You all need to have a coffee and wake up guys this is SIMS online! Press Release for “Will of it’s Own”:
Yes you too can spend hours guiding your avatar to the toilet, and in our version force him to water plants, even when he does not like plants! This is the mind numbingly boring game is what you would end up with. Want to do a quest or meet up with some mates for PvP? Not today, as your avatar wants to go and cut trees which is his favourite hobby. Well at least you got some resources.
You've certainly described the bad way to implement this idea.
I suppose that's understandable, given that the OP himself described a bad way of doing the idea (the avatar being scare of his actual death; because he would inevitably become scared of something you know you can successfully defeat, and you'd get frustrated when your avatar decides to run away and hide.)
The good way to implement this idea doesn't resemble typical MMOs, and instead the game itself is interacting with your avatar. And that doesn't need to be mundane nonsense like telling your dude to take a leak.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
You've certainly described the bad way to implement this idea.I suppose that's understandable, given that the OP himself described a bad way of doing the idea (the avatar being scare of his actual death; because he would inevitably become scared of something you know you can successfully defeat, and you'd get frustrated when your avatar decides to run away and hide.)
That's just an opinion if I may say so though... as to what is good and bad in a game depends on the likes/dislikes of the different players.
It's funny how we can all look at the same thing and everyone see something different
When it comes to MMO's I've realized that some players prefer more realistic settings, others don't want it or prefer a specific type of gameplay instead. None of this is good or bad, it's just different amusements.
I'm the type of MMO'er that prefer to make the game as realistic, or credible, as possible, and I'm not saying that is better or worse, just that's what I prefer.
So when I look at the way characters behave, including my own, they run into situation like robots totally fearless like they have nothing to lose.
And I'm pretty sure that's not realistic, I'm willing to bet most people would run when facing their own death, or their likelyhood of getting killed.
An experienced fighter, a soldier/warrior would be more likely to stand his/her ground, because of this "training" of the willpower/ discipline/ determination/ whatever. Some games call it "morale", like in warhammer RTS.
As I've understood, in the SIMS you don't actually gain more control of the character as the game goes on, you just get better at making them comfy so they 'll be more likely to follow orders.
I'm also suggesting that the "link" between player-character gets improved by improving a skill/ attribute, perhaps called "willpower"/ mental strength or something like that. So that you will eventually gain full control over your char, it's just another progression thing.
Proffessions are progression, weapon skills/ training are progression, levels (improving basic attributes) are progression. They are kindof minigames within the big game, so it's just adding an extra progression thing.
That's just my view to it, doesn't mean that anyone with a different view has a less good idea, might just be fit for a different playerbase.
I could see chars having their own will but not as opposed to the player, but for when the player isn't around. A limited autopilot. Nothing too crazy but based on how you've played already and chars stats, you might log onto you find your char has moved or is in the process of moving from where you'd left it to where its favorite town is. Like that. Or perhaps blew some money on food if it hadn't been fed.
Seems like it wouldn't work too well though. Just play Sims I guess.
I could see chars having their own will but not as opposed to the player, but for when the player isn't around. A limited autopilot. Nothing too crazy but based on how you've played already and chars stats, you might log onto you find your char has moved or is in the process of moving from where you'd left it to where its favorite town is. Like that. Or perhaps blew some money on food if it hadn't been fed. Seems like it wouldn't work too well though. Just play Sims I guess.
I see that as a different concept/ idea, but sounds cool to me. Your character would sortof go NPC when you logged off, that would really make the world permanent, cause the character would never really disappear.
Then you could have sleeping as well, the inn's and houses would finally have a purpose as something of a safe haven for sleeping characters at least at night.
Only problem might be greedy gamecompanies that would insist "you" ( your char) didn't play while offline.
I could see chars having their own will but not as opposed to the player, but for when the player isn't around. A limited autopilot. Nothing too crazy but based on how you've played already and chars stats, you might log onto you find your char has moved or is in the process of moving from where you'd left it to where its favorite town is. Like that. Or perhaps blew some money on food if it hadn't been fed. Seems like it wouldn't work too well though. Just play Sims I guess.
