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What's missing in a sandbox game...
Wighty
Member UncommonPosts: 699
I have played my fair share of MMO's over the years both sandbox and theme park type, both of which I really enjoy but lean more toward the sandbox type... But I do feel that there is something missing in the sandbox style game...
LAWS... not rules...
I mean think about it technically we live in a "sandbox" we have an economy, we work, we play, we drive, everything we do is governed by our own set of controls, sometimes we may break a law and get away with it, and sometimes we get caught and pay the consequence.
In the sand box we live, technically I can go out and chase old people with a hammer or stab people in the face or spray up and shopping mall with an automatic weapon, but we have laws and our own morality to contend with and REAL consequences.
A sand box game with some form of "control" in it where if someone did decide to go on a rampage there would be in-game consequences... Eve is probably the best example of a sandbox game with "controls", I just prefer a fantasy genre.
Back in the UO days it was mainly player governed, you had PK's and you had PKK's and alot of times the PKK's outnumbered the PK's... Even in games like Daoc FFA, and Shadowbane, you could still go out and do your thing and players banded together (regardless of in a guild or not) to answer the call of killing a PK... Now-a-days it is completely different, no controls in place, no one gives a damn unless it is effecting them personally, being in a guild may or may not help even, most guilds are a false sense of security and offer no benefit nor safety.
Perhaps some form of reward system for handing in bounty's or point system for coming to someone aid... It would just be cool to play a well developed sandbox game that didn't feel like Doom with skill points.
Anyone else agree or am I crazy?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
Comments
Uuuuummmm, FUN perhaps=) Isn't it obvious, hehe.
I agree. In fact, I already thought of this and put it in a game I created. The game was Magic of the Gods. I was the lead developer. Each realm had its own laws. These were not enforced by the game software, but could be enforced by the actions of players or NPCs. There were also lawless areas not under control of anyone. Players could, and did, set up their own realms with their own laws.
The players turned out to be a surprisingly law-abiding lot. Though the option of just breaking the laws was still there for those who preferred the role of outlaw.
Right, what happened to your game? Sounds like something I'd like to try out but just sorta missed.
Anyways, what's missing in sandbox games is the ability to, well, let's see, break the boundaries of the typical means of play. =]
Check out the MUD I'm making!
Hey look it's Charles *waves*
Anyway on the subject, this really relies on the starting community to start it up. Otherwise players will never get into it and act the same.
If the game's community already does it, new players will just get into the ruleset and be immersed. Apart from a few trolls and assholes of course.
Is it possible that nowadays, most games offer too many toys in their sandbox? In Shadowbane, you didn't have as many options as games from today, and the death penalty was, well, minimal
The game supported sub guilds too, which adds a very interesting dimension to player politics, multi-level guild chats and so on, making it much easier to gather up and get concerned about what's going on.
Right, what happened to your game? Sounds like something I'd like to try out but just sorta missed.
Anyways, what's missing in sandbox games is the ability to, well, let's see, break the boundaries of the typical means of play. =]
What happened? Well, the game went offline in December of 2008. This was mostly to add new content and partly to fix some bugs. We were already adding new content pretty much every week, but we needed some time when the game wasn't running to make some major changes. We found that some of the bugs appeared to be in the game engine or possibly resulted from the game engine being designed to run on a faster computer than we were using for the game server.
During the time the game was offline, we encountered another problem which had cropped up three times before. This was that the company we licensed the game engine from used a system that forced us to re-register the software and forced us to upgrade our development tools whenever they released a new version. This was a problem because their new versions were buggy. They often changed things around so we no longer knew how to use the software. The result of this was that the development tools would sometimes just stop working without warning and we would then have to drop everything and spend anywhere from a few days to a week or two dealing with their tech support people trying to get it to work again. The worst part was that we never knew how long it would take to get it back online again. Three times they promised me this would never happen again. When it happened the fourth time, I stopped work on the whole game. We just could not keep working on a game that could be shut down without warning by someone else.
Some games could just keep running even if the developers weren't able to work. Magic of the Gods was different. In Magic of the Gods, the game world changed as a result of player actions and also as a result of NPC actions and other factors. Some of this was done using some of the development tools so if we couldn't use the development tools, the game world would just stop changing and parts of the world would become static, unchanging, dead.... pretty much like all the other games out there where nothing ever permanently changes. The fact that our world DID change all the time was one of the main things that made it interesting to players.
Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, after the game had been shut down for a few months, I tried to work on the problem again and found that not only was I being forced to upgrade again, but that I had missed some upgrades and as a result, several entire sections of the game world still could not be modified. You'd think this could be easily solved by going back to the last version of the development tools we had, reinstalling it and then loading the upgrades in order, one at a time. Believe it or not, the game engine vendor actually did not keep all the upgrade patches so it was, and still is, impossible to ever really fix the problem. I've reinstalled the new version of the development tools and I could rebuild the parts of the game that got screwed up by that, but I realized that this is what it would continue to be like. Ever since then, I've been shopping for a new game engine with the thought of maybe redoing the game from scratch. I have made progress on that, but work on the game is still suspended.
The reason you missed hearing about the game is because we never publicized it. We discarded the whole launch process of developing an alpha version of the game, then a beta version, then a final version that is launched in a high profile launch. Instead, we offered the game as free-to-play in an unfinished state and just added more and more players without going through the traditional alpha, beta, launch pattern. The storyline of the game actually made more sense with an unfinished game than a finished game. Read our website for an explanation.
So we had players from all over the world playing a game that was really not even at the beta level. We were upfront about telling everyone that it wasn't finished and we weren't charging them money, but a good percentage of the players donated money to us anyway. Another issue is that the game engine and the game server hardware probably could not have handled huge numbers of players. The vendor we licensed the game engine from was promising us a better version soon. The better version was supposed to be able to handle the large numbers of players we'd need and they were going to provide us with conversion software to convert the game to run on the new game engine. Even now, a year later, that new version of the game engine is still only in beta.
So for all those reasons, we only promoted the game enough to bring in a small number of players. We wanted it to be more finished before attracting a large crowd. I think it is an indication of how good the game was that just telling a few people about the game was enough to attract players and a high percentage of players who tried the game liked it and kept coming back. In fact, some of them were so enthusiastic about the game that they were still posting on our forums about how much they wanted to play even after the game had been offline for six months. Some of them were still working on ideas for creating new magic spells. (In MotG, you could create your own magic spells using a special scripting language.)
Anyway, that's why it's offline and why you've probably never heard of it before. It's a shame, too, because it had almost all the sandbox characteristics that people on these forums ask for so often. A lot of the things it didn't have were things we were working on adding.
Part of why it was so popular with those who played it was that we got a lot of player feedback as we were still working on the game and made the game into what the players wanted.
To get back to the topic at hand, though, I think other games should adopt this approach of having in-game laws that are enforced by characters within the game, not enforced by the game software. There are a dozen other things like that which we had and which players constantly ask for on these forums. We don't need just one "ultimate" game with these features. There should be lots of games with these features.
That's a bummer man. I hope you can get it fixed and running soon. I'd play in a heartbeat. =]
Check out the MUD I'm making!
Glad to hear it. Based on how much people liked it even when it was unfinished, there is really no doubt that this game would be successful if the technical issues could be resolved. There are other game engines available, but currently I don't have enough money to pay the programmers I'd need. I'm working on it, though.
Any chance we could see a screenshot or hear a bit more about it mmomaker? Sounds like a great idea you had going.
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
I disagree to an extent. If your sandbox game has something akin to a "starting area", that area should be heavily protected via npc intervention. Grabbing a players attention and then allowing them to learn how to play your game is extremely important in regards to success. However, once you have to leave that starting area then the context of the game should define how laws are handled.
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
I disagree to an extent. If your sandbox game has something akin to a "starting area", that area should be heavily protected via npc intervention. Grabbing a players attention and then allowing them to learn how to play your game is extremely important in regards to success. However, once you have to leave that starting area then the context of the game should define how laws are handled.
For the specific exception of the starter/tutorial area, I agree. But for the rest of the game, NPCs defining what is "right play" is the antithesis of 'sandbox'. For the rest of the game, if you think that players shouldn't gank or scam or wear red and green together, then you can do something about it.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
The website for MotG is still up even though the game isn't. Just go to www.magicofthegods.com
There's a link on there to screenshots, but here's the address to go there directly:
http://onlinegamemaker.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=screenshots
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
I disagree to an extent. If your sandbox game has something akin to a "starting area", that area should be heavily protected via npc intervention. Grabbing a players attention and then allowing them to learn how to play your game is extremely important in regards to success. However, once you have to leave that starting area then the context of the game should define how laws are handled.
