Paperless paper
The new genre we are proposing in actually a new approach to game community development. The game is a multi-genre Massive Multiplayer Online Game that combines aspects of role-playing, first person shooter, simulator, tactical warfare and Real Time Strategy. The game allows for a diverse range of players to interact directly and indirectly to further the cause of their team.
The setting is earth with a technology level equivalent of pre World War I. The world is at war but technology is at a low level as compared to most current games. Airplanes are not prominent and are extremely costly in both material cost and skilled labor, radar and sonar are not invented and there are no nuclear weapons. With the low technology level a greater dependency is put on personnel for surveillance, information dissemination and tactics.
When you first begin the game you do not start the game you actually enter an existing game[DPBJ1] . When you first enter the game, you choose one of the eight factions fighting in the war and start at an entry level position in you choice of a variety of professions; Military or Industry. At this stage, the game play divides into one of two paths depending on which profession you chose. For both paths you have a forced in-game tutorial, basic training/economic training.
For those gamers who chose the Military path, the game consists of tactical warfare in a first person shooter style, something like SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals and Rainbow Six. For those players who want to play more then a simple shooter the game will send messages recruiting solders for optional job/missions as where the player would assume the position of a spy, who would participate in scenarios similar to that of Splinter Cell. As the players progress in the game they receive payment based on their level time spent in the game world and missions.
The system includes a reputation system that tracks the soldier’s play and the rate of mission successes and failures. Players are allowed a respawn count to allow three deaths during the period of a single battle. On the fourth death the player is removed form the field of battle and placed in a field hospital. Once they spend time recovery time in the hospital they are returned to their battle group. If they are injured and removed from the field and spend time in hospital more them five times they are temporarily reassigned to another unit. Unknown to the player the other unit is made up of all NPCs which are sued to help train the player in combat and game play. The system does not allow for friendly fire; military personnel are allowed to fire on noncombatants (industry players); however, killing noncombatants will reflect negatively on the character’s reputation system.
As you play and are successful you start earning a reputation for yourself and the possibility of a promotion. You can rise from a mere soldier to a squad leader and all the way up the food chain to a commanding officer or general. As you rise you start taking on more responsibility, start commanding the troops below you. You will have to make tactical decisions in the field that might affect the war, and if you mess up, you will have to answer for it. Once you get to a certain point in the game, you have the chance of two paths. Either stay on the battlefield, as one of the commanders and become a hero of war, one of the legends. Or you can go to headquarters and start leading the war from there.
Headquarters will be arranged in the style of a Real Time Strategy game. You along with a council of advisors and other generals will be required to make tactical decisions on where to send soldiers for reconnaissance, skirmishes, raids...etc. Your unit commanders will report back to you with status updates of what is happening in the field, what the enemy is doing, etc. At this point you are not actually controlling the soldiers, but you tell the commanders below you what needs to be done and where, and it is in their hands to make sure it gets accomplished. You will have to employ real strategies of warfare. Once you reach the upper echelons of the Headquarters you will become eligible for the political simulation.
For those players that are not interested in shooting people or leading tactical warfare whether on the field or from headquarters, the game will provide a different perspective. A war is always costly and requires support. Hence people are needed to manage supply lines, lobby for alliances with different factions and make sure the troops are supplied with the resources they need. For the players who choose to start play in the industrial group the tutorial will provide them with instructions on how to participate in commerce within the game. The will be able to choose trades as farmers, shop keepers, or workers; each trade will have it’s own set of parameters that influence the way a play can function throughout the game. This path of play exists within a RPG environment and allows the player to accumulate property, wealth and power. The main consumer of the products that are produced by the industrial machine is the military. Players can sell their products to individual players or to a headquarters station which will distribute the products to their units. As the industry players develop their businesses they can hire workers, buy land and build new businesses. The players are not restricted to who they can sell to so some may chose to sell to two three or maybe even all factions. However, this act could have some serious ramifications if it is discovered by other players. The players in this area also receive ratings in the reputation system based on the success and failure of their business endives [DPBJ2] and the way they treat there workers. As the players build wealth and power they achieve higher levels in the social order; however, if they loose wealth or receive negative ratings on there reputation score they can be exiled to lower social economical levels. Like in the military component once a player reaches the upper echelons in the industrial world they become eligible for the political simulation.
The trading/selling process is not the only form of contact between the military and industry players within the game. As the lines of battle move as they do during an actual war it is inevitable that towns, cities and even countries are conquered by other factions. In these scenarios the noncombatants fall under the authority of the new military; however they are free to maintain their original allegiances. To this end they can spy on the new military and pass information to other governments, form resistance cells and engage in sabotage or even take up arms against the conquering forces. Therefore, noncombatants are allowed to handle weapons; however they are initially given speed and accuracy limitations when doing so and become susceptible targets by the military players while they are engaged in combative states.
In addition you are not restricted to the career path that you chose when you first started the game. As time goes on you may decide that you do not want to be a soldier any longer and can leave the military and look for work among the industrial group. If you have accumulated enough money you can buy property and start your own business or buy an existing business. If you have not saved enough money you may have to go to work for someone else who may or may not hire you based on your game resume to include your reputation score. Likewise you can decide that you no longer want to be a farmer or shop owner and enlist in the military.
The political positions are initially all game driven with input from developer players. As the membership of the game grows, the upper echelons of players who are typically more intense and serious players will be able to take on these roles. This will be available for purchase as an expansion mod for the game. The political leaders/players will be involved in intelligence originations, negotiate alliances and governmental budgets including oversight of RND of the industrial machine to develop new technologies such as tanks, naval crafts and airplanes. As new technologies are developed within the game additional expansions will be added to include vehicle simulation where you get to drive tanks and other vehicles along side with soldiers. A flight simulation, where you get to play air support for the troops and fly reconnaissance missions.
To prevent game termination, the game will be monitored by the developers and resources will be altered (added, reduced or depleted) via cataclysmic events such as natural disasters. Once any one faction occupies more than 30% [DPBJ3] of the world action will be taken to interrupt supply lines to reduce the factions ability to control all of there land.
The commercial purpose of this game is to provide gamers of all sorts and capacities an avenue to participate in a single MMO space by including a diverse set of game genres to increase the complexity of the game environment.
posted by D. Brown at
10:02 PM
