Ah, the MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Since World of Warcraft its popularity has sky-rocketed. I want to make games, and to be honest, an MMORPG is a very intriguing concept. The onyl problem I can find now is that it seems like everything after WOW will always be compared to it in terms of gameplay. Well, I've come up with a few concepts which will, I hope, lead to a success.
First is a matter of setting. With all MMORPGs to date, the setting is constant - you're in a medieval fantasy world, or the future, or something in between. I hope to add a certain level of strategy to the game by having multiple settings for the game, tied around a central theme of a shattered reality. This way a player may be in a fantasy world one day, only to find their character in the future the next, or vice versa. Certain quests and goals could only be completed or attained in certain realms or, on occasion, between certain realms. I've already given a great of thought to the network connections necessary to pull this off, although optimizing the connections will take a great deal of time, as well as someone who is better-versed in networking than I am.
Next is a matter of uniqueness. One of the main reasons players continue to play MMOs is to attain some status that no one else has attained, to be counted as "unique" in some way relative to other characters. Allowing more players to be counted unique, if only for a limited time, encourages newer players to continue playing with the knowledge that more rewards are to come. My way of implementing this is to introduce "relics" to each of the realms, out-of-place objects for their setting that will randomly appear to players fulfilling certain qualifications. Finding a relic would grant you a title depending on the relic, and each relic would have certain properties helpful to gameplay. These would be time and/or other restriction in place so that a player cannot hold onto a relic indefinitely. Some relics may also require assistance to attain, to encourage interaction between players.
I truly hope that my ideas can some day become a reality. Until that time, I'll try to improve my coding skillz so that maybe I can make it happen.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Future of Displays
So I was looking through the gaming magazines at the grocery store with absolutely no intention of buying one, when I saw that the latest EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) had a bunch of articles on the future of gaming, including a promising tag line about paper-thin displays. Needless to say I was intrigued by this, so I left the store and magazines to ponder.
Inevitably, I got distracted by one shiny object or another, but eventually, I started to look stuff up. I found at least 3 different companies rushing to try to make paper-thin displays in three different ways. One uses tiny molecules, black on one side and white on another, "floating" in the paper and sends a current to the flip them in the desired pattern, another (the most popular now) uses OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) that make up a thin flexible screen comparable to most LCD screens available now, and the third I can't even remember. But it got me to thinking, as most things do. Didn't I hear something about a holographic display being developed? As interesting as the concept of paper-thin, flexible screens is, the concept of 3D interactive screens appeals more to the geek in me.
So I looked it up. I found not a holographic screen, but a heliodisplay (the sites were very insistent on making this distinction). The screen, developed by IO2 uses a finely controlled layer of mist to allow a computer screen to be projected on. The latest interactive model, the M3i, plugs right into a USB port and detect someone disrupting the display with a finger to allow for rudimentary dragging controls (unfortunately, no double-clicking). That's just awesome, but I still have to think - do I really want my display device for my computer to be spraying water into the air next to delicate equipment? I think not. I think I'll just wait for holograms.
Inevitably, I got distracted by one shiny object or another, but eventually, I started to look stuff up. I found at least 3 different companies rushing to try to make paper-thin displays in three different ways. One uses tiny molecules, black on one side and white on another, "floating" in the paper and sends a current to the flip them in the desired pattern, another (the most popular now) uses OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) that make up a thin flexible screen comparable to most LCD screens available now, and the third I can't even remember. But it got me to thinking, as most things do. Didn't I hear something about a holographic display being developed? As interesting as the concept of paper-thin, flexible screens is, the concept of 3D interactive screens appeals more to the geek in me.
So I looked it up. I found not a holographic screen, but a heliodisplay (the sites were very insistent on making this distinction). The screen, developed by IO2 uses a finely controlled layer of mist to allow a computer screen to be projected on. The latest interactive model, the M3i, plugs right into a USB port and detect someone disrupting the display with a finger to allow for rudimentary dragging controls (unfortunately, no double-clicking). That's just awesome, but I still have to think - do I really want my display device for my computer to be spraying water into the air next to delicate equipment? I think not. I think I'll just wait for holograms.
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