In Magic of the Gods, we had something that was a bit of a mesh of those two ideas. The place where players started wasn't intended to be a protected starting area. Originally it was completely lawless. As events in the game unfolded, the starting area became part of the Realm of Stondar which was ruled by an NPC dwarven prince named Noreg. Noreg's actions were, of course, controlled by the developers so when Noreg's decrees established laws, it was the game devs making the rules.
Of course, Noreg's laws stopped at his border and there were other realms with other laws and places with no laws. Noreg's laws were never enforced by the game software or arbitrary actions of the game devs. Only if Noreg and his dwarven warriors could catch you breaking the law and bring you to justice would there be any enforcement. In most of the Realm of Stondar, this meant the laws were almost meaningless.
More importantly, the players could, and did, have various ways they could change the laws of Stondar or any other realm. I can think of four methods that were actually attempted. Two of them were successful.
First I should explain the reason why so many people wanted to change Noreg's laws. This was because Noreg was a bit of a xenophobic tyrant. Shortly after he took over Port Town, renamed it Stondar City and established the Realm of Stondar, he used his dwarven militia to forcibly expel all the gnomes. This incident is known as the "kicking of the gnomes" in the lore of MotG. Then Noreg had his dwarves construct stout doors to seal all the city gates of Stondar City and issued a decree prohibiting anyone except dwarves from entering the City of Stondar. Since Stondar City was the main trading center for commodities, food, weapons and magic, this was a disaster for nearly all the player characters in the game who weren't dwarves.
The first idea that players thought of to deal with this was to overthrow Noreg which many people plotted and some actually attempted. No one ever put together a serious military force to attack Noreg. Instead, a few enraged player characters attacked the guards of Noreg's militia and were killed.
The second idea was to pray to the gods for divine intervention. The gods sent an emissary to discuss the matter with Noreg, but that was all. The players also went to find Noreg and talk to him. Noreg was one of our more advanced NPCs who could carry on conversations on any topic. A delegation of player characters actually convinced Noreg to change his most controversial law. Noreg wouldn't repeal it entirely or remove the doors, but instead of just banning non-dwarves from Stondar City, he agreed to let them in if they would pay a tax of ten copper pieces (which was not a trivial amount in MotG) every time they came in the gate.
He posted armed guards at the gates to collect it. This resulted in all sorts of realistic and unforeseen consequences such as the guards attacking non-dwarves trying to enter the city despite the fact that Noreg had repealed the law banning them. The guards would also frequently get in raucous arguments and humorous exchanges of insults with non-dwarf travelers. Then, there was also the matter of guards swindling unwary travelers out of large amounts of money by suggesting that travelers could pay one silver piece instead of ten copper pieces (even though a silver piece is worth more like a hundred copper pieces).
Despite all these problems, the fact is that Noreg had changed the law at player request and players were able to come in and out of Stondar City to trade again. A lot of economic activities sprung up to avoid the tax, too. The gnomes built their own small village outside Stondar City and started doing some of the same sort of business that people previously had to go into town for such as buying and selling fish and spears. Traveling merchants prospered since it was now expensive to visit the ones in town. Also, of course, dwarves were exempt from the tax so they would offer to take money or goods into town for you to buy or sell. This wasn't so popular because non-dwarf players were reluctant to trust dwarves they didn't know with goods or money.
This sort of thing probably encouraged the fourth method of changing the laws of Stondar which players attempted successfully. That was secession. A player picked an uninhabited spot far from Stondar City and set up his own realm. The islands he claimed were adjacent to Worfin Island, which was part of the Realm of Stondar, but the decree Prince Noreg had issued annexing Worfin Island had not specifically mentioned the smaller outlying islands. Relying upon this loophole, a human player character named Radnar claimed some outlying islands and declared them to be the "Kingdom of Radnaria". A few other humans and one or two elves joined him. Prince Noreg did not recognize the new kingdom, but he didn't send troops to attack it either. He did interfere with trade between Radnaria and Stondar City. So the end result was King Radnar got to make the laws on those islands instead of Prince Noreg.
