19 May 2006, 9:15 AM
what is the fear in testing out the unknown I wonder?
The MMORPG might be nice, but only if they implemented it well. I would expect player crime families to be by far the most important unit in the game -- and benifits to match -- able to rent out entire floors of office buildings and deck it out with sweet gear, ability to run extortion schemes on NPCs, prostitution and gambling for NPCs, and all stats are measured in crime family influence points. The players gain only influence with time and in the process gain standing within a family, and perks as a result (these might be expressed in skill bonuses, or NPC bodyguards, or something) for doing good things for the family, and the family gains influence for any money they make, rival gangs they destroy, etc etc.
Powerful families will have powerful abilities, like the ability to influence politicians and the like. THe only difficulty is that crime has to have a clear and definable punishment behind momentary exp loss -- prison however is out of the question, as nobody would pay to have their character sit in a jail and rot for 10-15 years -- unless there were a perma-death concept, which is of course highly unsatisfactory. This is a major problem I see affecting the development of any sort of crime-based game. Also...where's the variety in playstyles?
just some thoughts
The MMORPG might be nice, but only if they implemented it well. I would expect player crime families to be by far the most important unit in the game -- and benifits to match -- able to rent out entire floors of office buildings and deck it out with sweet gear, ability to run extortion schemes on NPCs, prostitution and gambling for NPCs, and all stats are measured in crime family influence points. The players gain only influence with time and in the process gain standing within a family, and perks as a result (these might be expressed in skill bonuses, or NPC bodyguards, or something) for doing good things for the family, and the family gains influence for any money they make, rival gangs they destroy, etc etc.
Powerful families will have powerful abilities, like the ability to influence politicians and the like. THe only difficulty is that crime has to have a clear and definable punishment behind momentary exp loss -- prison however is out of the question, as nobody would pay to have their character sit in a jail and rot for 10-15 years -- unless there were a perma-death concept, which is of course highly unsatisfactory. This is a major problem I see affecting the development of any sort of crime-based game. Also...where's the variety in playstyles?
just some thoughts