The "Dream MMORPG" Thread

So, normally I'm one of the more vocal "OMG MMORPG BBQ You!!!" commenters on these forums. I've seen newbies come with dreams of massively networked grandeur, and watched a staggeringly high amount stumble away in tears, their dreams of MMORPG awesomeness ruined, and those who aren't turned away, instead humbled by the gargantuan task that is merely making a MMO in the first place, not even running it, not even running it as a successful business. MMORPGs are hard, and most AAA developers can't do them right.

...But, what if you could?

The purpose of this thread is to talk about your dream MMORPG that is based on an original IP. If - somehow, chief-deity-of-your-choice-including-none-at-all willing - you could make an MMORPG, what would you make?

And, if you say 'Sword Art Online', I'll still bring up the grim reality intellectual property laws despite not being a lawyer. That, and I already bolded, italicized, and underlined the bit about 'based on an original IP.' I've done everything I can short of blink tags. If I have to bring this up in a later response, it means you need to sue whoever taught you to read, because they failed.

 

This will be fun!

My dream MMO is not so much the IP, but a certain system behind it. I would love to see an MMO that adheres to conservation of mass.

Put simply, there is only so much of resource X in the game world. Period. X can be used to build cool stuff, but it can never be created or destroyed. You want more X, you have to go dismantle something someone else built. This instantly sets up a natural economy in the game. X can be brought and sold. Companies can be established around trading X. Wars can be fought to control X. Entire empires will rise and fall based on the availability of X.

I'd like to see this pattern reused for every single resource in the game.

An interesting alternative would be to see this pattern applied to an FPS game. Every bullet is defined in the engine, and has to be physically moved from the factory to the place it is needed. Suddenly attacking a supply convoy or blowing up a supply depot becomes far more relevant.

 

I'd make a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-style world*, in which the "anomalies" are actual phenomena that just don't happen at everyday scales and speeds (e.g. quantum tunnelling). It would be set inside a series of abandoned dwarven ruins that are a cross between Morrowind/Skyrim and the failed ones of Dwarf Fortress. This would include such ground-breaking** mechanics as finding fuel to boil the contaminated water inside the ruins, farming algae and fungi for food and finding rubbish rare artifacts from the ruins to sell on the black market.

There would be factions in the game, based mainly around controlling access to the external black market, each with different "abilities" and play styles. For instance, take the military. They would have far better equipment and logistics, but be far poorer at detecting the "anomalies" than the smugglers/scavengers/hunters/other factions, and individually are weaker.

And just for the lols, while the game would be free-to-play, the premium players would get access to a new mission type. This would be similar to Payload in Team Fortress 2, in which you are trying to escort a bomb along a railway track into an advertising factory that some megalomaniac has reactivated. They would also gain the ability to damage advertising billboards that have been placed inside the world to help fund the game. Because let's face it, who doesn't want to deface an obvious product placement that has no relation to the world it's set in?

*I do have the background planned for a world like this, but haven't gone anywhere with it yet. I blame a lack of spare time, a couple of already-open projects and a dodgy attention span.

**As in, while you're trying to actually do something, the ground 'breaks' and you teleport through it into a tunnel that is filled with hungry mutated humans. And French-accented crabs who are admiring that exquisite jewel-encrusted floodgate.

 

Uh... .hack// ?... although I think they did end up making an MMO out of it.


At this point, I don't think MMO's are that appealing. There just has to be better ways to have people interact with each other, than just by spending resources on the capacity to dump tons of people into an area.

 

You should read ReamDe by Neal Stephenson. A similarly designed MMO is a core part of the story.

 

I want an MMO with content. Asheron's Call 2 tried this, did fairly well at it, and then died. Guild Wars 2 is trying it and failed at the first "season", but I haven't actually tried enough of the second season to know if they figured it out.

The problem, of course, is that content is super expensive and time-consuming to create.

Failing that, I'd like an MMO that was *fun* to play 100% of the time. There was no time I was running around killing things for their skins and bored out of my mind, but only driven on by a compulsion to complete things. It should have a fun combat system, dungeons that differ in key ways when you go through them again, can be put down and picked up at short notice, and generally are just awesome.

And no, I have no idea how to do this yet. If I did, I'd probably have planned it all out properly.

 

Amen. Developers can't keep up with the demand for content. What do you think of player-generated content, as in Everquest Next, or City of Heroes before that, or MUDs before that? The crazy things people build in Minecraft is proof that there's plenty of talent waiting to be tapped. Imagine what would happen if Blizzard let modders take over content generation for WoW.

