Well am going to create a text game over an MSN robot. The basic idea was that the gamer starts out with a specific amount of money. He can divide it on training a horse, or betting on one. I don't know a lot about real horse racing, but I thought the total lot of betting would be distributed along those who bet on the winner, with weights proportional to the bet. After discussing it with some friends, the main complaint was: It would get old very soon. I also guess I have one go at making it succeed, so I don't expect people to try it out as the concept progresses. Current additions are: - Buying a horse <controlling who can pay to train it, and who can collect info about it> - Lend money for a combination "interest" and winning "portion" - Kill a horse - Buy info about a horse - Buy info about players thnx for any help

I'm sorry to tell you, but those games are boring with the most advanced graphics imaginable, how do you think text would be?

Those games, despite their dis-satisfying structure, are still made far too often. Why? Because they're easy. Building a game on statistics is one of the simpilest tasks a game designer can do. I would instead, if your going for something text based, make a very interactive "choose your own adventure" game.

For an example:
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-You travel up the stairs and come to a dead end with a locked door. Hall is too dark to see in.

Type: look for light

-It is too dark to see... perhaps you could use another sense.

Type: feel for light

-You scan your hands up and down the walls untill you encounter a switch. The light flickers a bit, but then bursts and sparks and glass shards fly out. There was a key inside the lightbulb...
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I used to make these kinds of games and I still find them amusing today even with all the graphics technology I've made. It's still fun to do those kinds of games, and they're getting very hard to find.

Just make sure your program can regognize a LOT of commands. "Unrecognized command" over and over again gets really tiring.

Well would it still be that boring if it was a MMG?
I mean, yeah, statistics based games are boring when u're alone, but how about when u're competing against other people, trying to figure out how they would think and stuff like that...
Am not defending the concept, just seeing whether it's worth makin or not, and in fact I only need to know that it "might" be interesting bcz i so much want to do something with the robot technology (which u can get from www.incesoft.com..)

Lol, I don't think MMG is a word, but I know what you're saying.

I would offer you two peices of advice.

1. Yes, multiplayer would boost the games level of fun by a substantial amount. How popular do you think couster-strike would be if you could only play with bots? If people are able to talk to eachother in an organized manner, that adds a whole new demintion to the game. No matter how good of a programmer you are, you can NEVER program a true human element.

However, it is also an issue of getting people settled in for the long run. If you plan to make the game multiplayer, there is something you must remember, fast paced statisitics lead to chaos and therefore frustration. What if a player could gain and loose all his money in a single hour? I know you're thinking just make the system slow, but the problem with that is people have to actually commit to your game. And if people decide to blow off the statistics, you're game just turns into a chat server. It happens.

I'm not putting a downer on our skills or your imagination, but personally, I don't belive for a second that people are going to get that immersed in a text based game, no matter how many visual aids you may have.

I do have a suggestion though, you're game might actually do very well in the cell phone games market, especially if multiplayer got involved (but I'm not even sure that's possible).

Hehe, yeah.. I meant MOG.. mixed up with MMOG, anyhoo

Well, maybe communication should be drastically controlled for a game of betting. As in to sell information in the game, it must be presented as an item instead of just state.
To explain, let's say you ganged up with someone to put down a horse. Under some circumstances [probability], this creates an item of info that's leakable. Another player has "detective" ability and with a little spraying of money here and there, he might get this information and then sell it. All in all is controlled with money and probability or luck (as in who is who)..

But then again, more protection is needed (hide identities of each player, fake handles to each person, shuffling and stuff like that) that perhaps bragging becomes impossible and the game is fun no more.

Maybe a race per day is normal..
After all, it's just a chat bot, so it's not that much pain to log on for like 5 minutes per day, twist some knobs here and there and then go.. Then come again to check results, where then u'd have the chance to twist some knobs once again.

The mobile gaming suggestion is pretty cool... I'd prototype the game first on PC and then I'll see :)

Quote:Original post by arithma
But then again, more protection is needed (hide identities of each player, fake handles to each person, shuffling and stuff like that) that perhaps bragging becomes impossible and the game is fun no more.

Completley agree. Structure is the only thing that keeps the game away from chaos, however, if too much structure is involved, your player feels like he's in a classroom. You wouldn't want someone sitting at their computer playing with a paper football :D

Also, you have a good idea about having the game automate itslef while the player is not on... How about you have the player be able to build a "to do" list and input it into a control panel. That way, when they leave, things like feeding, training ect would be automated. The schedule would repeat everyday untill you changed it.

However, the player should not automaticly make money, this will have to be done manually (otherwise what's the point of logging in?). So for instance, say you had someone give you a sick horse to cure, you could take the horse in, build a schedule for it, and leave it there for a couple of days (you could be logging in though during this time). Then when the player returns to the horse, he can give it back to the person and charge his fee.

I think this will remove emphasis from gameplay and make more of an organized social community with cooperative gameplay on the side, which is a good thing. The thing is, about the cell phones, if the game is single player, cell phones are the best, if it's multi, computers are the best. lol, who wants to text message all their chat XD !

**ow my thumbs!**