. (Think things like Energon from Beast Wars, coupled with rare research materials obtained through PvE storyarc efforts, and so on!)
From there on, the game would naturally evolve into separate themes depending on player actions - Spelljammer-like Space MMORPG, with a number of inhabited and uninhabited planets in the surrounding vicinity, in additional to the traditional MMORPG aspect on planetbound/stationbound locations.
Oy, this got pretty long. Hope I didn't bore anyone.Main city is Sigil... you have all the "planes" and their crazy depth of levels as zones...
In addition, you can always do "pocket" dimensions to various names worlds... Ravenloft, Faerun, etc
The player base would choose "houses" to join and play in the Faction War.... imagine like 15 (Edit was 15 not 14) faction pvp or something like that... vying for control of Sigil...
I still don't know why anyone has not made this happen...
VG
Otherwise, since it was specifically "fantasy" that was outlawed I'd just create a historical RPG, possibly set during the 100 Years War. Your character's weapon would determine their class (pick up a pike, you're a pikeman) and your role (pikeman beats cavalry beats swordsman beats archer beats pike) and group skirmishes would rely on your party engaging the correct threats to protect their teammates (essentially everyone is a tank for the guy next to them: as a pikeman I need to protect the swordsman from cavalry so he my swordsman friend can protect me from archers.)
Switching classes would be fairly common, but could only be done at certain locations (weapon racks; you wouldn't actually carry your sword and shield while you used a pike.) This would factor into typical PVE (you defeat one wave of enemies and now they're all archers on that far hillside so you have to switch to swordsmen/cav to deal with that), except in larger scale group PVE where people could remain specialized. This would allow PVP to fit a little better in the game (normally class counters make things shallow, but if you can switch mid-match to archers to deal with all those pikemen giving you trouble then it becomes a part of skillful competition, as it is in Team Fortress or Overwatch.)
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