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Exploration Game: No leveling
gillvane1
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 1,503
Some people really have fun exploring a new world. Would you play a game that was mostly just for exploring a world?
There would be no leveling, and no xp. You make a character, and it doesn't progress.
You could play solo, or group, and the idea is to explore the world. There would be mobs that you could kill, but they would not increase in difficulty. You wouldn't start out killing worms and ants, and then work up to killing dragons. It would be just as hard (or easy) to kill a worm or ant, as a dragon.
Some places would be easy to get to, some places would be hard. Some places might require you organize some players and build a bridge to get to. Other places might be guarded by hordes of monsters, and you need to organize a bunch of players to kill them so you can move past them. Or maybe you'd have to build or buy a ship to access an island, or get a hot air balloon to access a cloud city, or get some sort of spell or aparattus to access and underwater city, or explore deep caves or dungeons.
You could make it either all one theme, like all a fantasy or all a sci fi world, or put different themes in the same game. Like there could be an old west town, with a saloon, and tumble weed. But you could also visit a Star Wars sort of city, with skyscrapers and hovercraft floating around, or go to somewhere that's been taken over by zombies and werewolves, or go to a Roman style city complete with a collesium and gladiators.
The point is, you spend time exploring, not grinding mobs for xp, not grinding quests for xp, not grinding/raiding mobs for gear.
I suppose you could add other things, like PvP if you want, or crafting, and gear drops from mobs. That could be an incentive to travel, to find rare minerals to craft with, or rare loot drops in strange places in the world. But no raiding, no grinding of any kind. You would never kill something over and over waiting for a drop. It either would drop something when you killed it, or it wouldn't.
It's a traveling game, and the idea is exploration. So what kind of travel should there be? I think the thing that would work best, is you have to go somewhere on foot to "discover" it first. Then, you would have travel links you could access after you discover territory, so you don't have to walk through the same territory over and over again.
For example, point A to point B takes 15 real life minutes to walk from one to the other. The first time, you HAVE to walk. After that, there are transportation hubs you can use, so you don't HAVE to walk it again, but you would have to walk around the area. It could be anything, a star trek style transporter, a horse, flying griffins like in EQ2, adn subway or train station like in City of Heroes, or whatever.
(google "MMORPGMaker" if you want to make your own MMORPG)
Comments
I think a game such as that, though innovative, would only appeal to a niche market. I think most people prefer fast-paced combat to exploring. I know the graphics would also need to be something interesting in order to make it digestible. There's nothing as terrible as exploring a world that look like tetris reloaded!
Although I love to explore I don't think exploration by itself is enough. Instead of focusing just on seeing new places why not call it 'adventuring' and then really, really focus on making the trip feel like an adventure.
Most importantly make it entertaining. Combat should be engaging, fun, tense and heart pounding at times. But at the same time, combat shouldn't be all there is to an adventure.
Maybe some sneaky creatures trail you and will abush you at night. But if you're alert you realize it and can try to throw them off your trail.
Maybe you come across a sleeping giant. Instead of carving him up you carefully and quietly creep by, fearing that you will mess up and wake him. In relation to this I'd say that it's important for stealth to be engaging as well. Devs need to take it beyond the "click this button and you're invis" type of stealth we've become accustomed to. Moving in stealth should require your constant attention and situational awareness.
Maybe the giant does wake up and instead of fighting him (because you probably can't win) you duck into a cave. You can't come out because the giant is still there so now you have to work your way through this cave you really don't want to be in.
Maybe weather matters.
Maybe food matters.
Maybe mountain climbing skills and equipment matter at times.
Maybe a horde of beasties in that cave you went through are chasing you and you run across a little bridge. One guy holds them from crossing while the others attack the bridge, sending it into a chasm so the beasties can't cross. So now you don't have to fight them. But you better get moving because you see them bringing timbers up to throw across the chasm.
Make the traveling feel like enough of an adventure and I don't think you'd need the teleporters you were talking about. If traveling IS the fun part of the game then you don't need to bypass it with teleporters. And exploration would be just another part of the fun of the adventure.
