Comments on That's a Terrible Idea: Design Concept: Playful Gods

This reminded me of one idea a co-worker at 3DO an...

2009-07-18T06:26:59.805-04:00

This reminded me of one idea a co-worker at 3DO and I discussed back in the day. The thought was to have a world inhabited by different creatures that went about their business. Player characters were energy beings inhabiting a "floating city" looking down on the world. The characters couldn't fight or influence the world directly, but they could possess a creature and use its body. Rivals could possess a body to attack someone doing something they didn't want accomplished, etc. What type (that is, power) of creature you could inhabit depended on your experience controlling creatures.

Never got further than a bit of discussion, though.

It seems like you'd need a lot of NPC's in the wor...

2009-07-12T21:28:17.937-04:00

It seems like you'd need a lot of NPC's in the world. Othwerwise, as motstandet said, new players are going to come along and have no characters to choose from.

It also sounds like there would be a lack of important "famous" characters in the world - the Gandalfs and what-have-you. If everyone owns a Gandalf, he is no longer Gandalf, just a very powerful mage.

Those shortcomings could be overcome by having the NPC's you control as more of a kind of inventory screen, rather than actually existing and carrying out day to day tasks in the world. Then again, that kind of reduces to the character selection screen in a standard MMO :/

I do think the God idea sounds interesting, playing as an indirect environment manipulator in group-based encounters. It offers an interesting alternative for a "mage" type feel without being a glass canon DPS machine.

How sustainable is this? Three years down the line...

2009-07-12T11:17:05.834-04:00

How sustainable is this? Three years down the line, if a new player comes on board, how difficult is it for him to get worshipers? If you have a limited population of plebeians, and they are all following the players who have been playing for three years, what course of action does the newbie have?

And I really don't understand why 2 role, simultaneous progression is that outlandish. In FFXI Warriors were DD and tanks; Red Mages were DD and healers (and support). They had different gear for each role and used different abilities, but if you invited the RDM to a party, you could, 9 times out of 10, ask him to heal*.

* I simplified that immensely. FFXI party composition wasn't easy. If a RDM was healing, you better have a NIN tanking.