I see that as a different concept/ idea, but sounds cool to me. Your character would sortof go NPC when you logged off, that would really make the world permanent, cause the character would never really disappear.
Then you could have sleeping as well, the inn's and houses would finally have a purpose as something of a safe haven for sleeping characters at least at night.
Only problem might be greedy gamecompanies that would insist "you" ( your char) didn't play while offline.
It is a different sort of concept than what the OP suggested, but I think it could be great. Imagine if the world were full of NPCs that were actually player-designed characters of players that were offline. Could make the world feel more alive, if those characters did all the mundane stuff players didn't want to do while they were playing (eating, sleeping, etc) and would be fun for players to leave their permenent personalized mark on the gameworld like that.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
What if, instead of almost controlling a character in a mmo, there was a hero and sidekick system, but instead of playing the hero, we played the sidekick? The comedy-type hero would be the typical cocky and moronic type, and the sidekick would be the brains, but would have to work against the hero in a way to get things done.
There was a Why Not? article here a while back about a comedy mmo. Id love that.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
What if, instead of almost controlling a character in a mmo, there was a hero and sidekick system, but instead of playing the hero, we played the sidekick? The comedy-type hero would be the typical cocky and moronic type, and the sidekick would be the brains, but would have to work against the hero in a way to get things done. There was a Why Not? article here a while back about a comedy mmo. Id love that.
"Lets beat the Joker with this new combo move I came up with, Batman"
In most games the avatar/character is just a mindless robot following the instructions from the player, - the devs trying to make the player and the character act as one. But what if you character started out with a will of his/her own, resisting your commands to the point of refusal or doing the opposite? You'd have to gain control of your character by increasing the characters willpower, determination, mental abilities or whatever would improve the "connection" between player-character. Or from the characters p.o.v. "self-God"/"self-mind" or something like that. We could see some really funny gameplay from newbs in a game like that , and also make it a bit of a journey of progressing, the same as increasing level/abilities/proffesion skills we already have in most games.
Well then surely its wouldnt be your character?, they are called Avatars because your suppose to be Roleplaying the toon , not that many people bother with this aspect of MMO's anymore , but thas another story.
That's just an opinion if I may say so though... as to what is good and bad in a game depends on the likes/dislikes of the different players. It's funny how we can all look at the same thing and everyone see something different When it comes to MMO's I've realized that some players prefer more realistic settings, others don't want it or prefer a specific type of gameplay instead. None of this is good or bad, it's just different amusements. I'm the type of MMO'er that prefer to make the game as realistic, or credible, as possible, and I'm not saying that is better or worse, just that's what I prefer. So when I look at the way characters behave, including my own, they run into situation like robots totally fearless like they have nothing to lose. And I'm pretty sure that's not realistic, I'm willing to bet most people would run when facing their own death, or their likelyhood of getting killed. An experienced fighter, a soldier/warrior would be more likely to stand his/her ground, because of this "training" of the willpower/ discipline/ determination/ whatever. Some games call it "morale", like in warhammer RTS.
As I've understood, in the SIMS you don't actually gain more control of the character as the game goes on, you just get better at making them comfy so they 'll be more likely to follow orders. I'm also suggesting that the "link" between player-character gets improved by improving a skill/ attribute, perhaps called "willpower"/ mental strength or something like that. So that you will eventually gain full control over your char, it's just another progression thing. Proffessions are progression, weapon skills/ training are progression, levels (improving basic attributes) are progression. They are kindof minigames within the big game, so it's just adding an extra progression thing. That's just my view to it, doesn't mean that anyone with a different view has a less good idea, might just be fit for a different playerbase.
My comments aren't made simply as a dismissal of the concept. Like I said, if well-implemented it could be quite fun.
The root of my criticism is that unless you're in a cinematic, zero control isn't fun. I've always said there's a balance between the theatric presentation and interactivity of media. Movies are entertaining despite zero interactivity, because they have a high level of theatric presentation. Games are entertaining despite low theatric presentation, because they're interactive. And they're not in tension either - you can have a lot of interactivity and theatric presentation and be that much more entertaining (God of War springs to mind.)
Games simply aren't fun if they reduce you to zero control without big cinematic payoffs (why do you think being CC'd is so unpopular with players?)
