Let''s say you have a big chunk of money. A really BIG chunck of money. (i don''t, but I might know someone) Is it conceivable to run a first-person shooter Diablo II style? Super-customizable characters (and I mean super) stored on the server? The goal would be to create a context for the gamers, a little virtual black market of killers and criminals, where they could develop reputations, acquire bigger, meaner weapons and equipment, get higher and higher paying missions. ??? ====== "The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates "Question everything. Especially Landfish." -Matt

Customization will probably become easier and cheaper as tech becomes stronger. I was just reading about algorithmically generated textures and such (as it applied to randomly creating a planet, that is), so I it''s probably inevitable that this''ll be used for characters.

I think this could be very popular in a MMOG. The more people can customize their avatars, the more they can feel personally connected. The issue really is one of engine capabilities (how many polys can that really baby push?!?!?)

BTW, you may not need Bill Gate''s chump-change account to create this kind of game. Instead, create a gaming community and throw it out to them. Imagine having something like Poser 4.0 for character creation (tho'' w/ an easier interface). Just as they do for skins, your player could create in game objects and textures as well.

Now, in order to insure that you don''t get Spiderman and Bart Simpson models running around in you Diablo 2 levels with flaming dildos or whatever (you know some people will do this!), give players the ability to approve content. In fact, a good model would be a "server approved content only" option.

And for incentive, somehow reward players for creating the content (with status, or in-game money, or moderator ability, or whatever).

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Just waiting for the mothership...

Agreed with Wavinator. The more customization you allow, the happier the people will be. They want to be recognisable. If you allow a system where people will be assured to be seen by others as they desire, you might have in your hands a blessed scroll of Design doc.
I would like to point out my idea that Diablo II is so interesting because people can emulate the games they used to play with action figures (GI joe ?).
The more artifacts, fancy bells and whistles you bring in, the merrier... IMO. But I''d like to know if you think I''m too quick to judge Diablo, as I am really proof testing my idea here.

Wavinator : I don''t think you really need to reward the people creating content. The fame of putting their name as creator of the thing is big enough, plus non creators would feel left overs and cheated if the reward is in-game. Plus being able to run around in your own personal set of armor + model + skin is mightily enjoyable. If you want to do something cool, make sure that personalised designs stay unique, and can''t be stolen/used by other players : If I design my own model+skin with AHW written on it, I don''t want any one else to wear it.
... unless of course the guy killed me, and took my armors because they were better than his own, in which case I was just a braggart and deserve the humiliation

youpla :-P

Have you ever played WWF Warzone or WWF Attitude for the Playstation? Ummm. . .not that I have. . .(Ok, I was a console junkie in high school, I admit it)

Anyway, in these games, you could customize the gollmighty heck out of your wrestlers, and it was all done with preset options. You had 8 or so different body types, 60-some shirts to choose from, 30-some hairstyles, eye-styles, etc, etc. This was mainly due to the limitations of console, but it could help out with the bandwidth problem as well. Depending on how well you designed the database of possible designs, you could represent an entire customized skin with a few bits per character. You would just assign each design element a number, with the actual costume elements stored client-side. The character''s costume code would load when they logged in, and would be stored client-side as well, for the duration of the game. You could extend this to customized weapons, vehicles, etc. And the design process could be just point ''n click for the player.

Think this would work? This is a plan I came up w/ when I was trying to do this for a 6-10 player LAN game, but I never got to try it out. If it would work for a smaller amount of players, it should be easy enough to extend it to MMOGs as well.

Also, you could avoid the disturbing image of spiderman fragging you w/ an oversized dildo blaster, since you would be controlling the set of components the player could use. You could also periodically offer updates for cheap, or free.(if you feel like being nice)


If you see the Buddha on the road, Kill Him. -apocryphal