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User-Created Lore MMO

Sanity888Sanity888 Member UncommonPosts: 185
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Hi, I'm Sanity888. I haven't been active on this forum for over four years. Why? Because I was out doing other things, that's why.

Anyways, if you are not familiar with who I am, I am a MMORPG player, but I also like other video games as well. I'm currently playing World of Warcraft retail, on the Emerald Dream server, as well as the Basilisk server on Star Wars Galaxies Emulator. I'm enjoying my time at these two places (I'm also subbed to Darkfall: RoA. but I rarely play) but I'm looking for something, that well, probably already exists. 

When I get invested in a MMORPG, it used to take out large chunks of my life. Nowadays I'm so wrapped up in other things that I play MMOs a few times per week for a few hours. I don't have the practice I once had, which I blame on our broadband Internet connections for. Damn you YouTube and your instant-content! 

Anyways, 4-6 years ago I asked people if this existed, and everybody kind of said, "I don't know" or "It doesn't exist". Which really made me feel bad, and good at the same time. It's nice to know I've developed a new concept in video gaming, even if I don't necessarily have the patience to deal with actually making that game. But a lot of time has passed now, and I want to re-introduce my concept to the masses, now that MMORPG has almost 200 MMOs listed on the website.

The theme for this would be "USER-CREATED LORE"

--- User-Created Factions ---
--- Real-World Based Gameplay, not Sci-FI or Fantasy ---
--- Very Detailed Character Creator, But Can Only Be Human ---
--- A Robust  Skill System with No Levels ---
--- NO Lore Created By The Devs, Lore is Created By the Players ---
--- Unique Skills Available Such as Developing Unique Codes and Becoming Teachers ---
--- Awards Complex Systems with Built-In Minigames to Have You Grow As a Player ---
--- One World, One Shard, One Character per Player ---

What I'm essentially am thinking of is a game that would mimic Sid Meier's Civilization except for the fact that you'd be one player in this world rather than a God-like entity in control of one of the nations. The game would start off as cavemen and you would get skills to grow your influence throughout the world. The company making this game would essentially create a realistic-simulator of early times and then with subscription and expansion pack fees would grow the video game into a modern-life simulator. For example, you might start off with an affinity to lead and therefore you learn the skills to become a settler and you make your own settlements which might go to war or start alliances with other nearby towns and grow the system until you have an actual civilization. 

The game's website would auto-generate news articles based on current events in the game and there would be a section in the website that would be similar to what MySpace used to do with their website, with each player being able to fully RP their character on that website as well as user-created factions and alliances having their own part of the website as well. Everything you do you would tracked on this website. This game would be similar to Star Wars Galaxies without the Star Wars part. The only thing is that there would better and more unique ways to get money and develop skills in the game. User-Created Lore also includes User-Created Quests. 

If this has been done, someone please let me know. 

Comments

  • AntiquatedAntiquated Member RarePosts: 1,415
    It still doesn't exist.
  • sunandshadowsunandshadow Member RarePosts: 1,985
    Personally I have no idea why anyone would want to play a real-world based game, because the real world blows.  But in between Second Life and Shards you've at least got some examples to look at.
    I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story.  So PM me if you are starting one.
  • filmoretfilmoret Member EpicPosts: 4,906
    User created lore sucks.  Look at WOW how everyone acts the same regardless of race or class.
    Are you onto something or just on something?
  • Jill52Jill52 Member UncommonPosts: 85
    filmoret said:
    User created lore sucks.  Look at WOW how everyone acts the same regardless of race or class.
    Sadly I have to agree overall about nobody acting the part of their character. In most of the games I played the community had very little interest in lore and roleplaying was actually frowned upon.. even ridiculed (ironic considering these are RPGs)

    User-created lore on the other hand...

    A healthy, positive, open-minded community that is actually there for the lore and RP (even in a casual way) could theoretically make some very good lore. Ever read fanfictions about games? Some of the stories people come up with are really good!  Just think if there was a way players could work with the devs and GMs to make lore/story suggestions and even create ingame events where the outcome determines the direction the game's story goes. By participating in these events the players themselves become a part of the game's history and lore.  Wouldn't that be fun? (something similar has been tried in the past but it wasn't handled the best by the host company and if done right it would have been amazing)




  • Sanity888Sanity888 Member UncommonPosts: 185
    Jill52 said:

    User-created lore on the other hand...