On the other hand, what about procedural generation, as in, say, No Man's Sky?

 

Flappy Bird Online

 

An MMO with actual consequences would be nice. Kill too many wolves? Outbreak of vermin that destroys the grain silos and spreads a plague. Slaughter a goblin tribe? The neighbouring trolls start raiding the human settlements instead of fighting with the goblins. Make this open world enough that you can choose, but not totally obvious what the consequences of any action will be.

 

I have absolutely no confidence that gamers can produce enough quality content, for free, to be entertaining enough to keep me interesting in an MMO long-term. While there are occasional gems that shine very brightly, most of the content they produce is mediocre at best, and almost none of it has anything to do with anything else.

Portal 2 has the best user-content that I can think of, and with very few exceptions most of it is just not up to par with the original levels. They simply haven't got the resources to create and polish the content on that level. Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are in second place with the same results.

 

My dream MMO has no RPG in. Im actually making it, because why not. Very much inspired by EVE online, which is probably my favourite game

 

Some clarification? There are plenty of existing MMOs on Facebook and the like with no RPG elements. What specifically are you building?

 

"Why not"

Because one person making an MMO is like one person building a skyscraper...

Not going to happen.

 

Dream thread. We can crush spirits later.

 

Fixed that for you.

In all seriousness, yes, this is the dream thread. Instead of yet another "OO HOW DO I BILD MY MMOPRG?" thread, everyone can just talk concepts here. That way, there's no need for bad blood, (completely) crushed dreams (though, they will be eventually), or general badness.

 

I'm very interested in the idea of procedural content, I happen to be one of those kinds of people who think that art is a science not an art. So I think that there are grand possibilities on that level. Mmorpgs with content as some have posted about previously is simply no way in hell feasible for an indie team. But what indies do have is technology, and we have barely used a fraction of what it is capable of doing for us. Content does not have to be extremely good quality, just 100% consistent in quality. Work out the algorithms of generating acceptably realistic content (or write a big data sorter that will distill it for you), then write a good 3D artist AI that can do the work for you, then sell THAT to all the mmorpg hopers and you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams

Not saying it's easy, but at least it's aiming at the right target.

 

I have an idea that I never seriously pursued to develop, but I have several pages of concept stuff in a folder somewhere. So, when you load the game you spawn in a huge facility that is shaped like an octogan and off to each side there is a room. One is a garage filled with vehicles. There is one that is like a museum with art made by players and the best ones get showcased in it. Then there is a space with a few dozen rooms were players can go inside and chat but players that do not have the virtual key to the room would be unable to enter. This is so players can have private conversations. When you leave the facility there is just a normal open world like in gta, but the player can have jet packs and dubstep guns and stuff like that, like in Saints Row IV. Each player also can buy various property's were they can build stuff with peices they have collected, similarly to Lego Universe. The building system would also be similar to Disney Infinity were several players can edit the property at the same time. The players would be able to join another players property if they are give a password to enter. People without the password to the property would be able to view the property, but not edit it. There would be no real goal except to have fun.

 

If I could code I would try to make a system like this... But I would go out of business then as an artist lol. Maybe you command the AI with voice commands like Siri or Cortana?

 

But its not. There was another thread about MMO's, I forgot where it was, and someone rightly pointed out, its nowhere near as hard as people make it out to be. Someone made one in 4 hours using python.

The only really hard part for a one man MMO, what Im getting caught up on, is marketing and support (One man handling hundreds of 'I forgot my password', 'I keep lagging', ect...)

EDIT: Found it! http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-mmorpg-multiplayer-game.281111/

Look down to Carters post.

 

I don't know if any of you played Firefall during closed beta but honestly, they basically had the "fun mmo" nailed. IMO this was the next step forward in the way the whole thing was designed. The networking was great and it was essentially an FPS twitch game in an MMO open world setting. The Fantasy/Sci-Fi style with asian influence was top notch and the gameplay, character growth and abilities were really just super fun to play. I spent most of the time just wandering around the world looking for cool stuff because the Jetpack mechanic was so fun and the scenes were so gorgeous.

Eventually though, it drown in mismanagement, crappy f2p monetization, grind methods and publisher/funding deadlines.

If there could be another MMO like that - twitch based FPS sci-fi fantasy team jetpack gunnery.. Yup. Forget f2p, just do it right and charge the monthly fee.

 

This

The concept of a balanced MMO game where players are the general directing the RTS, and the soldiers in the FPS, and the traders in the economic simulation, even down to the resource gathers in the Farmville sounds pretty awesome.