This is my vision of how laws should be implemented in an MMORPG. We had some NPC's set up realms and laws, but the opportunity existed for player characters to do the same thing and they did. If enough players had cared about it, they could have completely replaced the NPC princes and lords and created a world where all the laws were made by players.
Originally there were no NPC rulers and no laws. I created them mostly so that players would see what was possible. Until then, nobody had thought of setting up a realm. Most people are really not accustomed to playing true sandbox games where just about anything is possible.
Sandbox is not about free will to do anything but options. In order to maintain and ensure those options, 'control' is needed.
Control is taking place where players would need to do the tedious and boring dury, making the game more fun and enjoyable.
I find three things commonly missing in sandbox games:
1) Emphasis on faction, with faction changes being the consequences of erratic player behavior (sort of like you referring to "Law"). Faction means when you interact with the world, the world sort of interacts back.
2) Dynamic events. Many sandbox worlds are a bit too static. It is good to have some events, GM events even, to liven things up. Ex. a roaming band of high level werewolves wanders out of forest and starts wayling low level players in the noobie area. Stuff like that is fun.
3) Polish. This is most important. Many sandbox games with great ideas seem like the were put together by an underfunded development team. Polish is sort of the "first impression" an MMO makes.
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
I disagree to an extent. If your sandbox game has something akin to a "starting area", that area should be heavily protected via npc intervention. Grabbing a players attention and then allowing them to learn how to play your game is extremely important in regards to success. However, once you have to leave that starting area then the context of the game should define how laws are handled.
In Magic of the Gods, we had something that was a bit of a mesh of those two ideas. The place where players started wasn't intended to be a protected starting area. Originally it was completely lawless. As events in the game unfolded, the starting area became part of the Realm of Stondar which was ruled by an NPC dwarven prince named Noreg. Noreg's actions were, of course, controlled by the developers so when Noreg's decrees established laws, it was the game devs making the rules.
Of course, Noreg's laws stopped at his border and there were other realms with other laws and places with no laws. Noreg's laws were never enforced by the game software or arbitrary actions of the game devs. Only if Noreg and his dwarven warriors could catch you breaking the law and bring you to justice would there be any enforcement. In most of the Realm of Stondar, this meant the laws were almost meaningless.
More importantly, the players could, and did, have various ways they could change the laws of Stondar or any other realm. I can think of four methods that were actually attempted. Two of them were successful.
First I should explain the reason why so many people wanted to change Noreg's laws. This was because Noreg was a bit of a xenophobic tyrant. Shortly after he took over Port Town, renamed it Stondar City and established the Realm of Stondar, he used his dwarven militia to forcibly expel all the gnomes. This incident is known as the "kicking of the gnomes" in the lore of MotG. Then Noreg had his dwarves construct stout doors to seal all the city gates of Stondar City and issued a decree prohibiting anyone except dwarves from entering the City of Stondar. Since Stondar City was the main trading center for commodities, food, weapons and magic, this was a disaster for nearly all the player characters in the game who weren't dwarves.
The first idea that players thought of to deal with this was to overthrow Noreg which many people plotted and some actually attempted. No one ever put together a serious military force to attack Noreg. Instead, a few enraged player characters attacked the guards of Noreg's militia and were killed.
The second idea was to pray to the gods for divine intervention. The gods sent an emissary to discuss the matter with Noreg, but that was all. The players also went to find Noreg and talk to him. Noreg was one of our more advanced NPCs who could carry on conversations on any topic. A delegation of player characters actually convinced Noreg to change his most controversial law. Noreg wouldn't repeal it entirely or remove the doors, but instead of just banning non-dwarves from Stondar City, he agreed to let them in if they would pay a tax of ten copper pieces (which was not a trivial amount in MotG) every time they came in the gate.
He posted armed guards at the gates to collect it. This resulted in all sorts of realistic and unforeseen consequences such as the guards attacking non-dwarves trying to enter the city despite the fact that Noreg had repealed the law banning them. The guards would also frequently get in raucous arguments and humorous exchanges of insults with non-dwarf travelers. Then, there was also the matter of guards swindling unwary travelers out of large amounts of money by suggesting that travelers could pay one silver piece instead of ten copper pieces (even though a silver piece is worth more like a hundred copper pieces).
