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Okay.. how the game would actually manifest itself, and what it would be about, are two big holes I haven't gotten my head around - but ideas would be welcome.
The idea is to create a hybrid of offline and online gaming.. before everyone yells baked listen for a sec.
- Everquest, Ultima Online,
and to a much lesser extent Quake and its like are entire fabricated worlds online - it they are "Fantasy Worldspace Games." There are towns, homes, and other locales that you visit only in a fantasy space (in this case online)
- The Masquerade, and plenty of other Live Action Role Playing Games (LARPs or LRPs) are fictions that are acted out in real life environments.. they are - "Real (or Live) Worldspace Game." Fictional plots are carried out in real locations based on the real cities, homes and other locales only with a fictionalized story.
- Majestic is the first example of an attempted crossover game. However it creates only a rudementary Fantasy Worldspace via fictionalized web pieces. It also creates no Real Worldspace - since all of it's contact is by email, cell phone, or fax in non-location-specific manners. There is no "there" in online, and there is no "there" in real life - it creates no actual locations in either realm.
The Opportunity
Create a game that is a hybrid of online and offline needs, but is tied to location-specific parameters. For instance needing to go to certain locations to pick up things. A mixture of truly online and offline that is an "Integrated Worldspace Game."
Problems:
How to effectively scale nationally or internationally without having to have people hop on planes? Use the commodity of the American franchise! "Go to your McDonald's at the corner of x and x" "Watch this film currently in the theatre for this thing" There is much about America (which could be the initial market) that is extremely commoditized, so 80-90% of the game can be linked in that fashion. Then add a few local references for added authenticity and you have effectively integrated the game. This also leaves wonderful commercial tie-ins.
Other integration possibilities are the use of nearby characters. If there are other players nearby perhaps they could be directed to meet (liability problems here?), possibly that they both need to check in a certain place (say a participating franchise, to for instance, deliver a message) before you could proceed in the game.
An Integrated Worldspace Game would be a balanced mix of creative illusion on locations, use of franchises, and possibly mass collaboration (players for instance meet at Circuit City on a given day and they have set up gaming centers).
Another possibility includes creating the illusion of "portals" between the two worlds, where the online fantasy world of the game can sometimes interact with the real world (think the phone booths in --ugh-- The Matrix, where the Matrix is the online portion of the game). You would conduct parts of the game 'online' then go to portals (such as a Radio Shack) to jump offline and do certain things-- those locations could be privy to it all and play along.
The key is to better integrate a sense of place in gaming.
Labyrinthe LARP
http://www.liverole...k/frameholder2.html
With their parallel Heroes PBM game. [Aristotle, Jan 15 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
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'Meet Me At The Mall' meets "Meet me at the mall" |
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I disagree with the part about Majestic. The point of Majestic is not interaction with other players (just the opposite, in fact). The "There" is where you are. |
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That aside, this sounds like a neat idea. Especially if you can integrate offline, multi-player interaction. I'm guessing that some will suggest that the HalfBakery is just such a game. |
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The multi-player in the real world might be a problem I can't quite figure out, since there would be no organizer there are certain liabities. Maybe you have local hubs (regional to start -- just for diehards?). Still think it would be difficult to pull off plot-wise, but would be incredibly interesting to have a world that is interconnected with an online world in a more direct sense. |
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That's fishboning language where I come from. |
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It just occurred to me that people get together for 'LAN parties' and play games like Quake. Surely some of the people met online. Though I'm not sure a gathering of people who play on a LAN could be considered offline even though their face-to-face. |
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This is a great idea... I like the idea of mass collaboration. I've been thinking of desinging something like a space (or tank or sea) battle game where controlling each vehicle requires the co-operation of several players with dedicated roles: helm, navigation, engineering, weapons, communication, intelligence... oh, and Captain, of course. |
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You'd get 5-10 people together in one room (so they can shout instructions at each other), and they control one vehicle. Once you get several vehicles online together, they can conduct a battle with each other. |
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Computer game shops and cyber-cafes could organise battle sessions. There could be ongoing campaigns between warring factions. |
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This kind of "bridge" game would be good for a chain of coffee houses or internet cafes. You could turn a dual purpose area into a starship that allows you to compete with other participating locations or just explore strange, new worlds and alien civilisations. |
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A more obvious one would be to co-ordinate a Live Action Role-Playing game (LARP) with an online game. Labyrinthe (Chislehurst Caves, UK) already has a play-by-mail campaign that affects the setting of their in-person sessions. You could just put the PBM game online and franchise Labyrinthe across the westen world ... |
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We play this in the HalfBakery. All the hard work put in online is to develop your HalfBakery persona. Then you go along to a HalfBakery convention (e.g. the most recent one in a Knightsbridge pub on Jan 4th) and enter the cunning gameplay of "What! You're Aristotle! [thinks: Must remember not to ridicule any of Aristotle's ideas]" - "What do you mean you're hippo? Hippo is one of lewisgirl's alter egos - I thought everyone knew that!" - Do you remember when the HalfBakery had just one page, with *all* the ideas on it ordered by time of update? - Ah, those were the days" - "Gosh! You don't look anything like I thought you would, DrBob". |
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ooh - I want. That would be amazing. I forsee a problem - if players are supposed to go to a location for hte next part/next clue/information, what would happen in a major metropolis where there could be thousands of people playing (assuming popularity of this mode of game). You could incite mass riots or cause traffic mayhem. |
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Something like what [Aristotle] suggests exists at a local maritime museum. Participants form groups of up to 6 people. Each group is led to a room laid out to resemble a mini-sub. One person commands, one steers, two run manipulators and two run weapons. The groups compete to recover Loch Ness Monster eggs while avoiding attacking fish and each other. |
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Since the scope of the game is within the three or four 'mini-subs' available, I wouldn't call it online. Seems like it would be fairly simple to bake something like this, though. |
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and this is bad antimerkin? |
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you would have registration of users locales-- so you would know I happened to have 3,000 users in Wining, MA and the local coffee shop couldn't take that so you book something bigger. for larger conventions and such you could have some way of registering that is built into gameplay. |
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alx, indeed I should be careful shouldn't I? Wouldn't want everyone turning on me, and with halfbakery being so "interconnected." The disdain was for my needing to bring up the matrix (an entirely overused analogy for just about everything at this point) - not for the movie. |
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Good point nhyatt. Ok - to add to my entry, what if the game was cracked ? The mindless oiks that wrote Melissa et al would have a field day sending us all to one location to cause urban chaos. But then there are board regulators (or similar or subroutines) that could monitor numbers and concentrations. I think I think as I type and just answered my own question. doh.
antimerkin = gadgetear, just forgot. antimerkin deleted. |
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note one the world needs a arcade / computer store /cafe / resturant were games like this could be played easily |
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note two it woudl be nice if you had voice chat |
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note three for the spacship game I would want to play in the role of a fighter or me and another person playing at home as a two player small bomber but require groups of more people at set locations to run battle ships larger bombers transports or carriers that have the ability to travle vast distances quickly |
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this is an old thread so I hope someone stumbles by and responds |
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Not sure if this helps any of you guys but i run an internet cafe with 20 computers that someone could try something like this out at? |
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Baked. Why did you think they came out with Final Fantasy? |
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Alright, I'll bite. What does final fantasy have to do with the real world? Infact I didn't even think it was an online game, but I haven't played the latest ones. |
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paraphrase from website found after searching for reference to halfbakery annotation...... |
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" Are Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games like video games ?" |
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"No, they're more like treadmills that make you fatter" |
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