The solution then is to modify your idea slightly: either give the player some form of control (like, say, a Regain Sanity Minigame where you match Cthulu tentacles) or figure out some way for it to be a quality cinematic event that will entertain players while they lack control.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Very interesting topic. It sorta has been done already with the Sims franchise, but in terms of an MMORPG, it would be different enough to be interesting to me. Maybe if the characters were persistent with the world, so that they did things you could or could not control while you were offline. Not that they would sell your stuff or spend all your money, but maybe they collect items or do tradeskills and sell them for a price you fix. I don't know. Its a really neat idea if implemented correctly.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
If your character had a mind of his own he would have quit the game after 3-4 years > deleted you from his friends list > and blocked you from PM's.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Originally posted by Axehilt My comments aren't made simply as a dismissal of the concept. Like I said, if well-implemented it could be quite fun. The root of my criticism is that unless you're in a cinematic, zero control isn't fun. I've always said there's a balance between the theatric presentation and interactivity of media. Movies are entertaining despite zero interactivity, because they have a high level of theatric presentation. Games are entertaining despite low theatric presentation, because they're interactive. And they're not in tension either - you can have a lot of interactivity and theatric presentation and be that much more entertaining (God of War springs to mind.) Games simply aren't fun if they reduce you to zero control without big cinematic payoffs (why do you think being CC'd is so unpopular with players?) The solution then is to modify your idea slightly: either give the player some form of control (like, say, a Regain Sanity Minigame where you match Cthulu tentacles) or figure out some way for it to be a quality cinematic event that will entertain players while they lack control.
Yes I didn't mean that you would ever have zero control, because then you'd never be able to gain control and progress. From my p.o.v. anyway there has to be some progress involved. Tough some of the ideas I've seen posted here might not need any progress, all depending on gameplay/ style.
But for my idea it can't be zero control even when you start out. But it can actually be quite little in the beginning, as long as you have the means to increase that control as you play the game.
I see the player starting out (!) in this as perhaps a minor part of the mind of the character, or a "Higher self" or something like it.
One could also start out with certain personality starting setups that would have pro's and cons as to controlling the character.
Like the character could be mentally sick or confused, evil, good, depressed, manic, cheerful, optimistic. They could have certain opinions on politics and religion from the gameworld, they could be racists (not willing to team with certain races).
But all of this should be possible to overcome by training/ improving the link between character-player so that as the game goes on you as player get more and more power, and your char seems more and more determined and focused.
But that's just within my initial idea, I see there's others that are different from mine so don't let me stop any of you
Originally posted by Inzra I see that as a different concept/ idea, but sounds cool to me. Your character would sortof go NPC when you logged off, that would really make the world permanent, cause the character would never really disappear. Then you could have sleeping as well, the inn's and houses would finally have a purpose as something of a safe haven for sleeping characters at least at night. Only problem might be greedy gamecompanies that would insist "you" ( your char) didn't play while offline.
I like this idea. You could change the player's tag color to NPC color when they log off, but instead of "poofing", they would wander around town, go to the inn, sleep, etc. He or she would be just like any NPC filler character, but more unique in appearance. When the player came back, he or she would instantly regain control of the character, but find them in that sort of situation: eating, sleeping, walking around, maybe even acting as a vendor or a guard. A character with a profession of smithing might be working at the smithy, a fisherman could be at the river or the market.
If one logged off in a combat zone, their character would make a "best effort" to walk to a safe haven, and if they died on the way the player would find themselves at the rez point.
You could be nicer to the players by not costing any penalty for death while offline, or incur some penalties for them being silly and logging out in the middle of a battlefield. Or, if AI was good enough, the player's character could still contribute to a battle if they had to log out in a hurry (but not gain items or experience).
By the way, the 90's game Omikron kind of took the possession and control route - your (player's) "soul" was stealing the bodies of people in another dimension (game). It was a pretty good game.
Yes I didn't mean that you would ever have zero control, because then you'd never be able to gain control and progress. From my p.o.v. anyway there has to be some progress involved. Tough some of the ideas I've seen posted here might not need any progress, all depending on gameplay/ style. But for my idea it can't be zero control even when you start out. But it can actually be quite little in the beginning, as long as you have the means to increase that control as you play the game.
