The MMORPG I want to be playing...
Oct. 20th, 2005 12:53 amhasn't been created in the time since my last post on this topic. Has it?
I promised I would say more about what I have in mind. So here goes.
I want a world to explore that I can help create. I care more about low barriers to participating in world creation than about high production values. But I insist upon a graphical map, because I want to be able to see changes in the world — and places to explore — "on the horizon", as it were, without having to type "look".
I want world-building to take place arbitrarily near everywhere, which leads me to the idea of a stretchable map — as a region becomes developed, the wilderness areas around it expand to ensure a stable overall density (and a scale-free distribution of density).
The various motivations for MMORG involvement have been discussed elsewhere, but I see MMORPG activity itself as falling into several categories:
Gameplay is the interaction of your character with the environment.
Socialization is the interaction of your character with other characters.
Creation is your contribution to the environment.
In most MMORPGs, gameplay is handled programmatically, socialization is basically up to players, and creation is reserved for the game's developers (an item-crafting system doesn't count unless it's completely open-ended). I want all of these to be part of character advancement as mediated by the software. ( Here's how: )
I promised I would say more about what I have in mind. So here goes.
I want a world to explore that I can help create. I care more about low barriers to participating in world creation than about high production values. But I insist upon a graphical map, because I want to be able to see changes in the world — and places to explore — "on the horizon", as it were, without having to type "look".
I want world-building to take place arbitrarily near everywhere, which leads me to the idea of a stretchable map — as a region becomes developed, the wilderness areas around it expand to ensure a stable overall density (and a scale-free distribution of density).
The various motivations for MMORG involvement have been discussed elsewhere, but I see MMORPG activity itself as falling into several categories:
Gameplay is the interaction of your character with the environment.
Socialization is the interaction of your character with other characters.
Creation is your contribution to the environment.
In most MMORPGs, gameplay is handled programmatically, socialization is basically up to players, and creation is reserved for the game's developers (an item-crafting system doesn't count unless it's completely open-ended). I want all of these to be part of character advancement as mediated by the software. ( Here's how: )