Despite all these problems, the fact is that Noreg had changed the law at player request and players were able to come in and out of Stondar City to trade again. A lot of economic activities sprung up to avoid the tax, too. The gnomes built their own small village outside Stondar City and started doing some of the same sort of business that people previously had to go into town for such as buying and selling fish and spears. Traveling merchants prospered since it was now expensive to visit the ones in town. Also, of course, dwarves were exempt from the tax so they would offer to take money or goods into town for you to buy or sell. This wasn't so popular because non-dwarf players were reluctant to trust dwarves they didn't know with goods or money.
This sort of thing probably encouraged the fourth method of changing the laws of Stondar which players attempted successfully. That was secession. A player picked an uninhabited spot far from Stondar City and set up his own realm. The islands he claimed were adjacent to Worfin Island, which was part of the Realm of Stondar, but the decree Prince Noreg had issued annexing Worfin Island had not specifically mentioned the smaller outlying islands. Relying upon this loophole, a human player character named Radnar claimed some outlying islands and declared them to be the "Kingdom of Radnaria". A few other humans and one or two elves joined him. Prince Noreg did not recognize the new kingdom, but he didn't send troops to attack it either. He did interfere with trade between Radnaria and Stondar City. So the end result was King Radnar got to make the laws on those islands instead of Prince Noreg.
This is my vision of how laws should be implemented in an MMORPG. We had some NPC's set up realms and laws, but the opportunity existed for player characters to do the same thing and they did. If enough players had cared about it, they could have completely replaced the NPC princes and lords and created a world where all the laws were made by players.
Originally there were no NPC rulers and no laws. I created them mostly so that players would see what was possible. Until then, nobody had thought of setting up a realm. Most people are really not accustomed to playing true sandbox games where just about anything is possible.
That seems cool . . . but how did they make their own laws.
I am not grasping how you coded that in.
OP I hear what you are saying and completely agree with it.
What's missing? Nothing.
All of the sandbox or hybrid/open ended games I;ve played have been good and needed nothing but a half decent development cycle to add to the games over time (which they all have).
UO,SWG, Eve, Ryzom, Wurm, DF, FE were all fine when I first played them.
I'm sure MO and ER will be fine also. Sandbox games arent themeparks, they don;t cater to the hand holding crowd that need a reason to do everything.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
What's missing from sandbox MMOs?
Bethesda
If it's a sandbox, then the players should create the laws, not the devs.
I disagree to an extent. If your sandbox game has something akin to a "starting area", that area should be heavily protected via npc intervention. Grabbing a players attention and then allowing them to learn how to play your game is extremely important in regards to success. However, once you have to leave that starting area then the context of the game should define how laws are handled.
In Magic of the Gods, we had something that was a bit of a mesh of those two ideas. The place where players started wasn't intended to be a protected starting area. Originally it was completely lawless. As events in the game unfolded, the starting area became part of the Realm of Stondar which was ruled by an NPC dwarven prince named Noreg. Noreg's actions were, of course, controlled by the developers so when Noreg's decrees established laws, it was the game devs making the rules.
Of course, Noreg's laws stopped at his border and there were other realms with other laws and places with no laws. Noreg's laws were never enforced by the game software or arbitrary actions of the game devs. Only if Noreg and his dwarven warriors could catch you breaking the law and bring you to justice would there be any enforcement. In most of the Realm of Stondar, this meant the laws were almost meaningless.
More importantly, the players could, and did, have various ways they could change the laws of Stondar or any other realm. I can think of four methods that were actually attempted. Two of them were successful.
First I should explain the reason why so many people wanted to change Noreg's laws. This was because Noreg was a bit of a xenophobic tyrant. Shortly after he took over Port Town, renamed it Stondar City and established the Realm of Stondar, he used his dwarven militia to forcibly expel all the gnomes. This incident is known as the "kicking of the gnomes" in the lore of MotG. Then Noreg had his dwarves construct stout doors to seal all the city gates of Stondar City and issued a decree prohibiting anyone except dwarves from entering the City of Stondar. Since Stondar City was the main trading center for commodities, food, weapons and magic, this was a disaster for nearly all the player characters in the game who weren't dwarves.
