The Perfect MMORPG

TITLE:Metaverse (working title, Neal Stephenson reference)
GENRE: Sci-Fi, First Person Action Adventure MMORPG, Circa 2284 A.D.
EPOCH: Dawn of self-aware self-designing AI's, VR-exclusive Communities, Nano-tech Factories, Gravity Propulsion, Children and Pets Genetically Engineered, 'The Truth' religion emerges dedicated to revealing the simulation they believe we are all trapped within.
LOCATION: Earth and the Sol System, limited forays beyond.

In the beginning of the game you can map you own (or any other) face (with multiple expressions and voice samples) onto your toon. You can also link all PC-based media to in-game virtual media-terminals, and patch whatever live TV/radio feeds are available (both game-generated and RL channels), which others can see/hear if they are in the vicinity of your in-game media device. The gamer, now with a unique face and access to supplemental media content, is ready to then begin constructing their full morphology, home and career.

Players earn in-game credits (money) by following one or more chosen careers (from thousands of different player-defined options), which all produce different elements of the games actual content. By using career-specific in-game work-terminals to practice their chosen career, players have the opportunity to design and produce new and unique items, services and media content, so are actively shaping the world around them. Members of any given career can specialise in their field by incorporating (an infinite number of) unique add-ons or programs into their in-game work-terminals. If a specific tool is required to construct a new type of vehicle chassis, or an architect would like to use a new kind of transparent brick, the mechanic or the architect pays in-game programmers from the coders guild to write and mod that unique add-on/program into that players in-game work-terminal (and only that players). Rather than advancing by accumulating IP's via repetitive tasks, the game experience improves as the player makes new 'innovations' that allow him to become a commercial success, and thus advance the reach and scale of his operation or agenda.

The gamer might choose to be a combat engineer who designs and trains genetically engineered troops, or a fashion designer creating fashionable attire and holding outrageous shows and parties, or a talented painter, a dedicated weapon-smith, a devious industrial spy, a slightly seedy pet and sex-toy-smith, a wily reporter, an austere architect, a mad inventor, a handsome actor, a prolific musician, an inscrutable judge, a technical communications engineer, a cool-headed cop or a cold-blooded assassin. Game advancement is accumulated not by grinding dungeons, but in a much more non-linear way. By designing the best gun, or by travelling to a far out asteroid, you might have a huge success after much tinkering or travelling. Likewise a DJ with thousands of subscribers, or a painter who sells a picture for a small fortune, or a cult leader with a huge congregation, will all receive credits relative to their innovation or success. Which in turn affords them the wealth to have new work-terminal programs written for him. Thus creativity, imagination and technical skill determines the players advancement, turning the gaming experience from a traditional dungeon-grinding kill-fest, to a creative self-perpetuating forum of expression and free enterprise, without limitations. Killing will by no means be removed, but the whole game will not revolve around it either (although of course this would totally depend on the players preferences).

Wake me up when the beta's ready.

No Full Loot PvP, No Dice.GodLovesDead

Full loot PvP = no sales for the company. You are one of the few people who want something like that. Even if people say they might like the idea of it, as soon as they put a lot of time and effort into a character just to lose everything they will quickly change their mind. So, in essence, no MMORPG in the near future will have that.

On topic, if this games does half the things it says it will do then it may be a success. I think they're aiming too high and the game will be either delayed indefinitely or it will be another Vanguard.

[QUOTE="GodLovesDead"]No Full Loot PvP, No Dice.ParkCarsHere

Full loot PvP = no sales for the company. You are one of the few people who want something like that. Even if people say they might like the idea of it, as soon as they put a lot of time and effort into a character just to lose everything they will quickly change their mind. So, in essence, no MMORPG in the near future will have that.

On topic, if this games does half the things it says it will do then it may be a success. I think they're aiming too high and the game will be either delayed indefinitely or it will be another Vanguard.

Hell, I don't even mind if it's just one server. But I don't just don't want another grind fest in any form. Full Loot PvP is exciting because there's mystery, suspense, and consequences for your action. Instead, people like "YAY, LETS GRIND FOR 800 HOURS AND HIT LEVEL 70". This MMORPG obviously is different but I have a feeling it'll leave the same after taste.

