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Trying to find a Community-based game, suggestions?
Eichenkatze
Member Posts: 340
Now, before you jump the gun and post "This game is just what you're looking for!" it's probably not, so read a bit and see if you're still sure. I'll try and be brief as not to bore you to leave, and explain it as best I can!
For a while, i've been looking for a low-key MMO that's based solely around the community, and by this I don't just mean a player driven economy.
I've been looking for a game that's like A Tale in the Desert, where players build and run their own community inside a larger one.. You know, build your home, build your furniture, socialize with other players.. Except, with A Tale in the Desert, players are more focused on their skills and shows than their art. And games holding what I want.. like Everquest, SWG, or LOTRO (with homes and player constructed villages/towns.) there's questing and monsters and combat XP..
So i'm curious to know if anyone knows of an MMO (developing or released) where players construct a community together within a larger system.. One that's based soley on the prospect of building up their homes and area alongside other players. Without all the questing nonsense.
While not what i'm looking for, think of.. Harvest Moon meets A Tale in the Desert meets Second Life?
Just a simple game where you build up your home, construct villages with other players and per-say.. "live your virtual life."
I've gotten tired of the traditional MMO.. figured for the time being, something like this would keep me entertained.
If per-chance there is nothing like this.. I may have to take up MMO programming :P
Thanks in advance everyone!
Everquest - 2000 - '02
Anarchy Online - '01-'02
Earth and Beyond - '02-'04
Star Wars Galaxies - '03-'06('07)
World of Warcraft - '04-'07
Age of Conan - '08 - shelved.
-Waiting on-
Star Trek Online
SW: The Old Republic
Comments
EVE online?
Wurm Online.
Blessings,
MMO migrant.
I'll second Wurm Online as it's the only game that will fit what you are asking for. It does have several shortcomings though...
Eve Online? Nah, been down that road far too many times and left each one of them, but it's not exactly what i'd be looking for either. When avatar content drops in for EvE i'm in regardless of whether it's what i'm looking for or not... heheh
As for Wurm Online, shortcomings? Such as?
edit: Doh! Wurm Online, not Warum Online! That's what I get for studying german.
Everquest - 2000 - '02
Anarchy Online - '01-'02
Earth and Beyond - '02-'04
Star Wars Galaxies - '03-'06('07)
World of Warcraft - '04-'07
Age of Conan - '08 - shelved.
-Waiting on-
Star Trek Online
SW: The Old Republic
the combat of wurm online is a joke
Or did they take out combat all together?
Ah, you describe my dream game Eichenkatze. Unfortunately, I don't think it exists. Second life is too open, other games are too closed. ATITD is a good start, but you're right, it's still too focused on the skills.
I have been trying to make this game for some time, but game development is hard. So wait like 3 or 4 years for my game, by which time the graphics will be so outdated no one will play it, lol.
Wurm online is nice in theory but the execution is horrid in my opinion. Reading the features list was like reading the features list of a game I was designing, but I just didn't enjoy it at all to play.
I'm watching this thread, but I don't think this game exists, at least not a good one.
Lol, I dont really think it exists either, but it was worth a shot and still is. You never know, someone may pop up with the name of some French, Korean, or Japanese MMO that's just what we're looking for. Only setback would be the language barrier haha.
I can't imagine we're the only two who would be looking for such a game..
as for Wurm, I looked into it a bit and I'll give it a whirl when the primary PC comes back from the grave (have to rebuild half of it.), but from reviews i'm not sure how much liking i'll have to it.. Guess i'm just picky. But you never know.
As for the game itself, I'm really looking into a peaceful MMO if you will (just to add onto the facts for anyone reading.)
The PERFECT combination for me at least, would be something like Istaria's town system (place anywhere, and build up.), with graphics par at least with WoW, a crafting system much like that in Vanguard, the open world like ATITD, a solid theme, community based (creation, run, populated), that doens't involve too much of the "Go here, kill this." quest... if with combat at all..
Something that would bide your time in the afternoons when you were bored of chopping heads off in Age of Conan or PvPing in WoW. A game where the focus of the game is to build the world. And by that I don't mean SecondLIfe where you buy a plot of land, and then using a primitive creation tool craft up whatever you want from Sex poses to a castle and a pyramid. I mean a world where you settle towns accross a world that would start barren. Populate new regions and develope a really intricate social system for the game.. Kinda like Star Wars Galaxies' housing/city system meets social steroids
so.. in the basic concept people raise towns with other players, form guilds/clans, and select professions that benefit themselves and/or the town they settle in. Players populate the world themselves, vcities/towns/villages are able to pop up anywhere and can be connected through travel routes and trade. The world evolves by each player's hand.
