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Community MMORPG project
MikeJT
Member UncommonPosts: 84
Been wondering if it would be possible to get a group of people together over the internet to develop an MMORPG.
The project would obviously need programmers, database designers, modellers, texture artists, animators, sound designers, music composers and project managers. I'm sure atleast some people in the MMORPG.com community would possess these skills.
Could even be in 2D like UO which would probably make things a whole lot easier.
Comments
You do know that this would take years of effort right? And how would you compensate people for their time?
However...
If you have some good ideas, I might be able to help out a bit with the design and possibly project management.
Where's the any key?
It would be a community project like a lot of free software that is available.
People would be compensated with the experience and personal satisfaction they gain from working on a project which produces a functioning game. :-p
I currently have a 7-page design document detailing a concept for a crafting system and the character attributes in the game. It also contains a little bit on the skill system, ranged weapons and how armor works. I have have thought about a lot more features but am yet to put them into writing.
Yeah and then you need to replace this dude cause he left because he got a kid. Then the other one grows up and feels more like party all day.
Doesn't look easy to find people with enough dedication to get to a finished product.
Good luck though
Being a community project, people coming and going isn't such a big deal, so long as those people keep decent documentation and upload their work to the project's online storage on a regular basis (trying to work out what someone elses code actually does is always a bitch when there's no documentation).
You can always have multiple people working on the same thing too. Like if one person creates a character model, another person might texture it, a third person might rig it for animation and test the rig, and a fourth would create the animations. If any one of these people leaves the project it's not such a big deal.
With strong management I could see such being realistic. I was a contributor to Linux in the early to mid 90s. Even as large as the project was, there wasn't much chaos.
I don't want to be negative here
But you should realize that those situations take huge time and energy.
Even with documentation, the next guy needs to adapt and in worst case scenario he doesn't feel like adapting, which leads to discussions. But you would need to find a replacement first, one that is skilled enough to continue the work.
If you manage to finish a project like that you may consider it a very nice achievement and you will all have great respect from me...whatever that means to you
I don't see most Linux forums turning into flame-wars, name calling, threats and rage.
MMORPG.com...well, I don't think the folks running around here are the best group to work together. Also, to the OP, how would you make the game work? Would you force people to follow your design with no input? Would you let people do what they want? Either way I don't see it working.
Rule #1
Never ask about starting a 'community' project that is contingent on your vision.
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No one will care until you get to A 95% point. Essentially to the point where people can touch and play with what you have already. After you get to such a point you'll have all the hanger ons you could want and then some, a lot of smally indy MMOs litterly have to put out statements to make such questions go away(need help?).
As for a defining a 95% point, you already put in the first 50% of a projects work to get something functioning(90% point) then starting the endless percent to keep the project going.
edit: To be honest if you don't have the social mettle to get some people in RL to work together there really isn't much of a reason to even try online.
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
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Wrong site to probable ask on.
That is the core of the problem right there. Almost everyone you bring to your project will have the same thing. Whose do you choose? A community MMO project is a monumental task, if for no other reason than the people that want to do these community projects all feel their ideas should be the ones used.
If you really want to get one started, build the core content first and then bring in people to help. It will ensure the project has some kind of direction and goal to it, giving it a much better chance to move past the stage where five people spend two weeks debating the theme and name of the game before giving up on the idea entirely.
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Community projects are a nice idea, but rarely work. Too many people with their own ideas and no real leadership is normally what happens.
Well when I say 'design' document what I really mean is a collection of ideas (most of which are very original and never before seen features in an MMO or other RPG game). Obviously other people would bring their ideas to the table and hopefully a team would be able to pick the best of the bunch.
That's the ideal outcome but obviously there's no garantee it'll actually work that way.
I've had experience working on an internet "community" game project, and I've also followed other community's projects as well.
A lot of what has been already said echoes my personal experience.
It seems like a really fun idea, but the reality of people working on a game as a hobby is that the turnover is extremely high, and with that the game is continually being reimagined and remade. In effect it stays in a state of perpetual limbo, in which it always looks like it should be able to be finished within a year or two, but never is. Without people being paid, the incentive to conform to existing ideas, styles, etc. that one is unhappy with is almost nonexistant. And if you try to limit the level of input the people making your game have in the creative process, they will feel they're better served by going off and making their own game where they have greater control.
The successful community projects seem to be those with a very narrowly-defined goal that builds on pre-existing material: Updating the graphics to a classic game. Restoring content. Remaking a game in a slightly different format. Reproducing an environment, battle, etc. from a movie or book, often as a mod to an existing game.
In any case, my advice is to start small. Really small. Like an arena that includes coop (teams vs a ladder of baddies) and pvp battles. If you have some unique ideas for combat and character-building for example, an arena type of game is a great venue to try them out and to get your ideas circulating in the gaming community in a relatively short amount of time.
Beginning too ambitiously will assure your game is never actually playable.
This is impossible because people have VERY different ideas here to what is a good mmo. I when I say very different ideas, i really mean it.
Some love sandbox ideas and in other side some HATE full loot, other hates permadeath (not saying a sandbox need to have this to be one) so much that they even have optional permadeath, some even seriously say "if you want permadeath just delete your char when you die", some complain when a game being developed has only sandbox stuff (even with 90%+ in the market or being developed, being themepark ones)...
On the other side other complain about nowadays mmorpgs like hell......
We could make a voting poll (a star rating based system [unlike the government polls that you vote in the best one only, you dont give scores] or it would not work) like this.
First the team choose if the game would be:
A)Scifi
B)Fantasy
C)Both
D)None
After the team get the winner.
They vote for how the fantasy or scifi will be (if they won), something like
Hard Scifi vs. Soft Scifi
Low Fantasy vs. High Fantasy
Then they would for stuff not based on eras (can happen on all eras), to check if we will have
Gods? Magic? Aliens? Time travel? Multiverse? Monsters?
Then after that they choose the era, and then other stuff.
Anyway, this would be a way to try to get votes based on comunity, but some would see the end result of the votes is not what they want to develop and would say they will not develop the game, so even that would not solve the problem.
My opinion? Start with making a community game first.. if you've never actually done anything like this.. creating something small and simple first and expanding on it is your best hope to achieve anything. Lets hope by that point you have enough of a dedicated base of those developing the game that they can stick with it.
Honestly, if you had a few dedicated people, you could utilize an engine and see results fairly quickly... just keep the project open.. but strong management is going to be key in accomplishing anything.. and that means you need to have a vision that others agree with which is not something often found on this site.
You would be better looking at local colleges where young developers are looking for experience than on this site where people come to destroy rather than build. Gotta love the "Hater Smash" mentality.
A company,just like funcom or blizz or whatever culd make a website,taking ideas and projects from players,and than recruit the players who cames up with the best ideas to actly contribuit for th game dev
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#1 problem I see with this is people have to agree on an idea.