The thing about updating this weekly, and not really working on any games right now, is that I don’t often have a very complete topic that I want to post on. If I could post about work I would, but I can’t. One little thing which has been wandering around in my noggin the last couple of days has been classes in MMOs. I recently got a friend at work to “rez” my account, meaning I get ten free days of gameplay (designed to lure me back in; it may be working).
Anyway, if you look at the numerous MMOs that are currently on the market, they are all alike in under laying gameplay (except a few, Eve Online comes to mind (I think, I have not played it much)). What you have are tanks, healers, and nukers. It can be in a fantasy setting: WoW, Warhammer Online, Everquest, Age of Conan, just to name the big ones, or it can be in a comic setting: City of Heroes / Villains. What I would like to see is a true break from this core component of someone taking the damage, someone healing the damage, and someone dealing the damage.
I love MMOs because of their social aspect. I really enjoy grouping up with a bunch of people to defeat a hard puzzle or opponent. But this does not need to mean fighting. Rock Band, while not an MMO, teams up four people to defeat a song, per se. What if a game play mechanic was designed that required ten people to solve some sort of puzzle through teamwork in an entirely new way? Someone who was good at math, someone who was good at art, someone who knew how to program…etc. would be required to get to the final solution. What if it actually allowed you to practice your trade, in a team setting, and made it fun? I have not though much about what type of game this would be. Perhaps I shall continue to ponder it. Please give some input if you have any ideas!
-Matt
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2 comments:
I like the idea Matt, but I'm afraid I don't have any helpful insights. However, I will think on it as well. It would be interesting to figure out what kind of setting the game would be in. I think the backdrop of the game would be very important.
I have stumbled across something that could be similar to what you are talking about: Human Computation. It's the idea of getting humans to do work that computers aren't good at. Since people are a little bit harder to convince to do work (wages? who can afford to pay wages?) most of the work goes into turning the work into a fun game.
Here's a link to a google video of a talk by Luis Von Ahn in which two such games are discussed: 30 minute talk.
Here is one of the games discussed, the one which gets humans to label images: ESP Game.
I really don't know if this could be scaled up to something as massive as an MMO. There is however, the interesting opportunity for recursion: a game in which you and your buddies create a game in which you and your buddies create a game in which...
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