Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
So you have a development team of 10 indie developers, all the tools needed to make an mmorpg, you have the engines, you have a server able to support millions of players and you have a the basic client framework. What do you create? |
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riflefire Member Posts: 57 From: Registered: 08-25-2003 |
Faith_Warrior, As i think it was posted to the "sales of christian games" thread, you should go the route of creating a Christian MMORPG cause I think Christian games maybe about to get massive exposure. It would be really special if you went the route of making it based upon sci-fi as a basic theme and weaved in Christian themes. Making the game a seamless unified game would be the goal. Some games have christian aspects to them but its fairly obvious if the Christian elements are tacked on and not part of the ongoing story. I think it should cater to Christians yet also have a good sci-fi game that even the non-christians can enjoy. Keep it clean, as free of anti-biblical elements as possible, and have a good time creating/running it. RifleFire P.s. Please check your PM messages. I sent ya one. |
Realm Master Member Posts: 1971 From: USA Registered: 05-15-2005 |
A: A good game, thats what! You'll be able to think of somethign soon, don't worry. You could always just go off on a thought and see what happens! (Great games get made that way!) ------------------ Awaiting Avatar Image Size rechange... |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
quote: Do-oh! [/Homer] there is no notification and it took my a while to find access to PM’s here with this crazy forum software (I rarely load index). Got it now, thanks.
quote: Haha !Thanks, but maybe you missed the point of the topic, it’s not “give me ideas” but “what do YOU create?”  I want to hear generally what you would concoct, well for those that like mmog’s of course. Now if I were looking for suggestions… I’d break out with my world building documentation and let you guys fill in the blanks  I’ve done that before though (as a contest with rewards), but it didn’t work out at all. This is just for fun. |
ArchAngel Member Posts: 3450 From: SV, CA, USA Registered: 01-29-2002 |
I don't want to post my ideas, because I don't want anyone to steal them ------------------ |
dXter Member Posts: 59 From: Texas, the US of A Registered: 09-26-2006 |
I'd make a Christian fantasy game, but not *only* for Christians, and probably even targeted at converting non-Christians (or at least trying to). The gameplay wouldn't be focused ONLY on fighting, like most games out there; it would have a large skill system with many non-combat-related skills. I'd enforce good behavior and good interactions between players and I'd encourage the Christian members to witness to the non-Christians. Well, that's basically it, I'm not sure how well it would work, but if I ever get the cance in my life to do it, I'd take a shot at it! ------------------ |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
quote:That’s interesting, how would you implement such a thing? If you could, you would have the killer app (everyone has tried but with bad results). I think the closest thing that has come to this is the Disney mmorpg called ToonTown Online, but that is to an extreme of course… and for good reason. |
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dXter Member Posts: 59 From: Texas, the US of A Registered: 09-26-2006 |
quote: Probably the easiest and most conventional way would to just have the GMs monitor the chat and how people were behaving, and punish certain players as necessary. This probably wouldn't work at all with a commercial game (unless there were LOTS and LOTS of GMs), having so many players, but if the game was just small and non-commercial, then it might work. But then, this contradicts the whole idea of "attract a lot of players and witness to them". A chat monitor bot could be used to help a little, but it wouldn't do much as far as behavior other than language. I know, I contradict myself, but oh well I can't think of anything else........... ------------------ |
Jari Member Posts: 1471 From: Helsinki, Finland Registered: 03-11-2005 |
That is a good idea dXter, do not be discouraged.  This is also what I'm planning for VoHW and if the majority of game's users are Christians they can help keeping it clean.------------------ [VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3) |
steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
quote: Well, if I created any kind of online game with text-chat, I would have the server keep a running tally of, say, the last 50 comments made by a character with a "report user" option. When somebody gets offended and reports another user, their last 50 comments would get logged to a file for later inspection. I've played enough online games to get totally sick of all the perverts and jerks out there, so I'd make the rules clear and simple with permanent banning as the punishment for blatant violation. There are plenty of free-speech areas and chat-rooms on the net, my game would not be one of them. If you could actually keep a pretty clean online experience, it would probably become more popular, not less. ------------------ |
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
That's a good point Steveth, and reminds me... When I was a part of Fellowship of the Force (Jedi Outcast clan), we were one of THE most well-respected clans. We did not put up with ANYTHING. If you did not respect the rules, you got the boot. When someone came to our servers, they knew the epxerience they would get. A fun and playful environment. Our focus was on keeping a FUN server and the community seemed to take notice. So yes, I agree with Steveth. Ultimately, I really don't think people want all the swearing and jerks screwing things up. They want to have fun. I can't remember if I was recently reading the Planeshift or Runescape FAQ, but it mentioned the idea Steveth mentioned. If you report abuse regarding a player, the server retains the last 2 minutes or something like that of text and maybe even movements so they can actually see if someone was using cheats. |
buddboy Member Posts: 2220 From: New Albany, Indiana, U.S. Registered: 10-08-2004 |
Heh heh, I would SO create a 3D Smiley War game. Ya bettah recognize!!! lol, I'll stop now. But that would be cool.. Either that or I would do Fahrenheit 451. Or Orwell's Animal Farm. that would rock. ------------------ |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
