Make up a totally original MMO world or bit of lore!

sunandshadow

A small disclaimer: I'm well aware that originality often does not mean popularity.  Both originality and popularity are goals that some designers are a little too obsessive about.  That said, I'm interested specifically in what you folks here would create in terms of surprising new metaphysics, plot, and that sort of thing.  So, please imagine that you have been invited to a brainstorming session at the very earliest design stages for a new MMO.  Please give us suggestions for what could make our game's world really new, unique, and interesting!

WargfootYV

In LOTRO they have the Ettenmoors which is the only PvP zone.  It is the Creeps vs. the Freeps where the Freeps are leveled in the PvE only areas but the Creeps have to advance in this warzone.  It has its limitations but I'd like to see a version of this for grave yards/catacombs.

I'd like to see a game where the catacombs (not all dungeons) and graveyards are populated by players who control the undead.  They've limited leveling/skills/etc - sort of a side game - and the further from their bodies (buried) they get the exponentially weaker they become.  If there are no players online the graveyard is populated by AI.

As in LOTRO the bad guys are created to be defeated but it may give some PvP centric folks some fun to be able to level up to a Liche Lord or something - maybe upon reaching that level they get a castle to haunt.

Not entirely a new idea, but one I'd like to see given more attention in a future game.

Amathe

I would suggest Underworld Online, with factions for Humans, Werewolves, Vampires and Hybrids.

Mendel

I'd suggest to change up magic a bit using these principles.

• Characters.  Unlike other games, characters produce very little mana naturally.  Every character generates 1-10 mana per 12 hours.  Each character has a pool of mana, but there is no cap on how much mana a character can have.
  

• Mana Manipulation.  Every character has an automatic skill for mana.  With this skill, they may release or capture 1 point of mana from the immediate local area.  This action takes a finite amount of time (for instance, 5 seconds).  This skill is tied directly to the character's base statistics and never increases.  Mana in the environment lasts for roughly 1 minute unless captured or used, then it dissipates.  (I.E., not automatic).
  

• Magic skills.  Casters are those characters with magic skills that can Cast a spell or Direct mana (into an existing magical effect).  The direct skill allows one character to cast a spell that has a duration, and a second character directly provide mana to maintain the effect.  This could apply to any meta-magic effects, not just duration.  Effectively, a spell effect, such as light or silence, effectively exists as an entity in the world for its duration.
  

• Mana Sharing.  An intended side effect of this system is that some characters can be casters, but the vast majority of characters are non-casters, known as batteries.  Using the Mana Manipulation skill, battery casters can transfer mana to casters to fuel their spells.   This helps generate player-to-player interaction.
  

• Communal casting.  For large, difficult or dangerous magical effects, like resurrection, demon summoning, weather control, curses or item enchantment, a group of casters can link themselves together to cast a single spell as one.  The principle caster's success chance is modified by the other casters success, and any negative effects are shared proportionally by the group.  A spell that, if failed, would kill a single character, would have its damage spread across the communal group.  A communal group could also cast mana-intensive spells/rituals faster, each caster contributing mana.

These could be used to expand magic from a single-player event into a coordinated multi-player operation.

anemo

Probably something that's a small pocket world universe, that at one point "Sufficiently Powerful Entities" used as a playground.   Meaning they summoned just about anything interesting and amusing to see what would happen.

Then advance it to the future to where those entities are gone, though their left behind tools are still in use.   Which leads to the players being summoned as an "Accidental Side Effect" of some sort of "Magical Generator".  

Along with having that "Accidental Side Effect" being common enough that players are more of an Inconvenience, rather than something Interesting.

iixviiiix

Underwater fishy evolution MMORPG

You play as a new born fish , go out and hunt down food , from sea weed to other fishy , collect materials to evolve to difference kind of fish

raid ancient fishes to get they gen and evolve to they kind , use they gen to create mini mini pets

Gameplay is mainly about killing mobs , group up to kill mob , solo to kill mob , there are no quests to tell you how to play

Combat is simple with only single attack button

You can play it in both PC and mobile

Cryomatrix

I am playing subnautica right now and was thinking the game would be amazing with 40+ other players like in conan exiles.