Think Oblivion for the world idea. Big and open with many different scenic regions (of course as an MMO it'd have to be gigantic.) with Star Wars Galaxies with housing/cities, Second Life as far as customization, EvE as far as sandbox, and so on and so forth. I could go on for hours. But no doubt half of you have already stopped reading :P
Everquest - 2000 - '02
Anarchy Online - '01-'02
Earth and Beyond - '02-'04
Star Wars Galaxies - '03-'06('07)
World of Warcraft - '04-'07
Age of Conan - '08 - shelved.
-Waiting on-
Star Trek Online
SW: The Old Republic
hmmmm. That sounds like a tall order. I would love to see it happen too. Be sure to post in here if you find it too.
there is always hope
man, im bookmarking this topic. there might be someone out there who knew of a game like this
im almost crying right now b/c i know exactly how you fell OP.(and everyone else posting)
the truth is that this game doesnt exist, and prolly never will in the next 5-10 yrs. i kind of imagine it like "the world" in .hack- i wish this game existed soooo much. but it doesnt.
my problem is i read all this information on a game and it seems really cool and when i play it im like "this is garbage" but enough about me
my advice is just to play watever game that looks almost like a fit over the next few decades and maybe, just maybe you will find that game!
Closest thing you have is Wurm.
Blessings,
MMO migrant.
The game I played with the strongest community was FFXi, mostly due to the games group-centric play. It forced people to socialize. I met a lot of great people (and some asshats). The best guild I've ever been in was here. I've been gone from the game a long time, so I don't know where it stands now. I do remember a mass exodus when EQ2 and WoW launched, everyone giving their stuff away. 1 month later, a LOT of people came back, asking for their stuff back lol.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature
I think a huge problem with this kind of game though, is making it engaging. I mean, we can debate against how engaging clicking the "attack" button over and over is, but it WORKS as far as generating content. It's a proven thing. You can help make lopping off heads more interesting by fleshing out intricate combat systems, or making quests a bit more interesting etc.
But when you get into non combat, it gets VERY difficult to make good content. Just saying: "here is your land, here is the crafting system, go!" doesn't work. You still have to do content. ATITD is a good example. Other than the tests, which are fairly good and motivating, and some of the ways you can express yourself, there isn't much content; and you feel it. It can be very boring at times. If you aren't higher up politically, then you kind of feel like you have no impact on the game, and the best parts of that game are when you DO have an impact. Without that, there isn't much game to speak of. And I love that game to death, but it's true.
I have been designing and developing my game, Crescent Dawn Online, for about 2 years with a friend, and let me tell you, technical issues with developing is the least hard part about making a dynamic game. We have it where you can build anywhere, potential for a huge tech tree, plenty of great dynamic features, trade routes that matter, community projects, protect the city from disasters, many many ideas like that; but as far as generating actual content, it is insanely difficult. Yeah, OK, we have this fishing system, right? Cool, you can fish. The mini game is a little fun. But how is clicking on fish 500 times any better than clicking the attack skill? And it's less interesting watching a guy fish than watching someones head fly off.
So even if technology improves to the point where it's not a factor (and lag issues make technology ALWAYS a factor, freaking lag, makes it so hard to do anything lol), I still am starting to doubt whether a game like this can actually work.
If anyone has ideas for how content in a non violence oriented game could be generated I'm all ears. I'm starting to make my game a little more traditional, because as is, it may have cool systems, but the gameplay itself is still pretty boring.
Anyway, games like habbo and second life show that there is a market for online worlds that have no gameplay. What has yet to be seen is an online world game that DOES have gameplay, and can capture a large enough market to really be successful. Without any proven successful markets, not decent game company in their right mind would head down this path. You either make it a chat room and emphasize the social features and aim it at (pre)teens; or you go for gameplay, which pretty much means a WoW clone.
I hate to be a cynic, but I think social gameplay is just going to be too gamey for the social people and too social for the gamey people to ever have a very large market.
But maybe I'm wrong and someone will surprise me
Maybe I'll solve the problem and surprise myself with my game lol. Can't blame a guy for trying.
Yeah, I really should be putting all this essay type stuff in the actual essay I'm supposed to be writing for school instead of bringing another boring essay to mmorpg.com!
why not just add an "auto-fishing" function. most mmo's have this feature.