    A healthy, positive, open-minded community that is actually there for the lore and RP (even in a casual way) could theoretically make some very good lore. Ever read fanfictions about games? Some of the stories people come up with are really good!  Just think if there was a way players could work with the devs and GMs to make lore/story suggestions and even create ingame events where the outcome determines the direction the game's story goes. By participating in these events the players themselves become a part of the game's history and lore.  Wouldn't that be fun? (something similar has been tried in the past but it wasn't handled the best by the host company and if done right it would have been amazing)
    Interesting idea, but what I'm thinking is ... you log into the game, you start a quest that was created by another player, you group with people that are from a different faction. You talk to them, and become part of that user-created faction, and then you are able to do more quests from that faction to gain enough currency within that faction to build yourself a house, crafted by another player. Your faction goes to war with another faction, are you are flagged for PvP so you fight alongside your faction mates to destroy or retrieve property that was once part of the enemies' stronghold. There would essentially be no lore created by the developers. Everything created in the game would be by a human, and every human in the game is a player character. There would not only be first and last names but also optional middle names as well. You would be able to make a unique handle for your name that everybody would know you by, regardless of in-game character name. This means you would be able to name your character anything you feel like naming him or her at that time. Developers wouldn't be working with the players to create the lore, the developers would give the tools to the players (this would be their form of content) to give the players their ability to create lore for themselves. Factions in the game would be entirely unique and could go routes that go above and beyond the standard, "good or evil" paradigm. 
  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,771
    Imagine if some of the players used this to start posting their game rants as LORE?  haha.

    http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2010/QBlog190810A.html  

    Epic Music:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1

    https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1

    Kyleran:  "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."

    John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."

    FreddyNoNose:  "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."

    LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"




  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    filmoret said:
    User created lore sucks.  Look at WOW how everyone acts the same regardless of race or class.
    It usually sucks but not always. Still, it is rarely used in MMOs since it always becomes a bumpy ride.

    Making a MMO where guilds for instance would build a castle or town and then create their own npcs with backgrounds and stuff could be very fun with the right people around (watch the anime overlord to see what could happen like that). The problem is to find those people and stay far away from the ones that make content so hopeless that it would depress fans of "Legend of the seeker", Merlin" and "Atlantis"...

    Anyways, I am sorry OP but I have nothing. There are a few fantasy sandbox games who tries but they usually ends up with all players constantly killing eachothers for no particular reason which becomes more an absence of lore instead of actually good player created content.

    You could make a good game with player created lore but it would be extremely hard, far harder then anything tried before. Unless you do like Shards and open upo for a player or group of players to create an entire world/shard themselves, with a good rating system some shards could actually become really fun (even if 90% surely will suck once the game is out).
  • DKLondDKLond Member RarePosts: 2,273
    User created lore = lore anarchy = not good.
  • AntiquatedAntiquated Member RarePosts: 1,415
    DKLond said:
    User created lore = lore anarchy = not good.
    Actually, it tends to lead to a large and active message board where roleplayers witchhunt each other over roleplaying purity. They can turn out some good work in the end, but it's a pretty bitter experience.

    Seems unlikely to happen in games where roleplay is not strongly by the parent company. (Translation: every MMORPG ever.)
  • DKLondDKLond Member RarePosts: 2,273
    Problem is the book-keeping and unified vision required to produce satisfying lore. I simply don't believe such a thing is feasible in a game - and certainly not in a way that would be worth the major hassle of enforcing lore-abiding rules.