And then, maybe people earn some sort of points as they travel around which they can use to get quests for unlockable stuff (different classes, races, playable monsters, the right to found a new city, etc.). And of course the quests themselves send you off traveling through the world having new adventures.
The main point is that if you make the traveling/adventuring itself entertaining enough then you don't need the artificiality of levels and gear grinds and so on.
WANT.
...And because it's something I would enjoy, there's a large chance it would be a financial failure.
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
MOst games need some sort of conflict and gameplay. although exploration is fun...mot people want some sort of antagonist/protagonist.
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
As the MMO market becomes ever increasingly flooded with products that niche crowd will be more and more important IMO.
lol, sorry but this is pretty silly concept.. what happens when you've run out of things to explore? I mean are you willing to have a 5 tetra byte client on your computer so the content lasts a while? When you are done exploring, do you just stand around looking at each other?
You know, I recall there was a MMORPg where you were a der. You didnt nothing but run around, graze, and frolic with other deer. May be close to what your asking, however I do not recall the name.
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Oh deer...
http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/
http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/
.. and the greatest thread to ever grace a forum on the internetz.
Although exploring is one of my favorite aspects of an MMO, I don't think it is enough to stand alone or even be the primary feature on which one could be built for the reason that some have already stated. There needs to be fast paced action to keep players interested. And even though the game you suggested would have fighting in it, the majority of the gameplay would be filled with traveling, which many view simply as one great big timesink. But like someone said, there might be a niche market for such a game.
If it ever were tried, I think the best way to go about doing it would be to base it on the historical Age of Exploration period. A late Middle Ages settings where all the gamers begin on the same continent and have to raise enough money to charter a ship that sets sail for lands unknown. It should be made as realistic as possible. The destination continents should be completely untouched at launch so the first ones to play would have the first opportunity to to reach them. You would have to learn such skills as navigation and seamanship to survive on the ocean and have an remote chance of finding the "new world". Once you got there, you would need to excel in survival skills just to have a chance to live in this new land. Of course, it would have to be huge so there would be tons of places to explore since that is the primary feature. This would give newcomers the opportunity to catch up and still stake out some new lands for themselves, much in the way explorers like De Soto and Henry Hudson came well after Christopher Columbus.
One of the goals of the game could be to find treasure as a way to fund future expeditions. You might even be able to establish small settlements in the new world so you would not have to start over from scratch upon return. Instead of fighting for survival all over again, you could land in your settlement and restock your supplies so as to make it easier to go out explore again.
If you wanted to put in mythological creatures like dragons and faeries in the game, that'd be cool. Probably even spice gameplay up a bit.
A few months ago I went to Allakhazam.com and made a post on their FFXI forums. I talked about that I dearly wished Square-Enix would develop a system for a player to roam the world and just see the sights. I called it an "Adventurer's License." Somehow a player could do a quest to become an adventurer. Where a player could travel the entire game without mobs attacking you. Where a player would be free to explore the whole entire game by foot. Searching out all the nooks and crannies, taking screen shots galore. Going into boss fights with your online friends and watch them without having to take part in the battle yourself.
Immediately there were people whose knee-jerk reaction was to say "If you're not fighting, grinding and questing, then what the hell is the purpose?" or "That's just stupid." Others were receptive to the idea but admitted (like I suspected) that there just wouldn't be enough people to justify the game's coding to be chaged to include an Adventurer. And I agreed with them. But if you make a game from the ground up with exploration being the main purpose, it would be much more feasible.
I'm not consumed by grinding and RPing. I'm a natural explorer.
I would think a natural explorer would want to explore the world out side of ones and zeros. as long as you are not disabled, and I hope you are not, you can explore this wonderful planet.
--John Ruskin
This sounds like the sort of MMO Lego would release.
Now all we need is the sandbox to play in.
