But I've had a pretty cool idea for how the dynamics could change for a fresh and interesting experience in MMORPGs without any need for improved technology. Players joining the game choose to be either destroyers or protectors. The destroyers gain from and enjoy murdering the NPCs in the world, the protectors try to stop them from doing so. A sweet implementation of this would be set in medieval england where the protectors are servants of god (priests) and the destroyers are vampires. Vampires would have to cover up during the day or stay out of sunlight, and need to drink blood to stay alive. The priests would be cool priests ranging from holy knights to priest mages. If a protector is bitten he becomes a vampire, thus creating a third class that doesn't want to drink the blood of the NPC's but has to to stay alive. There would be common NPCs and VIP NPCS, who make up the social and political structure of the world. The protectors and destroyers simply exists to play havok with that society and defend it retrospectively. The protectors would be rewarded with riches and the adulation of the NPCs, the vampires would be rewarded with greater and greater powers to disrupt. At the highest levels the vampires have to drink blood more urgently until the need for blood is too great to maintain and the vampire will ultimately perish and the player have to start anew. Any thoughts?

Sounds like it could be interesting. Sounds similar to Aeon thats coming out with the good and bad guys thing (or most mmorpgs for that fact)

it sounds like it could work like the others. The only problems I can see is where there might be a lack of balance between the 2 sides. Unless you decide to add a handicap to one side I don't think a priest would have much fun getting killed by 5 vampires at the same time because the priest to vampire ratio would be 1 to 5. : /

I was a little off guard really. The title says your not into MMORPGs but the contents says you want to make another one...

The difference between this good and bad guy thing is that usually, whatever clan you belong to and whether that clan is perceived to be evil or not, your clan will have its players and its NPCs. In this system, the NPCs are not part of any clan, and the game revolves around being good or bad to those NPCs and the world rather than to other clans.

This actually came from watching people killing pigs in the fields in warcraft to gain experience and wanting to defend the pigs!

I'm not into them because I have precious little time as it is, I have enough friends already and don't enjoy grinding. I do think Warcraft is a beautiful looking game and a quite oustanding gaming achievement. I'm obviously not wanting to discuss that here though - I'm pretty interested to see whether people find the above idea an exciting prospect, or whether it already exists out there in some form before I develop it further.

Quote:Original post by thelovegoose
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If a protector is bitten he becomes a vampire, thus creating a third class that doesn't want to drink the blood of the NPC's but has to to stay alive.

...

Any thoughts?

Surely this will happen *all the time* and 90% of protectors will become vampires within a few hours of playing the game?

So it's the carebears (vampires) grinding mobs while the PvPers (priests) gank them?

I dunno. SOunds like it could turn into a not-much-fun kind of experience. Your vamps will be bitching about getting reamed while they're out harvesting brains or whatever, and the "heroes" will cry about target-poor environments.

Quote:Original post by WavyVirus

Quote:Original post by thelovegoose
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If a protector is bitten he becomes a vampire, thus creating a third class that doesn't want to drink the blood of the NPC's but has to to stay alive.

...

Any thoughts?

Surely this will happen *all the time* and 90% of protectors will become vampires within a few hours of playing the game?

This reminds me the one plague that spread from a certain WoW instance. It was a serious issue and was patched quickly, I believe.

Something that takes over the entire population quickly is never fun in the long run.

I hope I'm not completely off topic with this but I'm currently reading Philip K. Dick's "Ubik". In this book a future human civilization is described where some humans have evolved and have gained telepathic abilities. Only a very small percentage of the population is capable of telepathy and there are different telepathy "skills" and the corresponding "counter-skills". There are telepaths who can read minds, look into the future, revive the dead and then there are telepaths who can counter those skills.
With those ingredients Phillip K. Dick describes a fascinating world with two organizations: the one organization hires all telepaths with skills. Corporations or individuals can rent them for espionage or all kinds of things. The other organization hires all telepaths with counter skills. Corporations or individuals can hire them to counter the "skilled" telepaths.
In this setting it would not be clear who is good and who is evil because one fraction can read minds (evil) but also revive the dead (good) whereas the others would prevent the reading of minds (good) but may also prevent reviving the dead (probably evil).

So this could also be a theme for a destroyers and protectors like MMO. I like the idea of having two sides and a third neutral party that has to be protected or destroyed a lot.

Quote:Original post by LmT

Quote:Original post by WavyVirus

Quote:Original post by thelovegoose
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If a protector is bitten he becomes a vampire, thus creating a third class that doesn't want to drink the blood of the NPC's but has to to stay alive.

...

Any thoughts?

Surely this will happen *all the time* and 90% of protectors will become vampires within a few hours of playing the game?

This reminds me the one plague that spread from a certain WoW instance. It was a serious issue and was patched quickly, I believe.

Something that takes over the entire population quickly is never fun in the long run.

This is a matter of implementation. If the infection rate is too high, if there are no measures to reverse the infection then this will be a major problem.
Good gameplay design is about having a good high level idea and creating levels of implementation down from that high level down to what is then a working model. So this issue is not a reason why the high level idea wouldn't work, its something that must be accounted for in one level and subsequent levels of the implementation.

Quote:
So it's the carebears (vampires) grinding mobs while the PvPers (priests) gank them?
I dunno. SOunds like it could turn into a not-much-fun kind of experience. Your vamps will be bitching about getting reamed while they're out harvesting brains or whatever, and the "heroes" will cry about target-poor environments.

Being a vampire wouldn't be for those who don't like being attacked, likewise being a protector wouldn't be for those who need to constantly be grinding. I'm more interested in making it an exciting and enjoyable experience for a lot of people than to appeal to everybody.