There wont EVER be a game that fits everything you want into it, im sorta into games like you i guess, 1 game i expect u hate or heard of is runescape, now others give it abit of stick, and im guessing you might not like it i thought id post for the benefit of you, now runescape does have pvp/pve, but..
runescape has POH (player owned houses) which might fit wat u like, able to design it entirely, also you have trade skills..lots of them, e.g smithing mineing fletching woodcutting fishing cooking firemaking herbalism and quite a few more, the graphics ARE NOT the best lol, ill be honest with you, but from wat theve been saying its going full screen + a graphic update which looks not too bad, i myself do not play it, but ive played the community side of runescape for 4 years in the past and loved every minuite of it, takes awhile getting into it but it offers alot, from reading your *article* you say u like houses etc, well u can farm-wc-fletch-smith -mine etc with other ppl, u can enter ea others homes etc.
i dunno if ull like it nd ill prob get abuse for mensioning the name but once u really get to see it its not as bad as it sounds, anyway its worth a peak man so enjoy
FOHO- warcraft 04-08
"If someone with multiple personalities threatend to shoot himself, would that be a hostage situation?"
Well, runescape is actually pretty good in a lot of ways, but the actual community is pretty terrible. I did enjoy the involving quests.
[quote]Originally posted by ragnarokek
why not just add an "auto-fishing" function. most mmo's have this feature.[/b][/quote]
Uh, you kinda missed the point didn't you? I am talking about how to add content with other means than combat. With fishing more involving it helps, but it's still not exciting enough. How is "auto-fishing" exciting or desirable in any way? It's stupid in combat-oriented games, and would be 10x as stupid for a non-combat oriented game. But involving fishing isn't enough to base a game around. (Ok, legend of the river made a decent stab at that, but it's not an mmo and can get boring as well). My thought was that with enough things to do, and making all of those things fun, then combat isn't needed to be the lynchpin on which to build a game. But it still is hard to bring everything together and make content.
And what is an mmo without content. Do you know how easy it is to make content for a traditional game? Carve landscape. Place monsters. Adjust levels of monsters. DONE. Ok, artists have some work to make stuff look cool, but from a design standpoint I can't think of anything easier. There is a barrier to entry to try and not make combat the focus (not to say that there is no call for combat in a game) that prevents a good community oriented game from being made.
It doesn't have to be perfect or have every possible thing we want either. But there isn't anything that comes close. Wurm is, like I said, nice on paper, but it's very hard to get into so I don't know if it really works as a game. A tale in the desert is mostly a crafting game. The community aspect is pretty good, but it basically turns into grind for resources.
Like the OP said, something a little bit ATITD, harvest moon, (maybe animal crossing), and I wouldnt mind a little combat as a smaller part of the whole game either. And I am actually working on a game like this (and have been for 2 or 3 years) but it's slow going and it isn't the easiest thing in the world!
is Entropia Universe close to what you are looking for?
i mean preCU SWG was pretty close, but of course its gone now.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
hmmm i am just wondering if it is not the game so much as the people you are lucky enough to meet on the game.
for example, i started playing LOTRO. I met this guy early on and we arranged to meet up each night to help each other find our feet in the newly launched game. Ok so it is not a difficult game, i know but it was so good to have company.
Then after some weeks he told me he wanted to start a kinship or guild mostly to be supportive to players of all levels and i agreed to help him. A year later our guild is going strong and we have kept it laid back and friendly. No requirements of members to give hours of time in raids or gold in rent for the kin house or to reach certain levels or anything, And it is really nice that so many of us are really getting to be friends.
Has anyone read a book called Legend the Syndicate? It is about one man's search ofr the perfect guild and it spans across so many games and so many years.. It is a good read.
there is always hope
dont mean to hijack the thread but the above is a good point.
i think emmy is on to an important aspect here. i think though it will be both elements, the deemphasis on the carrot on the stick model and more sandbox, but added to this has to be a good community.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Yes, that's a very good point. No matter the style of game, freeform or linear, combat or non-combat, how friendly the people are who you happen to brush up against really is one of the most important things. Unfortunately, this can't be controlled, although I think good communities are fostered by the game and the developers.
Entropia universe is a good suggestion, the real economy though can be a real negative. I played this game at the beginning and had a great time, until I went broke lol. Pretty much forgot about this one. I might try it again, I'm sure it has changed a lot since beta.
There's another game, some roman one that sounded a little like ATITD, but with fighting added. I can't remember the name, and I never tried it because there was no free trial, but it's one to look into also.
Animal crossing for ds is a start, but the online play is just prohibitive to any sort of good community forming. If they were to make an animal crossing city, where each players town was connected and you could free roam around, that would be a lot better.
Harvest moon online is in progress, but it looks like it follows more the animal crossing style.
I bet there are other smaller games that at least partially fit this mold.