(concept) - PREMIUM MMORPG

semantic

A lot of MMORPG players complain about various trends in the genre (and the evaporation of projets trying to buck these trends), so I wonder if there's a market for a genuinely premium MMORPG service.

Limited Access - that's right, not everyone gets in. That is, you've got to actually work to get an account. In order to get your initial character, you have to send in a detailed description of him or her including: personal history, family history, appearance, personality, detailed description of some key events in his or her life, etc., and all this has to make sense against the backdrop of the game. The game designers will then create your character for you based on your description, and let you know when your character's history has reached the point where you can start guiding it (i.e. log in).

One Character You only get one at a time.

PERMA-death Obviously. I don't care how much magic is in the world, there is absolutely no resurrection, EVER.

... plus all the other good stuff people seem to want. Player-driven economies, player-run towns etc., meaningful ranks, organized warfare, raid dungeons, flight - what am i missing? And of course, no LAG ever, obviously no overcrowding (besdes, if things get overcrowded - kill a few people or hire someone to do it for you), stable servers,etc.

So what would people pay for that? $50/mo? More?

Bitey

0/dollars a month. Those three features would kill a game sellablity.

JelloB2000

There are mmorpg:s like this already: MUDs (Multi User Dungeon).
But there is text only so if you want graphics & mouse movement you will be dissapointed.

Anofalye

The limited access could be an interesting idea for a roleplay server.  Instead of having anyone join the roleplay server, it could required such an application form, de facto you make sure you will end up with interested folks.  I would not even widespread the usage to all roleplay server, only the premium roleplaying server.

 

Permadeath appeal to a minority as well, so a double minority...wow, you like hard challenges, like really hard.  However, I would favorised a ''casual permadeath'' system before trying real hardcore permadeaths...like an amount of lifes per month, I already state it, I would find this extremely appealing myself if the rest of the game is done right, to have only X life/month depending on the race(strongers races have less lifes, while gnomes have so many lifes it is almost a feat to waste them all).

Bama1267

$0  Plus the main reason these companies make the games.............money. Wouldnt make enough money to outweigh the work put into such a game.

 

 First problem.........ok you have the people you picked to enter the world of the new mmorpg. So now people start playing....at least 25% are not going to like it and quit( at best only 25%). So now you have lower server pop with no one to play with. So now you send out reinvites to other people who wanted to join. Once in other people have also quit, low server pop.

 A year goes by and the people on your waiting list are playing other games and no longer wish to join. Now alot of people have quit the game and there is no one to play with but close guild friends. Also since it cost so much , you lost 95% of the general audience of mmorpg's. Yeah 95% Im pulling that figure out my a$$, but im figuring it could actually be higher.

 

 The only person dedicated to such a project would be someone like yourself, not out to make money but to make a cool game.  Neat idea but as allways......money the biggest factor.

Adreal

The limited access could be an interesting idea for a roleplay server.  Instead of having anyone join the roleplay server, it could required such an application form, de facto you make sure you will end up with interested folks.

I agree with that Anofalye, and I'm sure most people willing to RP would be willing to make out a few paragraphs of character history for approval. I don't think it would work that well on such a widespread basis as applying to the entire game. I definitely like the idea for RP servers though. I so hate when people join RP servers who have no intention of RPing.

One Character You only get one at a time.

If you're going to have permanent death, I'm sure most people will agree with me that you should have at least two or three character slots so you can have at least one character to fall back on if/when one of your characters dies.

I don't care how much magic is in the world, there is absolutely no resurrection, EVER.

It's nice to see some other hardcore PD players out there, but I'd have to disagree with this one. I enjoy permanent death as an added feature as long as it is worked well into the game. That also may imply a number of lives before PD takes effect. I enjoy second chances (second chances in the least) over one death equating to permanent death, but I enjoy permanent death over the carebear (or sometimes more monotonous) death systems in games these days. Without permanent death and combat strategy, combat in a game just becomes another long grind to gain more experience, see new and flashy monsters, and get something more than dirty rag shields and blunt hunting knives.

Harelin

I like the idea of premium MMORPG's, but it's jumping the gun to dictate any sort of gameplay mechanics. The core concept is nice, but shy away from permadeath and such until a later time; focus on creating an enjoyable, personalized experience and then build on it.

