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Where to go with MMO Ideas?
Binny45
Member UncommonPosts: 522
Howdy all
Not sure if there is anyone out there in or closely related to the game industry, but I have a question.
How does one put forth an idea for any games that they have? I'm sure that day in, day out they are inundated with countless upon countless suggestions on the next "Big thing!". What does one have to present and where does one send it, to actually be taken seriously?
I will admit, I do have an idea. I'm currently working on it and am in no way ready to submit it yet (I figure I have about 3 months worth of work just to get the back story and pseudo mechanics down pat), but would love to know in advance who I would have to talk to and how to protect myself from having my idea lifted.
I've flown this by quite a few people (though not nearly enough), and they seemed fairly responsive to it, but ultimately it doesn't amount to anything until you have something to present in a relatively whole form.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I'm not looking for anyone to do the work for me, but rather just to point me in the right direction.
The reason why I'm asking here? We seem to have quite a few people here with a passion for gaming as well as people that are quite knowledgable as to the inner workings of a lot of these companies that produce these games.
Not sure if there is anyone out there in or closely related to the game industry, but I have a question.
How does one put forth an idea for any games that they have? I'm sure that day in, day out they are inundated with countless upon countless suggestions on the next "Big thing!". What does one have to present and where does one send it, to actually be taken seriously?
I will admit, I do have an idea. I'm currently working on it and am in no way ready to submit it yet (I figure I have about 3 months worth of work just to get the back story and pseudo mechanics down pat), but would love to know in advance who I would have to talk to and how to protect myself from having my idea lifted.
I've flown this by quite a few people (though not nearly enough), and they seemed fairly responsive to it, but ultimately it doesn't amount to anything until you have something to present in a relatively whole form.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I'm not looking for anyone to do the work for me, but rather just to point me in the right direction.
The reason why I'm asking here? We seem to have quite a few people here with a passion for gaming as well as people that are quite knowledgable as to the inner workings of a lot of these companies that produce these games.
Comments
Write the idea down on paper, ball it up, dip it in water, eat, crap it out in the toilet, and lastly flush it.
Nothing against you or your idea, but unfortunately the only MMORPGs that will ever get fully made and played by more than 50 people are by developers who don't want unique and interesting ideas. They want game ideas rehashed and tweaked internally by the same people who worked on the last "big" MMORPG. It is all about recycling with MMORPGS these days. Recycled ideas, mechanics, and developers. That is how you are able to recycle players.
you're not the first.... we get many people here saying they have this great idea and want to pitch it.
Heres my thoughts on it:
If you truly think this idea has some force behind it, complete it.
Write up a full report on the idea, detailing everything. Go over it, many many times. Try to find the flaws in it, try to find solutions to the flaws.
Come up with your lore, your game mechanics, EVERYTHING.
In the early stages of game design, you basically want to lay everything out on the table, and pick out what works, and what doesnt, so do it. Go through, find out what's good, and what isn't, and weed out things that are unworthy/necessary.
Once you are 100% sure it is worth something, since i'm crazy, I would do the crazy thing and print off 100 copies of my huge game idea, and ship it to every game development company you can find. Make sure to have a disclaimer on the first page saying that "once they read this document, they are legally not allowed to take any ideas that you have in your writings, because if intellectual property... etc" and wait.
Honestly, I know a few, only 2, but that's still a few, or maybe that's a couple, either way. I know people who have gotten their game idea made into reality this way (it was always some small game dev company that picked it up, but still, their games got out there).
Also, check out gamedev.net and ask around there, lots of people have great ideas/contacts, who knows, some day you might see your game played by players around the world
EDIT: Spelling Errors -.-
To actually be taken seriously, you want to have designed a few games that were at least moderately successful, or be well known to the developers at whichever company you're pitching to as someone with good ideas. The game doesn't neccesarily have to be commercial, designing a successful MUD might work too, but commercial success would be better since you are talking about a rather expensive project.
That's the biggest reason why game companies really don't want to hear your idea, if they were planning anything remotely similar or end up doing anything remotely similar then you'll say they stole your idea and get them stuck in court. Why even read your idea if it might possibly cost them money down the road?
How much money, exactly, are you looking to get for this idea? What do you think distinguishes your idea from the dozens of ideas each of the people already working at the company has enough to make it worth that money? How much creative control do you expect to exert over the final product? If it's much of any control, why should they give you that control over people who actually have experience making games? What about your idea, as opposed to the ideas they already have floating around with no ownership complications, will cause the people funding the game to think it will make more money?
Unless you have very good answers for those questions, you're not going to sell your idea to anyone.
As far as creative control, well, it's like any great story I guess. It's one thing to write it, it's another to try and implement it into a game.
I am actually developing my own backstory, character development scheme (one that has practically no end....), my own lore, everything.
Why?
Because one thing I've noticed is that when you use someone elses information/lore, the games tend to not translate well from their written or video form. We only need to look at Star Wars Galaxies to see this. Pre-existing content seems to almost doom a game before it comes out because of the "Lore Lawyers" that flit about.
I think one of the main reasons that EQ was so successful in it's day was that it developed it's own lore. Look at WoW. They did use previous existing lore, but they were smart enough to put it ahead of the previously existing story to ensure that people wouldn't be able to say "This should be like this, and that should be like that", because they are able to write the story as the story unfolds.
I think that there are still plenty of untapped ideas out there, just waiting to come forward. I am a firm believer in the fact that we have only scratched the surface of what an MMO can accomplish. I believe that the company that is willing to think outside the box, and look elsewhere for an idea, just might be the next big thing.
What I do know is that I try and look at what games do well and what they do not so well.
As far as MMO's go, we are no where near done.
As far as creative control goes, I'm not that dim to think that I would maintain complete control. Obviously the idea has to make money. Even the best of ideas fail if they are not economically sound. This has, however, been factored in and I believe that the MMO that I have in my head has the potential to be one of the most addictive games ever made, ensuring subscriptions for a long time to come. I also believe that it will offer a lot to not just the hard core gamers, but to casual gamers and role players as well. All games claim this, and this game is no different, but to be honest we'll never know until I can get it coded.
I'd be quite happy just to see this game exist in some form and be able to say "I helped make that". If I could make a living help make computer games, I'd die a happy guy.