You misunderstand exactly what I'm getting at.
Your character will decide to flee from an enemy it's scared of. How long? 5 seconds? 20 seconds?
Thats the duration of zero cotnrol I'm concerned about. Because even 3 seconds of locking the player out of all interaction with the game can be considered excessive, if there's not something onscreen entertaining the player (aka cinematics.)
It's like someone comes in and forcibly pauses your game while you were in the middle of playing it, interrupting your fun.
Hence my minigame suggestion: you still don't control the character, but you have something to do while your character is freaking out, and your success in the minigame would influence how quickly you regain control over the character.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
You misunderstand exactly what I'm getting at. Your character will decide to flee from an enemy it's scared of. How long? 5 seconds? 20 seconds? Thats the duration of zero cotnrol I'm concerned about. Because even 3 seconds of locking the player out of all interaction with the game can be considered excessive, if there's not something onscreen entertaining the player (aka cinematics.) It's like someone comes in and forcibly pauses your game while you were in the middle of playing it, interrupting your fun. Hence my minigame suggestion: you still don't control the character, but you have something to do while your character is freaking out, and your success in the minigame would influence how quickly you regain control over the character.
Ok then I think I see your point.
I'd say it's not about the time lenght but the situation, - if the char is surrounded with deadly monsters all around it might create a panic that would be difficult to get out of till the point that the char would do stupid mistakes and die.
if the char just stumbles upon a monster he/she could run the opposite direction and hide, so the lack of control would be active until the char felt safe, hiding behind something or out of harms way.
I don't think the player would be annoyed enough to stop playing the game, just rather avoid those situations as much as possible. Or perhaps only go into them to train morale and increase willpower of the char, so that next time the player have more control.
The fear reaction is similar to what we already have in mmo's except it's a hostile spell coming from an enemy. And although it's annoying most accept it as part of the gameplay.
You could perhaps find mental techniques that would interupt the char panic, but I'd suggest that would take some training too.
I think the keyword here is progression, - as an example I'm playing Darkfall now and the grind is, or has been, horrible, cause you have access to all proffesions and all skills, and it takes alot of time to increase all of it. But what drives the player is to improve, to gain strength to meet more challenges and more rewards.
I'm pretty confident that as long as the player see a "way out", alot of players will continue to play to increase their abilitites and skills, and char control.
The whole point in Role Playing Games is that YOU do what you want in the game, making yourself something YOU like, doing things that you cannot do in real life...
What you propose is making yourself an NPC. Where are YOU in the game then?
I can't see this having any place outside of the social aspect of the game, maybe when your avatar is in a Inn he likes to sit down or something, but outside of that I would see it as just a pain.
A few things that come to mind I think could be very well implimented into MMORPG and already have been to some extend.
I want my character to eat: cause he's hungry, cause he needs it to strenghting himself, to survive, if I ignore to feed my character he will become weaker, will not build up his strenght...etc...etc..
I want my character to rest/sleep, not doing so would cause my character to experiance all sort of symptoms that are caused by having to little rest/sleep.
If I have a combat oriented character I want it to get mad if I take him out to long to only to explore with no combat what so ever, he will still do what I command him to do, but his temper will change which will effect the outcome of your actions may it be in combat or in exploring untill we get back into being friendly with eachother.
I want my character to protest when I want to attack something that I hardly have a change against when playing solo, still he will engage into combat but again it shall have consequence where combat might be effected in a negative manner.
I want my combat character to react to certain situations, let's say I want it to kill some creature that A: might be rare, my character might ask me if I really need something of that creature or we might leave it alone, B: the creature is such a low lvl your character just makes a joke about it and ends something like "you really think you big enough to kill that....."
Same thing with a exploring type of character that would not apriciatte it if you kept fighting with him instead of exploring.
My exploring character, running thru some forrest, suddenly (regardless me holding down W) he stops and ask's you if you didn't notice that small entrance to a cave, when you tell/write "NO show me" your character runs a bit back towards the cave entrance.
