Perhaps the perfect way to introduce housing into an MMO is to make a game that’s all about being settled in a single location. Instead of travelling the globe as an itinerant adventurer, the focus could be on building up the player’s house and garden/ lands and playing lord (or lady) of the manor.
This actually reminds me a lot of the original endgame that was envisaged for D&D. In the original game, when your character got past a certain level you had the option to settle down, build a stronghold, and attract some followers.
Fortunately, someone else has already had this idea, and Firefly Games announced this week that they were working on Stronghold Kingdoms, a castle type MMO simulation.
I think the basic concept is brilliant, so I’m hoping they find a publisher and make a go of it. It’ll be an MMO all about the player’s house with some strategy stuff thrown in. What could possibly go wrong …?
Finally! Fantasy Eve. I don’t believe 2010 for a moment but when it eventually rolls along I think I’ll be giving this one a try. Hope it turns out as political as Eve is.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Castle games a decade ago. There’s something very satisfying about running your own little fiefdom, complete with an unassailable fortress.
…and now I’m reminded of the castle deathtrap in Girl Genius. A game that gave me *that* sort of castle to upgrade and customize, complete with ruffians to attend to, would make me a happy camper indeed.
That said, they play very well as single player games. Would an insular game like a castle game really work as an MMO? What impetus is there for players to interact beyond tossing Monty Python insults at neighbors, hiding behind their walls? This may especially be a concern if location and space are issues; if you get plunked down next to a couple of jerk neighbors, what then?
I do think it could be interesting, but there are some very real design concerns I have. I’m curious to see what they will do. Thanks for the link!
Interesting, one to keep an eye on.
Player cities are very cool but impossibly hard to do right. You need a hugely complex gameworld, mechanics and open PvP to make it work and be interesting.
Still, I love new ideas in MMORPGs and admire their vision! Looking forward to seeing more about it.
I agree, totally. We don’t really know how they’d expect players to interact in a game like this, and the downside to a permanent strategy based world is the risk that the losers eventually are run off because the winners keep getting more and more advantages.
But I do like that it’s a very different model from the standard DIKU/quest kind of thing, and I’m definitely going to keep an eye on it to see where they’re going.
Sounds an awful lot like The Sims Online – although many would have argued with the ‘G’ part of calling that title a “game”…. But the “house” was, of course, the focus of the game and all its activities (skilling, making money, socializing, etc.). Now, to layer that on top of a more active game like WoW…. hm! sounds intriguing…