The Future of Persistent Worlds In MMOs 302
Zonk did an interesting interview with Ed Stark and Dave Williams, employees for an MMO developer named Red 5 (and experienced tabletop game designers). They talk about their ideas and plans to bring about the next step in MMO gaming: increased persistence in online worlds, where an objective, once completed, stays completed. Williams said, "Right now for most of these games, when the player saves the princess and he starts walking away from the tower — if he looks back he's going to see the princess at the top of the tower again." Regarding their current work, he continues:
"If you save the village, it stays saved — you saved it! But maybe now that village becomes an objective for another player; maybe something has to be done now because that village wasn't destroyed. And so on, and so on, and so on. Building those mechanisms to make it a world that reacts to a player's actions instead of existing in a static state. That's the world we're talking about."
Re:Too real (Score:3, Funny)
Go for it; do these things in real life. Oh, and let me know how you do as a paladin fighting orcs and other assorted beasties, because I've always felt my true life's direction lie in being a holy warrior using the power of light to heal my compatriots and harm my foes.
Join the SWAT team. You can't tell me some of the drug addicts those guys take down don't look like freaking Orcs !
Re:Players as enthropy (Score:1, Funny)
Yes, we're currently working on an neural net-based artificial intelligence project which involves a lot of what your saying, we've nearly reached completion of a working system but we've had a few non-technical issues along the way which has slowed us down.
The system in question uses cloud computing and should cause a big shift in the current paradigm.
The day will come when the NPC AIs get smart enough to realize that the players are ruining their world and band together to exterminate the players.
Anyway, Cyberdyne System's SkyNET will soon be tested in a live environment near you, hope to see you there! :)
Re:Too real (Score:2, Funny)
To be fair, so are crackheads.
Re:Too real (Score:4, Funny)
Join the SWAT team. You can't tell me some of the drug addicts those guys take down don't look like freaking Orcs !
Plus, the busts have no permanent effect on the world, and next week the site will spawn new orcs to be busted by another team! Just like an MMO!
Re:A persistent world? Done. (Score:2, Funny)
5 euros a month? I'm American, that's my whole month's salary, you insensitive clod!
Re:This problem has killed Roleplaying imho (Score:5, Funny)
How could a bard sing a song about great conquests done if everyone has done the same thing, and nothing ever changes?
One name : Lerooooooooy Jenkins
Our current MMO does this already (Score:4, Funny)
With more than 6 billion current subscribers, it seamlessly tracks the direct and indirect consequences of every player action. Cause and effect are so detailed, that it is possible to build toy MMOs within the simulation. It features total immersion with 5 or more senses that routinely covers 16 hour continuous stretches of simulation time. Longer stretches are possible, but the experience starts becoming erratic after 24 hours or so of simulation time. Administrator interventions are quite rare and well integrated when applied - to the point that many players believe there haven't been any.
The immersion is so complete, that when a players connection is temporarily interrupted, their experience in the real world is often remembered as a dream when returning to the simulation.
All player decisions are exhaustively recorded, and are reviewed and judged when their subscription is terminated.