Well I may as well put up my answer, though there is no right or wrong answer for this. I’d definitely focus on a Christian themed game. How successful it would be is a guess as any good as mine since there really are no Christian mmorpg’s and there have been no attempts to make one, well until recently with a couple games that I’m sure will make it there as indie game projects. These are smaller games though, not on the scale of having a development team on the scale of 10 or more people, though they have a committed few which is what counts. So yes, a Christian themed game, this would be a good start. Secondly, the game would be very focused on community interaction. Lets face it, one of the m’s in mmorpg stands for multiplayer, and the best examples of mmorpg’s have been the ones that put a good deal of emphasis on the community factor. One of the leading things regarding community interaction for myself has always been the guild. I’ve always believed that guild system functionality is essential for building strong, robust game communities. The right tools given to a guild can drive intense player created content, it’s amazing the things that can be done when a system does not try too hard to define your experience and what you can and cannot do in a game. An entire thesis could be written n this subject, but I’ll keep it short since the majority of replies are short so I’ll spare you the long winded read. Another really good point is regarding game staff driven content. I cant tell you how many times I wondered around the ghost town of many a server with just absolutely nothing going on out of the ordinary. No surprise attacks by hoards of foes, upon an unsuspecting town, no staff leading guilds on hunts of a lifetime (unless you paid a lot extra for it). I’ve seen this stuff happen long ago with a game that does not do such things any longer, none do really, it all depends on the automated script now. Maybe with good reason, after all they are big companies with a lot of big employee budgets to feed, but that interaction was lost many years ago and written off by the layers. But the independent games are recapturing this spirit, it is something to be well sought after, certainly. |
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Lava Member Posts: 1905 From: Registered: 01-26-2005 |
Actually there are lots of Christian MMORPGs in the making, Jari is making one, you can go to his site: http://voiceofhisword.com/index.php? ------------------ |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
Yeah right note I said being developed, but none that are actually live. This has already been on my links for some time, still in development. I don’t know where “lots” are though. I know of three, total; Leathel‘s, mine and Jari’s. There may be one or two more starting up soon but I’m not certain on this yet. Leathel’s is set for live release in December, he has a publishing deal for that with deadline. Mine not until 2008 but I’ll be running an mmog demo type game starting in Dec/Jan which has a biblically inspired themed. As far as I’ve seen, Jari’s project is in private development with no community testing yet, but I‘m looking forward to that once he opens it for testing. So yes, three in development and maybe two to come, but nothing live as of yet. Most importantly, hopefully nothing vapored. [This message has been edited by Faith_Warrior (edited October 06, 2006).] |
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Nomad Member Posts: 63 From: Registered: 06-29-2004 |
To the topic of content managing/policing: Text-wise, it seems easy enough to, instead of offering active chats, just have a few phrases that the characters may say (like "Let's go to _____", then menus to fill in blanks, or "Do you have [item]?"). There can be customization of these phrases, but then that can be very easily monitored. Gestures and the like can be handled similarly. I generally like the idea of minimal keyboard mostly because I prefer console-style or at least console-friendly games, so generating lots of text with a joystick is frownable. As for staff-led quests, why should only staff be able to lead quests? I think the best thing in terms of customizability would be to allow the player base to write scripts and such for quests, and maybe even have some power to customize levels. New players might be relatively restricted, but once they gain experience or some other measure of ability they can be allowed to customize more content. While this potentially creates problems in appropriateness, the actual staff would have the final say on what content can actually pass. |
fearless Member Posts: 91 From: Romania, Tg Mures Registered: 11-26-2005 |
quote:
[This message has been edited by fearless (edited October 06, 2006).] |
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Realm Master Member Posts: 1971 From: USA Registered: 05-15-2005 |
(READING RESPONSE TO MY POST WAAAAAYYYY UP THERE) Oh.... Well, too many things. I've got too many ideas to count, I'd destory the whole thing by trying to make them all at once! ------------------ Awaiting Avatar Image Size rechange... |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
quote:Eh, there may be too many legal problems with that. Actually there was a good scuffle in the mmog game industry some years ago about just having players volunteer helping other players or leading quests, they threatened to file a law suit if they didn’t receive compensation for their time and so the game company got rid of all their volunteer help from the player base. Also other game companies saw this and did the same thing. As for players writing their own scripts and such, yeah that can be a big legal mess with intellectual rights and all that. Messy business... |
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Leathel Junior Member Posts: 3 From: Michigan Registered: 10-23-2006 |
Hi all. A little older topic, but just found this site so posting now. As Faith_Warrior stated earlier, I also have a Christian-based MMORPG coming out. Just to clarify, release date isn't until December 2007, not this year. Doing such a game is a little scary. Is there enough of a target audience that will be interested? It shall be interesting to see. The game will be based on my Christian Fantasy book series, which is not an in-your-face Christian series, but has been able to cross-over between secular and Christian readers. The Christian foundation is quite apparent, though. I plan on the game being the same but will be a tad more Christian than the books are since the targeted audience will be Christians. But I do not want it overwhelming so that secular game players might be intrigued to try it out. The most important part of the game will be based on the storyline. It won't be a normal hack and slash game, go do some quests, and level... Players will emerge into a futuristic North America where electricity and explosives are gone because of sun storms. Religion is outlawed and the humans are under a genocide by an invading lizard species from within the Earth. "The Foundations of Hope" series' theme is to give a foundations of hope that the struggles we endure may be part of a grander master plan. I hope to entwine that into the game where the players will have to go through some hardships, but it will be revealed why later. I am always looking for some more suggestions, so visit the website and post some ideas. ------------------ |
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Faith_Warrior Member Posts: 490 From: So.Cal. Registered: 09-05-2006 |
Oh cool, Dec 2007, I really though you meant THIS December. I was a bit worried for you thinking you had mountains of empty coffee cups towering over your computer monitor still with bags under your eyes trying to push a short deadline. Well that’s good to hear, should give you time to make a very rich game environment. |
