MMOs and social networking

[denizsi]

Has there been an MMO with Facebook/MySpace/FriendFeed/Twitter/whatnot integration yet, other than flash MMO silliness? For a while, I've been thinking about a modern day MMORPG without XP farming, grinding and looting, and about how to make it appealing without these basic man-ape, ptimitive game hooks, where success and progression would be tied to politics with PvP politics the main focus of the game and combat is mostly PvP and mostly only for when things go shit, eg. a player robbing another player, self-defence, being a scum asshole etc.

I thought about using the presence, the real world as a backdrop and use social networking to carry and mix game events into people's lives, and reflect certain events on such sites into the game as game events. Imagine that game is like your Facebook or MySpace etc. account (those against either, STFU and GTFO unless you have ideas to expand on these), and you can fire the game up for an hour or two, receive quests, solve others, negotiate with quest players (preferrably everything player driven with as few NPCs as possible).

Similar to live RPG campaigns, players, depending on their current level in certain abilities, status and power would be given "main quests" with multiple sub-quests which players can issue to each other and the outcomes of these "main quests" would depend on how you, or the other players handle the sub-quests, and since there would be a lot of political PvP conflict, events could be carried out to SN sites, and feedback from "bystander" members of such sites (actual people who just aren't playing the game) could have an effect in the game too. Still too vague.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Heh, my father, for a while, as a freelance consultant was working on a project to explain and show the potential of an integrated social network MMO for mobile phones and the possibilities of generating big revenues through such a model, to a telecom R&D firm in Boston. "We could take something like World of Warcraft, use it like a social networking site like Facebook, and put it on mobile phones."

He was actually paid $250,000 a year for convincing and showing such ideas that he himself "did not have the skills or the desire to even execute himself".

On topic, I think the way to make it work and make a game about PvP politics is to maybe make a MMO about feudal lords and barons, with their own castles and knights, who regularly conspire through chat with other players, and make plans to attack or siege other players, and take over the spoils of their territory.

 

[denizsi]

So what did he actually do? Just fluff talk, perhaps with some market research?

The sieges and the like never work in my opinion. I've seen plenty of player sieges in several MMOs, and they all looked pathetic.

Players conspiring with and against each other to each others' faces and from each others' backs sounds a lot more exciting and fascinating to me.

 

[Wyrmlord]

It was all just fluff talk - his job was to make powerpoint presentations. :D

I was once toying around with the idea of a game about feudal warlords. Join under a great experienced warlord, earn land and labour for working with him, build your own small army, conquer other fiefdoms, take back concubines and peasants from them to work under you, give back a share to your own lord, betray your own lord, become the lord over other new players, and so on.

 

[denizsi]

Shit, I can make presentations and the game itself for that money!

 

[Wyrmlord]

Oh, a lot of people make their living by making powerpoint presentations.

In some IT companies, you are assigned to a project, but they don't assign funding to the project until there is some sign that something could come out of it. So the people assigned to it just develop powerpoint presentations just to show what their ideas are, and what could come of it.

Then, the company will give them funding, which will be used to do more research and do more powerpoint presentations, to show researched projections about the feasibility and possibility of the project.

And then it goes on for a while, like say even 18 months, all of making powerpoint presentations, with the team coming to work to make important decisions like font and colour scheme to be used in slides.

After a while, the big guys say, "This project seems like it has some value, but maybe the risk and potential cost might not be worth it, and we could do something else which might even be better". New project, more preliminary work and powerpoint presentations.

I have talked to some brilliant engineers from MIT who have done nothing but make powerpoint presentations after joining a high profile organization.

 

[denizsi]

So what's your father's actual profession?

 

[Wyrmlord]

So what's your father's actual profession?

Oh he was just a consultant, nothing more, nothing less.

He is now a stock trader.

 

[denizsi]

Slightly relevant:

Hello Civ Fans!

I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished Civilization® Revolution™ last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.

We’ll offer a closed beta of the game soon, so stay tuned for details on how you can sign-up to participate. The full game will launch in 2010. For more information about Civilization Network, including development updates and behind-the-scenes posts from me and the Firaxis team, join our Facebook fanpage here.

Thanks and Stay Civilized!

Sid Meier
Director of Creative Development
Firaxis Games

http://www.facebook.com/civnetwork