Well there are some many situations I could imagine my character having a will of it's own that can make up for some awesom gameplay aswell as getting even more connected with your character. Play your characer "perfect" and you will notice much difference in how it is with most common games, though many reactions of your character are truly based on how you play him/her, playing it not so perfect would have more effect.
So yeah I would love to see my character have some form of a will of it's own, aslong the game is build around it, I think it can open up allot of possibility's and truly could expand on what we now know as MMORPG.
Overall I think singleplayer games (some singleplayer aswell MMORPG's already have done bits and pieces) will be the first to capture that essence, MMORPG still have a very long way to go.
And it doesn't have to be a mainstream game, as we know that most already disliked resting/food feature's in MMORPG and could do well without them.
Comments
You've certainly described the bad way to implement this idea.
I suppose that's understandable, given that the OP himself described a bad way of doing the idea (the avatar being scare of his actual death; because he would inevitably become scared of something you know you can successfully defeat, and you'd get frustrated when your avatar decides to run away and hide.)
The good way to implement this idea doesn't resemble typical MMOs, and instead the game itself is interacting with your avatar. And that doesn't need to be mundane nonsense like telling your dude to take a leak.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
That's just an opinion if I may say so though... as to what is good and bad in a game depends on the likes/dislikes of the different players.
It's funny how we can all look at the same thing and everyone see something different
When it comes to MMO's I've realized that some players prefer more realistic settings, others don't want it or prefer a specific type of gameplay instead. None of this is good or bad, it's just different amusements.
I'm the type of MMO'er that prefer to make the game as realistic, or credible, as possible, and I'm not saying that is better or worse, just that's what I prefer.
So when I look at the way characters behave, including my own, they run into situation like robots totally fearless like they have nothing to lose.
And I'm pretty sure that's not realistic, I'm willing to bet most people would run when facing their own death, or their likelyhood of getting killed.
An experienced fighter, a soldier/warrior would be more likely to stand his/her ground, because of this "training" of the willpower/ discipline/ determination/ whatever. Some games call it "morale", like in warhammer RTS.
As I've understood, in the SIMS you don't actually gain more control of the character as the game goes on, you just get better at making them comfy so they 'll be more likely to follow orders.
I'm also suggesting that the "link" between player-character gets improved by improving a skill/ attribute, perhaps called "willpower"/ mental strength or something like that. So that you will eventually gain full control over your char, it's just another progression thing.
Proffessions are progression, weapon skills/ training are progression, levels (improving basic attributes) are progression. They are kindof minigames within the big game, so it's just adding an extra progression thing.
That's just my view to it, doesn't mean that anyone with a different view has a less good idea, might just be fit for a different playerbase.
I could see chars having their own will but not as opposed to the player, but for when the player isn't around. A limited autopilot. Nothing too crazy but based on how you've played already and chars stats, you might log onto you find your char has moved or is in the process of moving from where you'd left it to where its favorite town is. Like that. Or perhaps blew some money on food if it hadn't been fed.
Seems like it wouldn't work too well though. Just play Sims I guess.
I see that as a different concept/ idea, but sounds cool to me. Your character would sortof go NPC when you logged off, that would really make the world permanent, cause the character would never really disappear.
Then you could have sleeping as well, the inn's and houses would finally have a purpose as something of a safe haven for sleeping characters
at least at night.
Only problem might be greedy gamecompanies that would insist "you" ( your char) didn't play while offline.
I see that as a different concept/ idea, but sounds cool to me. Your character would sortof go NPC when you logged off, that would really make the world permanent, cause the character would never really disappear.
Then you could have sleeping as well, the inn's and houses would finally have a purpose as something of a safe haven for sleeping characters
at least at night.
Only problem might be greedy gamecompanies that would insist "you" ( your char) didn't play while offline.
It is a different sort of concept than what the OP suggested, but I think it could be great. Imagine if the world were full of NPCs that were actually player-designed characters of players that were offline. Could make the world feel more alive, if those characters did all the mundane stuff players didn't want to do while they were playing (eating, sleeping, etc) and would be fun for players to leave their permenent personalized mark on the gameworld like that.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
What if, instead of almost controlling a character in a mmo, there was a hero and sidekick system, but instead of playing the hero, we played the sidekick? The comedy-type hero would be the typical cocky and moronic type, and the sidekick would be the brains, but would have to work against the hero in a way to get things done.