I'd have an MMO with many available roles. Many of them combat, many more non combat. I want a person to be able to thrive in the game by owning a brothel or a restaurant. 

Sephiroso

Cryomatrix said:

I am playing subnautica right now and was thinking the game would be amazing with 40+ other players like in conan exiles.

I'd have an MMO with many available roles. Many of them combat, many more non combat. I want a person to be able to thrive in the game by owning a brothel or a restaurant. 

so basically second life

Tsiya

Sephiroso said:

Cryomatrix said:

I am playing subnautica right now and was thinking the game would be amazing with 40+ other players like in conan exiles.

I'd have an MMO with many available roles. Many of them combat, many more non combat. I want a person to be able to thrive in the game by owning a brothel or a restaurant. 

so basically second life

Or SWG underwater.

Limnic

You all play roombas trying to Sherlock out why all the humans up and poofed.

It's actually the central theme of a little RPG system called Engine Heart that I've always liked the premise of.

The idea of taking things from the perspective of a great mystery, and using the scaling of standard service tech as opposed to military or kitted out explorer hardware, so the sense of epic behind the adventures spirals out from "ordinary characters" embarking on extraordinary journeys. 

And the idea of a "post apocalyptic" world where it's more about discovery and not just more people shooting one another over the last twelve bullets in the world has a bit of appeal to me.

Caffynated

A game set on a world trapped inside a small pocket plane that travels through the universe temporarily merging with other planes of existence. While the planes are merged creatures from one plane can cross over into the other and the longer the planes are merged the more powerful the connection. This results in mobs invading the player's world in ever increasing number, frequency and power, and players being able to raid the outside plane to gather resources and loot to bring back.

Po_gg

WargfootYV said:

In LOTRO they have the Ettenmoors which is the only PvP zone. [...]

There's Osgiliath too... and as a Creep you can be a troll. Not a lich lord, I give you that, but powerful as heck. Also you can control "minions", through voice, if you are the raid leader

Come up with a totally original lore is a tough job, more fitted for writers than for gamers. If I had time and enough skills, I'd probably do something like TSW. Ragnar did an amazing work with the world building there, and nicely attached it to his own "bigger" lore of the Longest Journey games.

Based on the hints and leftover artifacts in TSW, the Third Age sure sounds fun... so I'd probably build an mmo world and lore around that. It would be new but in traces similar to the present world.

Vrika

Asteroids Online:

You and your guildmates have strapped a giant rocket engine onto an asteroid, and set out onto a journey to kill space-native species and raid rival guilds' asteroids for resources. Those resources can be used to slowly construct your own city inside your own asteroid and defences for it.


EDIT: Gameplay would involve launching fighters from the asteroid, and then some kind of spaceship shooter. The guild could direct the asteroid as a whole, but individuals could use their fighters to hyperjump elsewhere for some adventuring and haul resources back.

While you're offline your fighter would be AI -controlled and defend your home asteroid should it get attacked.

Palebane

Probably not totally original, but a couple thoughts Ive had were, some sort of ghost mmo where corpse recovery is like half of the game. And, a cockroach/ rat colony sim; maybe not an mmo but a strategy game.

If one of these exists, please let me know.

anemo

Palebane said:

Probably not totally original, but a couple thoughts Ive had were, some sort of ghost mmo where corpse recovery is like half of the game. And, a cockroach/ rat colony sim; maybe not an mmo but a strategy game.

If one of these exists, please let me know.

Screeps does the Colony thing though closer to ant/bees (I know not cockroach or rat), it is what happens when you take a real RTS and ramp it up to being a real MMO...   Being a game about AI Programming also means it has been doing that MMO-er dream of 10,000+ units going about maintaining empires (In custom and unique ways).