Munki

I could see this working for the RP server of a normal game.
I know for a fact, there is a minority you could get and keep for a long time with this.

But some games aim for a niche, this would be aiming for such a small niche its almost not worth it ESPECIALLY if it was the entire game.

Owyn

How small is "not worth it"? Is ATITD too small to be "worth it", with 2k players? What about the many games around the 10k level?

I'd bet a game like this would want to take a one-shard approach, which would probably limit them to the 5-10k player range, but it's perfectly possible to have a GREAT game at that population.

ianubisi

In that it would be permadeath, I would have zero interest. The concept of having to "work" for an invitation to play is also a complete turnoff to me. One character per account would be acceptable, but I would consider it to be a detrimental feature and not a feature that makes the game more attractive.

Volkmar

the describe in details your character idea is good for a RP server, only you have to call it "Extreme RP server" and charge 25 /month for it. Cause it causate exra work for staff above what a normal RP server usually do.

Perma Death, in its extreme version, is simply a NO-NO. one lag spike and your character is gone? oh yeah, F-U-N!

Realize though that even by having a more mild PD system (like Trials of Ascension for example), you HAVE to build the game keeping that heavily in consideration. PD means people are gonna repeat the first stages of the game more often than usual. So there must be replayability, the starting areas must remain as green as the others or ... not many will wanna play such a game.

Also max level or whatever it is, must be with reasonable reach or then you will never see one of those (so making it pointless).

Also, one character limit means you cannot explore other possible alternatives of the game around. You are stuck with what you got. this is not that bad in some occasions, but it could be. At least allow one char/server so one can explore around a bit before sticking. i understand though that this linked to the other "character description idea" means even more work for the staff.

Finally: 1 character, Perma Death and need extensive characterization to get in... plus you pay a lot/month. Ah! i got the Game name! "RL 2" man, i hope you have more success than the first version, cause even if everyvody, their dogs and cousins play that game, nobody is ever happy about it and their "forums" are always exploding with whiners.

Have a nice day

 

Owyn

I think that's the entire point though, Ian... A game like that would not be mass market; it'd be targeting a small, specific niche, and designing their entry process to eliminate people not from their niche.

The whole point would be to ensure you don't get the variety of players you get in a "sold in stores" game.

For instance: take 10 tabletop RPG players in a fantasy campaign. And 9 are hack and slash players, with one roleplayer. What sort of game will you get? PROBABLY a hack and slash game. Take the same module - run 9 roleplayers and 1 hack and slasher through it. You're much more likely to have a roleplaying campaign. The GM (or game devs in MMO terms) and module (game mechanics and content) only have so much impact on these sorts of things. The playerbase has a lot as well.

Restrict the playerbase to the specific niche you are targeting, and (assuming you have enough of that niche who are interested enough) you can get a viable game up. I think that roleplayers would in general flock to this sort of "exclusive RP game" type of thing in droves. In fact, I know of a game already in very quiet development which is using a very similar system to what was described in the first post.

stav1

I really like the idea of the devs creating a unique character for a player. I'm not sure you should phrase it as " hard work" for would be applicants. Its not an exam! You don't want actively limit the player-base. But imgaine each toon being hand-crafted and unique to the player. Each with a different appearance and stats.

I think that could work if you charged $50 a month. FOr example i pay for the game and a dev the contacts me to take a description and parameters of the type of charcter i want to play. I would have to make an effort to provide an effective description of the charcter i want to play. The requirement of a bit of effort would be enough to deter the less mature among our ranks.

Permadeath is fine as long as its thought out properly. I quite like the above idea of x number of deaths per month.

 

molovian

The first 2 concepts sound alright.  Personally I wouldn't play a game with permadeath especially this one.  The reson why is that if I am to invest time in something there has to be a resonable ability to keep doing so as long as I am interested in playing.  If I am goinf to come up with a character that I mihgt get attached to, I would wnat to continue playing it.  If a game mechanic would cuase me to have to stop playing outside of my choice then the timesink would not be worth it.

Of course, the character that the company made would have to be fitting to what my view of my character description was.  If I felt that the character they made did not fit my concept then I would not want to play it. 

