Ach! You're right! I should have remembered that. That's what I get for posting forum comments while watching Good Eats episodes.
As for the Dune MMO, that's why I like the idea of a multi-genre MMO so much. You want Dune, we can add Dune. The Foglios want a Girl Genius MMO, we can give them the tools to make it. In fact, why not include the tools with the game itself? We could have a world builder, an easy to use 3D modeler (like in Spore) for props, critters and buildings, and a quest maker like in City of Heroes. You could set up different levels of worlds, like say a bunch of us want to make a Tom Smith MMO, we could have one version set up so anyone can add anything, another that's judged by other players (based on votes cast in the free-for-all world), then a third world that only contains what Tom approves of. You think the Redneck Ninjas land needs more big box store raid instances, you can make it yourself, put it up in the open content world and see what other players think. Someone else thinks up a neat chain of quests that super villains have to run through after encountering The Waffle, they can make them up an submit it. I think it would be cool to have the Domino Death car as a mount (that you get only after delivering twenty pizzas while fighting off the Invading Hordes of Fenton) then I can make it and send it to Tom for his approval.
Bwahaahha! "like say a bunch of us want to make a Tom Smith MMO." And the low-level omega hare is Fenton the Death Sheep. =D I love it! A Tom Smith MMO would be great!
Wow, let's see. I think one of the things I'd hoped to get out of STO was a spaceflight/combat sim that wasn't as user-hostile as EVE. STO does some things really well... and other things not-so-well. So a good spaceflight sim... heck, add a Firefly MMO to my list.
About the closest thing there is to the idea of a universal MMO is Second Life, but the MMO elements in various sims are hacked on with wet duct tape and bailing wire, are not compatible with one another, usually require additional expenditure, are not exactly seamless, and are labors of love, to wit, are really the best that a handful of dedicated devoted people can do. but admittedly pales in comparison to a large, dedicated, well-funded development team.
Oh, yeah, you'd have to have a large team working on the game full time, developing new stuff and tweaking player's creations that are all kinds of nifty but needs a bit of polish, but if you make the world creation tools good enough you could outsource content creation to other groups. Like say you want to do a suburban horror/comedy world (Psycho meets Twin Peaks meets Addams Family in Stepford) you put out the word that you've got cash money sitting in bags waiting for the right content development team then sit back and review all of the proposals. Or a team of experienced game modders put up an ad "Want world? Will create!" so if someone like Jasper Fford can hire them to make and maintain a Thursday Next world.
As for other player created content that pales in comparison to the pros, from what I've seen there's two reasons for that. First and foremost are the tools. Most modable games don't have any tools and the players have to be really passionate to struggle through a complex procedure while having a job or going to school. Other games have really simplistic tools so the players are very limited in what they can do. But if you give them good tools and make them easy enough to encourage creations, then you'll get stuff like Spore (have you browsed the buildings and stuff people have made? Impressive!) and challenging quests like Little Big World.
The other factor is how you set things up to implement players creations. You could set up a sandbox world where anybody can make anything and other players rate it so only the highest rated stuff moves on to a proper gaming world. Or you could set up a panel review where players submit their stuff and select VIPs judge if it's worthy. Or anything else you might want to try.
But it doesn't stop there. Because the MMO is open to player created content other players can add on to what you build. Someone could make a Prisoner-like resort, others could populate it with mysterious eccentric spies, others could craft a number of brain-challenging quests, and so on. If a world becomes popular you'll have more gamers making more content, which will give players more to do, which makes the world more popular.
And you'll be collecting $15 a month from every one of them ;-)
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-27 06:40 am (UTC)As for the Dune MMO, that's why I like the idea of a multi-genre MMO so much. You want Dune, we can add Dune. The Foglios want a Girl Genius MMO, we can give them the tools to make it. In fact, why not include the tools with the game itself? We could have a world builder, an easy to use 3D modeler (like in Spore) for props, critters and buildings, and a quest maker like in City of Heroes. You could set up different levels of worlds, like say a bunch of us want to make a Tom Smith MMO, we could have one version set up so anyone can add anything, another that's judged by other players (based on votes cast in the free-for-all world), then a third world that only contains what Tom approves of. You think the Redneck Ninjas land needs more big box store raid instances, you can make it yourself, put it up in the open content world and see what other players think. Someone else thinks up a neat chain of quests that super villains have to run through after encountering The Waffle, they can make them up an submit it. I think it would be cool to have the Domino Death car as a mount (that you get only after delivering twenty pizzas while fighting off the Invading Hordes of Fenton) then I can make it and send it to Tom for his approval.
What other worlds would you like to see?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-27 02:09 pm (UTC)Wow, let's see. I think one of the things I'd hoped to get out of STO was a spaceflight/combat sim that wasn't as user-hostile as EVE. STO does some things really well... and other things not-so-well. So a good spaceflight sim... heck, add a Firefly MMO to my list.
About the closest thing there is to the idea of a universal MMO is Second Life, but the MMO elements in various sims are hacked on with wet duct tape and bailing wire, are not compatible with one another, usually require additional expenditure, are not exactly seamless, and are labors of love, to wit, are really the best that a handful of dedicated devoted people can do. but admittedly pales in comparison to a large, dedicated, well-funded development team.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-27 03:31 pm (UTC)As for other player created content that pales in comparison to the pros, from what I've seen there's two reasons for that. First and foremost are the tools. Most modable games don't have any tools and the players have to be really passionate to struggle through a complex procedure while having a job or going to school. Other games have really simplistic tools so the players are very limited in what they can do. But if you give them good tools and make them easy enough to encourage creations, then you'll get stuff like Spore (have you browsed the buildings and stuff people have made? Impressive!) and challenging quests like Little Big World.
The other factor is how you set things up to implement players creations. You could set up a sandbox world where anybody can make anything and other players rate it so only the highest rated stuff moves on to a proper gaming world. Or you could set up a panel review where players submit their stuff and select VIPs judge if it's worthy. Or anything else you might want to try.
But it doesn't stop there. Because the MMO is open to player created content other players can add on to what you build. Someone could make a Prisoner-like resort, others could populate it with mysterious eccentric spies, others could craft a number of brain-challenging quests, and so on. If a world becomes popular you'll have more gamers making more content, which will give players more to do, which makes the world more popular.
And you'll be collecting $15 a month from every one of them ;-)