The Star Wars Lego series would be my proof of concept of one of the virtual worlds accessible by your universal Lego character, who is modifiable to fit in with their many environments. Lego has many genre environments in production now as the toy you can pay premium dollars for. Their Bionicle offshoot series seems to grow every year with each new tribe they release. I know them, because as a Parent, I have to buy them for my kids. Do they get to play MMO's? No. Not until they can pay for their own subscriptions.
Do I play MMO's? Yes.
Planetside, SWG, WOW, EVE Online, 2nd Life, Entropia Universe. Soon looking forward to playing Aoc.
Would I play the Lego MMO? Sure if it were a WOW Killer.
I think the more you explore...the more you unlock...and that is a sense of progression a player needs to have to be able to show the newbs around and prove to them they are special.
I like unlockables in exploration.
Exploring is more fun than the neverending combat wombat grind...
Why does everything have to be combat?
It's like I'm seeing a MMO crowd that is so locked into 1 thing to do, that they can't imagine doing other things.
I would think a natural explorer would want to explore the world out side of ones and zeros. as long as you are not disabled, and I hope you are not, you can explore this wonderful planet.
So let me ask you... Whats cheapest and can be done from anywhere in the civilized world?
Exploring the world, foreign worlds, alien worlds and things impossible for earth, in 0's and 1's...?
Or having to fly around on cheapskate airlines, dodge corrupt regimes, dust, flies, diseases, swindlers, robbers, VISA waiting times and language barriers ?
Exploring our world is not a cheap thing, nor is it safe, nor is it easy, and nor is it something the average person can easily do. However, a pixel world.... can easily be created and explored...
You BIGGEST problem will be to produce enough content for exploration.
A game like WOW costs $50-60M to make. If you *just* walk around the zones, you will run out of new zones in no time. You can run from one end of the zone to another in less than 10 min. Let say you can "explore" it in more detailed fashion, then may be you can spend up to 30min for it.
Given the WOW has like 50-60 zones, we are talking about 30-40 hours of exploration. That is a FAR cry from the hundred of hours people are spending on MMOs. In fact, that is the range of a big single player game.
Furthermore, if exploration is the main theme, why do I need a MMO? I can easily just play MS Flight Sim or some single player adv.
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
I like this idea alot I would LOVE to play something like this!
You stopped playing the game. That happen eventually anyway.
However, barring some new technology that can generate levels (zones, or whatever you want to call them) automatically, it is a lot FASTER to explore content than leveling up.
If i can explore everything in 20 hours, it is pretty hard to keep it up as a MMORPG, isn't it?
Technically, I'm a hardcore PvP player. But I would certainly enjoy a game focused on exploration to relax between PvP sessions, if it was done right.
imho, to be successful, such a game would need:
- very good graphics (3D of course)
- no instances
- very big world
- good music and sounds
- coherent mechanics (= as "realistic" as a fantasy world can be)
- lots of cool transportation means (maybe planes, air ballons, teleportation, ...)
- a good crafting system
- player-made cities
- housing
- player-driver economy
- mini-games inside the game (chocobo race anyone? ^^)
- and the most important feature : persistence (as in : I drop an item or build something, etc... and it's still there 2 years later)
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Waiting for: GW2
*thumbs up*: GW, Eve(, WoW)
*thumbs down*: MO, GA, FE
Check APB and the dev from Lemming with their MMO?
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
Wurm Online has many of those features implemented in. Many players just go out and explore the world. Check it out if you want.
Blessings,
MMO migrant.
Expanding on the LEGO MMO idea...player based housing. You buy a square. You explore. You collect various lego pieces in each relam you visit. You return to your square lot. You use the pieces you've collected to begin building your house. Endless hours of fun. How tall can you make your tower?
Feasibility...depends how much memory it takes to record each building block and its place and orientation in the structure. Make it so a player can switch set and spare pieces at will to add to the creativity factor.
Players learn from others by examinine each other's structures and asking, "Where did you find that piece?"
Multiple houses...or themed city structures like Police and Fire departments and you begin to have player built cities...theres the guild aspect....each city has its own zoning board to design the layout of their city.
Conflict? Sure. Raids for parts? Sure, in certain areas where PVP is possible.