There was a Why Not? article here a while back about a comedy mmo. Id love that.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
"Lets beat the Joker with this new combo move I came up with, Batman"
"Shut up Robin, and go park my Batmobile"
Well then surely its wouldnt be your character?, they are called Avatars because your suppose to be Roleplaying the toon , not that many people bother with this aspect of MMO's anymore , but thas another story.
My comments aren't made simply as a dismissal of the concept. Like I said, if well-implemented it could be quite fun.
The root of my criticism is that unless you're in a cinematic, zero control isn't fun. I've always said there's a balance between the theatric presentation and interactivity of media. Movies are entertaining despite zero interactivity, because they have a high level of theatric presentation. Games are entertaining despite low theatric presentation, because they're interactive. And they're not in tension either - you can have a lot of interactivity and theatric presentation and be that much more entertaining (God of War springs to mind.)
Games simply aren't fun if they reduce you to zero control without big cinematic payoffs (why do you think being CC'd is so unpopular with players?)
The solution then is to modify your idea slightly: either give the player some form of control (like, say, a Regain Sanity Minigame where you match Cthulu tentacles) or figure out some way for it to be a quality cinematic event that will entertain players while they lack control.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Very interesting topic. It sorta has been done already with the Sims franchise, but in terms of an MMORPG, it would be different enough to be interesting to me. Maybe if the characters were persistent with the world, so that they did things you could or could not control while you were offline. Not that they would sell your stuff or spend all your money, but maybe they collect items or do tradeskills and sell them for a price you fix. I don't know. Its a really neat idea if implemented correctly.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Sometimes my alts beg me for money.
I immeditely thought of a The Sims-esque MMORPG where you have to let your avatar eat, clean, and go to the bathroom
Initially, I thought of something like a charm effect like in Eq2.
If your character had a mind of his own he would have quit the game after 3-4 years > deleted you from his friends list > and blocked you from PM's.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Yes I didn't mean that you would ever have zero control, because then you'd never be able to gain control and progress. From my p.o.v. anyway there has to be some progress involved. Tough some of the ideas I've seen posted here might not need any progress, all depending on gameplay/ style.
But for my idea it can't be zero control even when you start out. But it can actually be quite little in the beginning, as long as you have the means to increase that control as you play the game.
I see the player starting out (!) in this as perhaps a minor part of the mind of the character, or a "Higher self" or something like it.
One could also start out with certain personality starting setups that would have pro's and cons as to controlling the character.
Like the character could be mentally sick or confused, evil, good, depressed, manic, cheerful, optimistic. They could have certain opinions on politics and religion from the gameworld, they could be racists (not willing to team with certain races).
But all of this should be possible to overcome by training/ improving the link between character-player so that as the game goes on you as player get more and more power, and your char seems more and more determined and focused.
But that's just within my initial idea, I see there's others that are different from mine so don't let me stop any of you
"God gave men brains larger than dogs' so they wouldn't hump women's legs at cocktail parties."
That's probably what my character would do if it had a will of it's own.
I like this idea. You could change the player's tag color to NPC color when they log off, but instead of "poofing", they would wander around town, go to the inn, sleep, etc. He or she would be just like any NPC filler character, but more unique in appearance. When the player came back, he or she would instantly regain control of the character, but find them in that sort of situation: eating, sleeping, walking around, maybe even acting as a vendor or a guard. A character with a profession of smithing might be working at the smithy, a fisherman could be at the river or the market.
If one logged off in a combat zone, their character would make a "best effort" to walk to a safe haven, and if they died on the way the player would find themselves at the rez point.
You could be nicer to the players by not costing any penalty for death while offline, or incur some penalties for them being silly and logging out in the middle of a battlefield. Or, if AI was good enough, the player's character could still contribute to a battle if they had to log out in a hurry (but not gain items or experience).
By the way, the 90's game Omikron kind of took the possession and control route - your (player's) "soul" was stealing the bodies of people in another dimension (game). It was a pretty good game.
You misunderstand exactly what I'm getting at.
Your character will decide to flee from an enemy it's scared of. How long? 5 seconds? 20 seconds?