The first idea that players thought of to deal with this was to overthrow Noreg which many people plotted and some actually attempted. No one ever put together a serious military force to attack Noreg. Instead, a few enraged player characters attacked the guards of Noreg's militia and were killed.
The second idea was to pray to the gods for divine intervention. The gods sent an emissary to discuss the matter with Noreg, but that was all. The players also went to find Noreg and talk to him. Noreg was one of our more advanced NPCs who could carry on conversations on any topic. A delegation of player characters actually convinced Noreg to change his most controversial law. Noreg wouldn't repeal it entirely or remove the doors, but instead of just banning non-dwarves from Stondar City, he agreed to let them in if they would pay a tax of ten copper pieces (which was not a trivial amount in MotG) every time they came in the gate.
He posted armed guards at the gates to collect it. This resulted in all sorts of realistic and unforeseen consequences such as the guards attacking non-dwarves trying to enter the city despite the fact that Noreg had repealed the law banning them. The guards would also frequently get in raucous arguments and humorous exchanges of insults with non-dwarf travelers. Then, there was also the matter of guards swindling unwary travelers out of large amounts of money by suggesting that travelers could pay one silver piece instead of ten copper pieces (even though a silver piece is worth more like a hundred copper pieces).
Despite all these problems, the fact is that Noreg had changed the law at player request and players were able to come in and out of Stondar City to trade again. A lot of economic activities sprung up to avoid the tax, too. The gnomes built their own small village outside Stondar City and started doing some of the same sort of business that people previously had to go into town for such as buying and selling fish and spears. Traveling merchants prospered since it was now expensive to visit the ones in town. Also, of course, dwarves were exempt from the tax so they would offer to take money or goods into town for you to buy or sell. This wasn't so popular because non-dwarf players were reluctant to trust dwarves they didn't know with goods or money.
This sort of thing probably encouraged the fourth method of changing the laws of Stondar which players attempted successfully. That was secession. A player picked an uninhabited spot far from Stondar City and set up his own realm. The islands he claimed were adjacent to Worfin Island, which was part of the Realm of Stondar, but the decree Prince Noreg had issued annexing Worfin Island had not specifically mentioned the smaller outlying islands. Relying upon this loophole, a human player character named Radnar claimed some outlying islands and declared them to be the "Kingdom of Radnaria". A few other humans and one or two elves joined him. Prince Noreg did not recognize the new kingdom, but he didn't send troops to attack it either. He did interfere with trade between Radnaria and Stondar City. So the end result was King Radnar got to make the laws on those islands instead of Prince Noreg.
This is my vision of how laws should be implemented in an MMORPG. We had some NPC's set up realms and laws, but the opportunity existed for player characters to do the same thing and they did. If enough players had cared about it, they could have completely replaced the NPC princes and lords and created a world where all the laws were made by players.
Originally there were no NPC rulers and no laws. I created them mostly so that players would see what was possible. Until then, nobody had thought of setting up a realm. Most people are really not accustomed to playing true sandbox games where just about anything is possible.
That seems cool . . . but how did they make their own laws.
I am not grasping how you coded that in.
It was done the same way laws are made in real life. Someone has or claims the authority to make them. They get written down and published and then the authorities can try to enforce them. We had a wiki that players could edit to post things like that. Not everything needs to be coded in.
Keep in mind that the game software did absolutely nothing to enforce any laws. Well, except for when NPCs were enforcing them such as the gate guards at Stondar City. That was done with the same sort of scripts that typically control any NPC action.
Player-made laws could have been enforced by NPCs the same way, but in the actual game, there was only one player-controlled realm ever established and there were no NPCs in it except a foreign visitor or two.
OP is right.
Only guilds who stay "true" to why they were formed, are those who gank. I have'nt seen a guild who truly offer any protection in many many years.
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
So essentially, the system was the same as in UO, EVE or Darkfall. NPCs enforced the rules the way the devs programmed them and the player-created laws were only enforceable as far as the player who decreed them was able to convince/bribe/force other players to follow those laws.
wasnt DAoC Faction based?
Interesting but I doubt it is usable in larger scale. Those ideas are generaly very short sighted.