[Note: If you don\'t like reading long posts, just skip down to the \"big idea\" at the bottom of the post]
With so much free time on my hands, and a need to come up with a real programming project for me to work on (not that I\'d ever finish it, or even get past stage 1 for that matter), I was sitting around the other day trying to think of what might be a cool idea for a game that hasn\'t been done already (something pretty hard to come by these days).
I\'ve become an RPG fan over the past couple years, so I starting thinking along those lines. MMORPG\'s are even better, because I like the player interaction. So I starting thinking of what else to add...how about a persistant 24/7 game world? I\'m still not sure if such a game exists, though most likely it does.
So I toyed with that idea for awhile, trying to think about what else might make it interesting. Well the one thing that always got me about some RPG\'s is the boredom of questing, how sometimes you had to do the same basic quests over and over, just so you could make some extra money and gain a little favor with NPC\'s. Then I thought, how about a world completely quest driven by player characters? I quickly ruled that out, since there\'s no way you could get enough people interested and organized in the game to do some serious role-playing. And then...it occured to me:
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What about a persistent 24/7 MMORPG with completely dynamic questing, that means not a *single* hand-written quest, driven partially by PC\'s, but most of it by an intelligent AI system that encompasses thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of NPC\'s??
--> [More explanation follows, feel free to skip the rest and post if you like
] <--
The way I see it, is an idea borrowed from some of the \"tycoon\" games out there, where you aim to please several hunderd NPC\'s wandering around your park/mall/zoo/bar/whatever, and each NPC has attributes, personality, likes and dislikes. So what if this system was enhanced so that the AI was incredibly aware of it\'s surroundings, other NPC\'s, and players, and would be constantly making decisions that would affect their lives. In short: NPC\'s that don\'t just stand around and answer PC questions and buy/sell stuff from PC\'s, but actually *act* like they were PC\'s.
Now I know it seems a bit far-fetched (ok, REALLY far-fetched), but what if it actually worked? I mean, it would be like an actual real-life world (remember, I\'m thinking persistent online game world) where time actually has meaning! NPC\'s would behave like real people: growing up, learning skills, getting a job, performing your job, get married, have a family, and defending your family from whatever dangers lurk in the shadows. And since all NPC\'s will have their own characteristics, many shared among people of a town/city/province/continent, they will become hostile toward anyone who threatens their peace.
So here you are, a PC, dropped in the middle of this world which is constantly moving, constantly evolving, and which you will have to work with to survive. A game where the fate of hundreds could rely on whether you are able to fulfill the duties required of you. A game where the focus is not about your avatar, but rather the values that that avatar holds true.