    What we need instead are developers and investors who care enough about writing to create rich and satisfying lore - which is surprisingly rare.
  • Sanity888Sanity888 Member UncommonPosts: 185
    You guys are over-complicating everything. When I talk about user-created lore I'm talking about something that is a hybrid of Star Wars Galaxies (pre-CU), Second Life, and the first version of Darkfall. Imagine if everybody is human to begin with and you start off on a planet that is remarkably similar to Earth. There would be things like classes, but they wouldn't be classes, based off of the Civilization franchise. So, there would be an option to become a Settler, Scout, Warrior, etc. And the further on you go, the more skill trees can opened up to you. If you decide to become a Settler you will be able to make settlements to live in, and to rule in those settlements, if you are a Scout you will have unique map-building utilities at your disposal. And you can choose to be these things at any time. The game would have a limit as to how far people can progress. There would eventually be literature in the game developed by civilized people and people could write their own books about what happens in game. This could drive the user-created lore. Everything would be based off of real-life. There would be no fantasy, and without multiple expansion packs there would be nothing based on sci-fi as well. All AI would be creatures, there would be no NPCs that are human. The game would start the player off in a mimic of Ethiopia and Mesopotamia. The LORE that I'm talking about is the lore that HAPPENS between people. "This Civilization is Created" "This Civilization merges with That Civilization" There would be no such thing as "lore-breaking" because if it can happen in the game, it's part of the lore. Just imagine if the real-time strategy game Civilization had a MMO. Maybe I am confusing "lore" with content. User-created content. There are already MMOs that do much of what I'm talking about, but I'm focusing on what players do in the game rather than the developers create all the content.
  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,771
    Sanity888 said:
    You guys are over-complicating everything. When I talk about user-created lore I'm talking about something that is a hybrid of Star Wars Galaxies (pre-CU), Second Life, and the first version of Darkfall. Imagine if everybody is human to begin with and you start off on a planet that is remarkably similar to Earth. There would be things like classes, but they wouldn't be classes, based off of the Civilization franchise. So, there would be an option to become a Settler, Scout, Warrior, etc. And the further on you go, the more skill trees can opened up to you. If you decide to become a Settler you will be able to make settlements to live in, and to rule in those settlements, if you are a Scout you will have unique map-building utilities at your disposal. And you can choose to be these things at any time. The game would have a limit as to how far people can progress. There would eventually be literature in the game developed by civilized people and people could write their own books about what happens in game. This could drive the user-created lore. Everything would be based off of real-life. There would be no fantasy, and without multiple expansion packs there would be nothing based on sci-fi as well. All AI would be creatures, there would be no NPCs that are human. The game would start the player off in a mimic of Ethiopia and Mesopotamia. The LORE that I'm talking about is the lore that HAPPENS between people. "This Civilization is Created" "This Civilization merges with That Civilization" There would be no such thing as "lore-breaking" because if it can happen in the game, it's part of the lore. Just imagine if the real-time strategy game Civilization had a MMO. Maybe I am confusing "lore" with content. User-created content. There are already MMOs that do much of what I'm talking about, but I'm focusing on what players do in the game rather than the developers create all the content.
    When you start talking about a concept in terms of different games, you lose people.  Spell out your ideas in terms that doesn't require knowledge of a specific time you were in a game and the context in which you enjoyed it.
    http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2010/QBlog190810A.html  

    Epic Music:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1

    https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1

    Kyleran:  "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."

    John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."

    FreddyNoNose:  "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."

    LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"




  • XxPriestxXXxPriestxX Member UncommonPosts: 133
    Jill52 said:
    ...(ironic considering these are RPGs)




    The irony is that RPers don't understand what a role is in ANY game I've ever played in. If you're a tank, your ROLE is to tank. If you're an orc tank, your ROLE is still to tank, you just happen to be an orc, which doesn't mean you have to hobble around and grunt and act like you have an IQ of 4 to do it.
    Trolling, being trolled, getting banned, yelling at mods, getting perma banned, making new accounts, and still trolling this site since 2004 =D
  • DeivosDeivos Member EpicPosts: 3,692
    edited July 2016
    xXPriestXx said:
    ...which doesn't mean you have to hobble around and grunt and act like you have an IQ of 4 to do it.
    They're not acting.

    As a healer, I've come to understand that's how tanks work.

    "The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay

    "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin

  • XxPriestxXXxPriestxX Member UncommonPosts: 133
    Sanity888 said:
    1. Interesting idea, but what I'm thinking is ... you log into the game, you start a quest that was created by another player,
    2. you group with people that are from a different faction.
    3. You talk to them, and become part of that user-created faction,
    4. and then you are able to do more quests from that faction to gain enough currency within that faction to build yourself a house,
    5. crafted by another player.....
    1. What does the first player to ever login do? His only choice is to make a quest for someone else?
    2. On release day, how do you find these people, know they're in another faction, and why didn't you just create your own if it was easy enough for a zero day noob to do?
    3. what if they speak russian? lol
    4. Who made the currency? Where did it come from? Does making a faction hand you unlimited funding suddenly... in which case, why, again, didn't you just create your own.
    5. Who's mom yells at him to finish his homework and go to bed after he's hammered 2 nails, leaving you waiting an entire day before he logs back in (maybe) to finish your house.

    You see where this is going. We all know what happened to EQNext who was working halfway down this line of thought. It's a no go and always will be.
    Trolling, being trolled, getting banned, yelling at mods, getting perma banned, making new accounts, and still trolling this site since 2004 =D
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