I have an idea for a MMORPG. You''re in Africa. You can play as a creature, be it a lion or a jackal or a leopard or whatever. The basic idea of the game is survival and earning respect within your social group. Say you start out as a lone lion, in the plains. First off, you''re going to need food, so you have to hunt your prey, which you get to do in classic National Geographic fashion. Then you''re going to want to get a pride. You could find a lioness, but you have to win her over by showing your prowess, a stat that increases by fighting other lions or jackals. Get a lioness, and you''ll have the start of a pride, but you''ll have to wait awhile for a family to start forming. Larger families allow you to attract more lionesses, which will give you a stronger hunting force for providing food for the family. If you don''t want to spend the time to build a pride, you could always steal someone else''s. Find a pride and challenge the leader, provided your prowess levels are fairly comparable. If you win, you get his pride. You can kill any newly acquired cubs, but their mothers will be less likely to do a good job of gathering food. If you don''t kill them, they may grow to challenge you later in life. Having a family is one thing, but you also have to find a place to live, a place with ample hunting grounds and water. You''ll have to move around when the dry season arrives. Occasionally, you''ll encounter other creatures that''ll want to kill you. You''ll have to employ strategy when crossing a river filled with crocodiles. The more you do, the higher your prowess level goes. The ultimate goal is to have the optimal home, a huge pride, and go unchallenged both within and outside of it. Other animals do similar things, but employ different tactics. For some, having a large family isn''t the most important thing. For some, it''s mere survival amongst a sea of predators. A warthog, for instance, would have to find the best mudholes, improve its foraging skills, and get its family to safety when a predator appears, protecting them if possible. Basically the game revolves around people from all over, living out these creatures'' lives. There should be a set of AI creatures to spice things up, several localles, and implementation of real mannerisms that each creature would perform. Could be a hot one.

I didn''t read all of it (sorry, in a hurry), but it sounds cool.
My suggestion: do some research to make sure all the facts are straight. As was stated above, Africa is a continent, and you want to make sure your lions aren''t hanging out somewhere that they wouldn''t be.


-------------------------
(Gorgeous graphics)+(beautiful sound effects)+(symphonic music)+(no gameplay) != Good game

Just so you know, there was a game using the same concept released in the early '90s. From what I've been able to ascertain, I think it was called "Lion" and put out by Sanctuary Games; a similar game dealing with life as a wolf came out thereafter. Came out around the same time as the original X-COM, so it's not like the market is saturated; I just thought I'd let you know.

The original, of course, also wasn't MMO.

ld

[edited by - liquiddark on May 1, 2002 7:29:43 AM]

Sounds like fun, but why make it MM? I don''t see how it would add much to the game. Not saying it *wouldn''t*, just asking what would be more fun about involving other people, that would also make it worth your while developing MMO capability.

The one thing I could see myself that could make it unique- no speaking in text. . .instead have hotkeys that would activate animalish body language and sounds (roaring, growling, purring, and such) in order to communicate. . . hehe that would force people to stay in character, now wouldn''t it?

If you see the Buddha on the road, Kill Him. -apocryphal