As far as sending in a character description and having the compnay create the character, sure but how does it make profit?  The player base would have to be very small or the company would have to be too huge to support large numbers of potential players. 

 

Owyn

Don't forget that in several recent polls, it's been shown that about 1/2 of MMO players (who answered the polls, anyway!) were at least interested in trying a permadeath game.

If that bears out to be true of all players, that's not really as big an obstacle as it might seem. If half of people are culled from the potential customer list, that still leaves millions as potential players.

LightSlayer

Well if it was multi trillionare company then yes....that would work.....

hapwned

Limited entry? $0. If I pay more than anything above normal then I want access because I'm willing to pay not some social country club. One character and perma death is OK. I would pay more for good customer service.

Adreal

Limited Access - that's right, not everyone gets in. That is, you've got to actually work to get an account.

Yeah. On the suggestion of limited access, it's pretty much understood that every MMOG out there has limited access. You have to pay a fee to play, and if you can't afford it, then you don't get accepted. So if people had to pay to play and then further do something else to play the game (not specifically play on an RP-intense server) then it would likely turn people off unless the game was some virtual-reality matrix-like experience.

sickoden

This idea would be ideal for a role-playing server. I am sick of the people who make idiotic characters and spam with them. to bad however that Everquest Oline Adventures didnt get the account idea. No resserection i dont know...ressurection is very helpful when u have to grind. Like on Everquest Online Adventures, the game is boring enough as it is why not add a little thing so players dont get even more angry when they die. Maybe i would agree no ressurection if the game was actualy fun. but $50/mo in my opinion is a little much lets stay around 10 - 15  because $50/mo the games players will decline to nothing

scottthe1

im not sure but i think illarion fits into this category a bit.

its free but you have to convince them with a good story.

try it its    illarion.de

p.s. you have to be a keen roleplayer which means no silly names ect.

 

Owyn

The question of permadeath is always a tricky one.

Permadeath is a difficult thing for many players of today's games to understand, because today's games are so focused on the development of the character as the method of achievement in the game. That is, you can tell how much a person has achieved by looking at their level, or their skills, or their gear. What the character HAS and what they can DO is what matters; the entire point of the game, in many cases, is to increase those two factors.

Permadeath removes that entire system of play. You can't just toss permadeath into EQ2 or WOW and expect it to work. The game systems are not built for it. No character would live long enough to reach endgame content, and the early game content is not deep enough to be replayable over and over.

Permadeath games need to move the focus away from building a certain character, and into building...something else. That might be building a lineage from character to character (like Mourning was trying to implement), or building a nation in concert with other players, or something else entirely. But the only thing that can make permadeath palatable is if the achievement part of the game is focused on something *bigger* than the character, instead of on the character itself.

That's what can make it work.

manday

I like the idea of having to apply to be accepted. Ive played some freeshards (sorry if Im not supposed to mention this) that required this, and the community was always just amazing. Try a different freeshard that doesnt have this, and you have tons of ppl who are just there to make other's days ingame a living hell.

For the other points, tho.. Permadeath.. Not really my kind of thing. For the little work that I am willing to do on my character (grinding is lame), I dont want it to go poof.

One character? Well, unless it's skill based, and you can have ALL skills maxed, and you can change your character's hairstyle and weapons and clothing, Id have to say NO.

So all in all, theres no way Id pay $50 a month. Thats kind of ridiculous anyways, to ask if $50 is reasonable, and you havent even given a basic outline wat gameplay and other parts of the game are like. All we kno is, "character can go poof", "you may or may not be chosen to play", and "$50 for one character per month".

Munki

this would be playing to a niche, of probably an estimate 1000, maybe less.
The PD, one char, and hard to make char are all turnoffs.
And if you charge anything over the norm monthly fee, people are gona not bother trying it to even see if its worth it.

Zanetanos

I don't think a game with these concepts would be sucessful. The having to take the time to send in player bios would be a turn off for lots of people. Also permadeath is a big no no.

entrana

perma-death + large scale warfare are not a good combination as whatever way you look at it ALOT of people would get pi$$ed off because they just lost a character theyve spent weeks/months developing