Thats the duration of zero cotnrol I'm concerned about. Because even 3 seconds of locking the player out of all interaction with the game can be considered excessive, if there's not something onscreen entertaining the player (aka cinematics.)
It's like someone comes in and forcibly pauses your game while you were in the middle of playing it, interrupting your fun.
Hence my minigame suggestion: you still don't control the character, but you have something to do while your character is freaking out, and your success in the minigame would influence how quickly you regain control over the character.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Ok then I think I see your point.
I'd say it's not about the time lenght but the situation, - if the char is surrounded with deadly monsters all around it might create a panic that would be difficult to get out of till the point that the char would do stupid mistakes and die.
if the char just stumbles upon a monster he/she could run the opposite direction and hide, so the lack of control would be active until the char felt safe, hiding behind something or out of harms way.
I don't think the player would be annoyed enough to stop playing the game, just rather avoid those situations as much as possible. Or perhaps only go into them to train morale and increase willpower of the char, so that next time the player have more control.
The fear reaction is similar to what we already have in mmo's except it's a hostile spell coming from an enemy. And although it's annoying most accept it as part of the gameplay.
You could perhaps find mental techniques that would interupt the char panic, but I'd suggest that would take some training too.
I think the keyword here is progression, - as an example I'm playing Darkfall now and the grind is, or has been, horrible, cause you have access to all proffesions and all skills, and it takes alot of time to increase all of it. But what drives the player is to improve, to gain strength to meet more challenges and more rewards.
I'm pretty confident that as long as the player see a "way out", alot of players will continue to play to increase their abilitites and skills, and char control.
The whole point in Role Playing Games is that YOU do what you want in the game, making yourself something YOU like, doing things that you cannot do in real life...
What you propose is making yourself an NPC. Where are YOU in the game then?
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
I can't see this having any place outside of the social aspect of the game, maybe when your avatar is in a Inn he likes to sit down or something, but outside of that I would see it as just a pain.
it's called having children, developed and published by you.
rated 4/10 for broken game mechanics like the neverending cry bug and loss of interest by the time you get to endgame content.
A few things that come to mind I think could be very well implimented into MMORPG and already have been to some extend.
I want my character to eat: cause he's hungry, cause he needs it to strenghting himself, to survive, if I ignore to feed my character he will become weaker, will not build up his strenght...etc...etc..
I want my character to rest/sleep, not doing so would cause my character to experiance all sort of symptoms that are caused by having to little rest/sleep.
If I have a combat oriented character I want it to get mad if I take him out to long to only to explore with no combat what so ever, he will still do what I command him to do, but his temper will change which will effect the outcome of your actions may it be in combat or in exploring untill we get back into being friendly with eachother.
I want my character to protest when I want to attack something that I hardly have a change against when playing solo, still he will engage into combat but again it shall have consequence where combat might be effected in a negative manner.
I want my combat character to react to certain situations, let's say I want it to kill some creature that A: might be rare, my character might ask me if I really need something of that creature or we might leave it alone, B: the creature is such a low lvl your character just makes a joke about it and ends something like "you really think you big enough to kill that....."
Same thing with a exploring type of character that would not apriciatte it if you kept fighting with him instead of exploring.
My exploring character, running thru some forrest, suddenly (regardless me holding down W) he stops and ask's you if you didn't notice that small entrance to a cave, when you tell/write "NO show me" your character runs a bit back towards the cave entrance.
Well there are some many situations I could imagine my character having a will of it's own that can make up for some awesom gameplay aswell as getting even more connected with your character. Play your characer "perfect" and you will notice much difference in how it is with most common games, though many reactions of your character are truly based on how you play him/her, playing it not so perfect would have more effect.
So yeah I would love to see my character have some form of a will of it's own, aslong the game is build around it, I think it can open up allot of possibility's and truly could expand on what we now know as MMORPG.
Overall I think singleplayer games (some singleplayer aswell MMORPG's already have done bits and pieces) will be the first to capture that essence, MMORPG still have a very long way to go.
And it doesn't have to be a mainstream game, as we know that most already disliked resting/food feature's in MMORPG and could do well without them.
hehe, except in this case you start with endgame