Excuse me but If I remember rightly Metaverse is a collection/series of a mod for HL2.

Also The Perfect MMORPG....

Will Never Exist, People Are Too Finicky.

[QUOTE="ParkCarsHere"]

[QUOTE="GodLovesDead"]No Full Loot PvP, No Dice.GodLovesDead

Full loot PvP = no sales for the company. You are one of the few people who want something like that. Even if people say they might like the idea of it, as soon as they put a lot of time and effort into a character just to lose everything they will quickly change their mind. So, in essence, no MMORPG in the near future will have that.

On topic, if this games does half the things it says it will do then it may be a success. I think they're aiming too high and the game will be either delayed indefinitely or it will be another Vanguard.

Hell, I don't even mind if it's just one server. But I don't just don't want another grind fest in any form. Full Loot PvP is exciting because there's mystery, suspense, and consequences for your action. Instead, people like "YAY, LETS GRIND FOR 800 HOURS AND HIT LEVEL 70". This MMORPG obviously is different but I have a feeling it'll leave the same after taste.

Each new MMO should strongly consider having specific servers. I am not one to say this or that server, this or that rule. However, me, as an individual, I would like to see all "loots" available at a LDoN-like merchant or in group encounter (hard to rework all the drop tables IMO). That way, it is a raid-free server, without having to change anything else.

I would also like an amount of lives per month based on your race (weakest races got more), and when your out of lives, you can't play that toon until the X of the month. (29 of every month is my advice, if only to have peoples stress in february, and since it is adapted to march 1 for that precise month, have peoples panics on a february 29). See...lives per month should be designed in a way that a casual doesn't run out of lives, but someone like me, which play a LOT, I have to be extremely carefull. About 5% of your players should run out of lives or be afraid to run out. And this isn't that bad, since most of the time, it means that you can't play the character for 1 week or so...it is a temporary/soft-core perma-death. I am sure it would get a LOT of flaming, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be successfull...I would lessen/remove all other death penalties on this server, and maybe even allow a few zones (for tradeskills mostly) where you can remain...been out of lives would means something. Adding an EPIC race with only 1 life per month is something extremely appealing for you and the hardcore players later on. Been unable to play your character is a STRONG motivation toward playing the game, as it is a clear penalty to be unable to, no matter how much peoples would rant about it, they would be waiting in line on the 29 and no GM would want to make their presence knowns at that moment, yet, the players would be there, and the love for the game would be straightforward. Peoples in old SRE, they where waiting at midnight to log in and play their 5 turns!!! And if a player can't stand the idea of lives per month, well, you can have servers which are free from those but have standards death penalties whatever these are...cause the idea behind the lives per month, it is to lessen to artificial penalties on the casuals, who already care about not dying and would check a LOT their life per month even if they can't run out! :P Death penalty has 1 goal...to make players afraid of dying...not to penalised them. In this system here, with lives per month, you don't even penalized anyone ever, at worst, they are denied the right to play a specific character cause they already play a LOT and they die a LOT...you may even have 1 race which has soo many lives they can't run out (like gnomes or whatever that ugly). See, if 1% (which is 1/5 of the players who are out of lives in my example) of your player base rant that they run out of lives...the other players will tell them STFU noobs zerger of hell...

hmmm, sorry if my post mislead anyone. i was just outlining what my perfect mmorpg would be, it's not under developement or anything. mmorpg's have the potential to be so much more than they currently are, and i'm just tired of developers using the same tired old formula/engine for games.

after reading neal stephenson's snow crash book, i saw what a virtual world could be, and would love to see developers moving in that direction. everything is interactive, everything is player-modifiable, and the players actually continually make the games content simply by playing it. this way a new game doesn't have to be constructed every couple of years, the game just keeps getting a continual overhaul, keeping the content fresh, the gameplay dynamic and the graphics cutting-edge.

maybe in 20 years the technology will catch up enough to make this next-generation style of game possible, but right now it would probably be cripplingly expensive and take forever. i've emailed funcom with the idea though, so you never know. if they start now, we might have it in 5 years.