» Wed Jul 23, 2014 8:11 am With the advent of games like No Man's Sky, the Oculus Rift, and the renewed interest in sandbox worlds and living story via online gameplay, I've compiled a list of my futuristic ultimate gaming desires in the hopes that one day when I'm more middle aged, these games or similar will become a reality.
Here are my three top "must play before I die" game scenarios:
The Elder Scrolls: Nirn Online: The ultimate TES sandbox virtual reality experience, potentially as the final TES game. I want what TESO should have been: The final battle on the face of Nirn between the Empire, the Elves, the return of the Dwemer and the Daedra.
- All of Tamriel explorable in a single world space along with every continent on Nirn and every Plane of Oblivion.
- I want full scale PVP and PVE, no faction restrictions.
- The ability to become anyone you want: Be a warrior, join a guild, become a trader or have a job.
- The ability to live in Tamriel in your own dwelling.
- High quality voice chat and built for the Oculus Rift with real first person perspective.
- The ability to sail around the globe in player owned boats or on a large ship as a smuggler, trader, pirate, legionnaire to any port on the planet.
- Player driven economy and politics
- NPC quests
- The ability to directly influence the world either by personal actions (i.e becoming head of the legion say) or via group actions (conquering a territory in a large scale battle).
- The possibility of becoming Emperor, not through some idiotic game mechanic but rather through real human leadership skills or through manipulation.
- Live actor characters who can influence player story and overall plot and vice versa.
- Full Dark Brotherhood factions that are mostly player driven and will carry out assassinations for other factions
- Mounts of all kinds
- Full scale naval battles
- The ability to make deals with the Daedra that may influence the ongoing narrative.
- A well written final story Michael Kirkbride style. Give me that 4th to 5th era C0DA weirdness.
Uru: Myst Online (New Overhauled Version):
If any of you are old enough to remember Uru, it was a short lived online experiment set in the worlds of Myst. Publisher Ubisoft cancelled it before launch while still in beta and the game came back with limited funds in 2007 under GameTap before being shut down again (due to limited funds (no [censored])). It was honestly one of the most interestingly sincere attempts at totally re imagining online gaming and gaming in general. Much like my scenario for Nirn Online, it was focused on non-linear living storytelling, much like living in an interactive play or Game of Thrones style series where events happen in real time and the players are catalysts in the unfolding of the narrative, with puzzles added into the mix.
There are two projects right now aiming at rebuilding this incredible experience who's potential was only hinted at. These are SAND GAME at http://www.sandgame.tumblr.com and DIRT: Uru Live at http://www.thedeepcity.com, both of which are attempting to re imagine the game, anolyze its past and current faults while staying true to its original vision.
For those of you who don't know Myst lore, it goes basically like this:
10 000 years ago, a civilization of inter dimensional travelers named the D'ni came to Earth to escape their planet by writing a book describing our world, enabling them to link to our world and establish a civilization in a giant cavern deep in the Earth's crust. They had the Art of writing books which allowed them to travel to any world they described and gather any resource they needed. This led to a kind of Imperialist pride that resulted in their destruction when they were confronted with a human outsider named Anna. 40 years later it would be Anna's grandson Atrus who would rebuild their empire with the help of the player.
In Uru, the setting was the ancient cavern where an archaeological human society called the DRC are attempting to rebuild it along with ordinary people who are descending to the city because they are "called" here by unseen forces. Here they are apt to rebuild the ancient D'ni civilization while exploring infinite dimensions (Ages) and uncovering hidden schemes hiding in the shadows (the Bahro).
I would love to see this same premise again with these features before I die:
- New "Ages" monthly along with new areas of the city weekly
- Player driven content - fan made Ages or D'ni restorations.
- Living breathing world with player driven guilds (Writers, Maintainers, Builders, Cartographers, Surveyors) and economy.
- The ability to get jobs and earn pay.
- The ability to harvest resources from Ages.
- Non-linear sandbox puzzle gameplay and environments
- Photo realistic UE4+ graphics and engine built for VR.
- Evolving story with live actors interacting with players.
- Joinable factions (DRC archaeologist, D'ni, Bahro sympathizers)
- Player homes in the neighborhoods of the D'ni city.
- Group puzzles
- A news feed on imagers that relay live or recent major events.
- The ability to restore/rebuild sections of the city.
- The ability to rise through the ranks and have control over larger decisions in the city.
- Major game-changing live events (think a major earthquake, or contact with a new civilization)
- Bot NPC minor quests
- Massive PVP games (the Gahreesen Wall) or smaller scale pvp on a frequent basis (card games, Ahyoheek, Gemedet)
Basically a great big live story arc with puzzles and infinitely diverse dimensions to explore.
Star Wars Online:
I love the Star Wars universe, it just svcks that the Star Wars games so often svck. What I want is the Elite: Dangerous version of Star Wars. Kick SWTOR in the garbage because what I'm proposing is:
- The entire Star Wars galaxy (or at least the known territory)
- Procedurally generated planets mixed in with hand crafted content or some futuristic version of this with infinitely better results than what's possible today.
- Full scale PVP in first person in space. Think intense dog fights and massive battles like that Eve Online world record battle a few months back.
- The ability to hijack super space cruisers.
- Procedurally generated ship interiors, especially for the large ones.
- The ability to be a bounty hunter.
- Be a Jedi if you so please or a smugler or any combination of professions as long as it works.
- Join sides with the Empire, the Rebels or the the Hutts or be a lone ranger.
- Epic living story that evolves in realtime. No cutscenes.
- Realistic distances in space with orbiting stars and planets and moon/star/planet rotations.
- Landing on planets with procedurally generated biospheres and cities with some general direction involved.
- All major lore planets as accurate as in the movies: Fully explorable Naboo, Tattooine, Coruscant, Dagobah, Bespin
- Major inspiration from Ralph McQuarries concept art and world building. If you haven't read The Illustrated Star Wars Universe yet, I highly recommend it as it greatly details in character the history and locations in the Star Wars universe, which is richly detailed and well thought out.
- Every other known planet explorable: Gamorr, Nall Hutta, Dantooine, etc.
...and that's all. I hope gaming technology, culture and development can reach this level of depth within my lifetime. I just want to explore and live in worlds.
Thoughts?
