I don’t care what you think, if you don’t want to help me then I’ll look somewhere else. I just thought someone here would have the experience to help me.
Maybe I should look for help in a HTML forum. I’m sure those guys will know more.
[quote]I don’t care what you think
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I hope nobody hears you flush() in space.
Well you could always come and gc() before I have the need to flush().
I think all this method-talking discussion should close() by now.
Also, I think I could make an MMORPG with not too many sweat and tears. A fun and balanced MMORPG is a slightly different venture. I mean, I understand all the underlying technology, I just don’t have enough motivation or dedication to the idea. Looks like the EL guy linked in that article put his entire life on hold in order to make the MMORPG. Not interested!
Something that I wonder about is why almost everyone wants to make an MMORPG or similar, especially for their first project.
What’s the psychology behind wanting to make a different mmorpg from those that already exist? Is what you expect from an mmorpg really so much different from what they offer? Or do people want to start out with an mmo because there’s less content to make? Since mmo’s are usually open-ended they don’t need to have a real story?
I have to agree with Varg of Burzum fame when he asked why everyone wants to make their own music (especially if they’re just going to copy something existing and not add anything new or interesting). It’s the same for games. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, but not many people really bring something innovating to the table. People should rather make interesting shorter games. I’d rather read a lot of well-done short stories than read a bunch of duplicated, long-winded novels.
[quote]Something that I wonder about is why almost everyone wants to make an MMORPG or similar, especially for their first project.
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I think the problem is that the game-mechanics of a MMORPG actually seem trivial to implement:
- have your character walk around a bit,
- click on an item to interact
- have some inventory with items
- combine some items to create new items
it’s easy! way easier than MMO-pacman, because MMO-pacman requires an AI for the ghosts and walls in perfectly designed levels, and actually making it easier for the ‘thingy’ to round corners, because you don’t want to be a pixel off and be blocked by a wall. Oh what a daunting task, the frustration, the lack of players! No, a MMORPG sounds much more attractive, it’s much easier to balance, because players build their own world, so everything will balance itself, and everybody wants to pay, no such luck with MMO-pacman.
True. Pixel detection is so very difficult. I’d rather go with an OverlyMMO text adventure with 3d text.
lets build the matrix 
g666, you are already in one. But you can build a matrix simulation if you want, I’ll release my MMRLRPG UniverseEngine as open source (it should fit into Jupiter) and you can use that.
I see, we are finally getting somewhere! ;D
A couple of reasons I suspect:
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Everyone loves having fans. I can spend 6 months on a single player game, release it, and get little more than a few comments like “nice game”, and that’s about it. Having your own world where you can walk around and see your users playing your game is considerably more involved and rewarding on it’s own.
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Even the big budget MMOs are staggeringly shallow and massivly frustrating from an armchair game designer point of view. 90% of missions are just the same “kill big guy X”, “kill N amount of enemy Y” or “take item to place Z”. As Riven said, it seems like it should be really easy to create something much more detailed and fun that that. Plus the nature of MMOs usually means that they’ve full of visual glitches (people walking through other people, teleporting, lagging, ropey collision detection) caused by lag, which make them look much cruder than they really are.
Contrast with something like Halo or UT where there’s a lot of stuff going on visually at the same time, with tons of polish and precision collision detection/physics/animation/etc. It’s not surprising that there’s lots of n00bs who think they can do better if they just work hard.
I agree with all the guys on the board. A MMORPG is, even in it’s simplest form, a ton of work and nothing trivial.
If you were to reduce your scope to say a really simple 2d multiuser game, then you might get something running in time.
If I’d make a game, the first iteration would be a Zelda style 2d multiuser game. Nothing fancy. (see below)
When we look at todays games, they have gone through countless iterations. No company just decides ‘hey lets make a MMORPG’.
GuildWars and WoW (while being simple compared to others) both evolved from Diablo(2).
Complexer games like NWN have a long history of ancestors. (BG is now about 9? years old)
And even they were inspired by MUDs and Gauntlet games.
Even with today’s tools, you cannot just leap over those iterations.
What I always tell my underlings is that the result is what defines you.
If you say you want to make a MMORPG and you fail, that will be how you are measured.
Look at your peers in this board. Do you think you will impress them?
Were you to say you are starting slow and trying to learn and are willing to do all the iterations, I am sure the reply will be very different.
And your chances of failing with a smaller project will be a lot lower.
@malberts
MMORPGs are currently the fad, so people will make them. It used to be FPSs or MUDs.
(though, as an old school pnp gamer I shudder when I hear ‘MMORPG’)
To be honest, in my off time I dabble around with a little network game (afore mentioned Zelda game). Mostly to try out stuff and further my experience.
I do not even plan on having a UI. Done some research into using BeanShell for scripting.
If a small multiplayer prg dropps out at the end, great. But that is not the goal.
@Community Created Game:
Could we all make a game together? Sure. TBH I could not think of a group of people I’d rather make a game with.
But I also do not think it is realistic as a off-time project.
This is probably slightly off-topic, but what do you people think of a (mm)orpg on j2me? The last time I played any j2me game (about 2 years ago) I was only aware of 1 such online multi user rpg, but the game never worked correctly so I deleted it. I don’t know if more exist now, but since people are apparently so into mmorpgs and cellphones are becoming more and more powerful (and you probably have it near you most of the time) I was wondering when some major j2me (mm)orpg was going to be released (if not already)?
One of the few I know of that actually was released was Tibia (iirc).
Many others wanted to do this as well but I heard very little of them afterwards.
While the idea is surely nothing new, this topic often came up in the Mobile Game Comp I had worked at and most agreed that it would be technically possible but not of interest…
The mobile market is different then the pc market. Flatrates are still not common. In order to pay for the servers you’d need subscriptions. There are no real demos you can try first.
Distribution can be an issue. Device coverage (more devices supported = more income but also more problems and less freedoms).
Finally the overall quality of the games is not up to par with pc titles.
What I had suggested back then but was not done would be games where you can play offline and online.
Think Gauntlet were you only have one char and the other three can be ‘hired’ online. The hirelings can be NPCs or be other players characters.
You have no direct control over them, they just tag along and fight with you. (possibly with some minor configuration possibilities by the owner)
In order for other players to be interested in uploading their chars they are rewarded with 1/16th of the exp and gold.
The service collects a fee for the hirelings and blocks them for a fixed time.
So when a player is not playing their char can still progress.
In addition I would also allow viewing the chars online and with top 10 lists and like.
Possibly also with an auction house.
Traffic would not be that great and with the web-based content you can also support ads and that might compensate for your costs.
Thus a singleplayer game with the feeling of multiplayer.
Hmm, thinking about it. It sounds just like a scenario for my network game.
A little off-topic are we? talking about how the worlds a simulation… anywho If anyone would ever want to make an effort to start an MMORPG on this forum, I would definitely join.
Lol.
Well we are making an MMORPG. See Riven’s post on the previous page. The goal of the game is to see whose avatar codes the best MMORPG. So if one of you can start on an engine simulating engine, that would be great.
Or if you think your skills are way too advanced for such a project then you can join trussel’s MMORPG instead.
Ha very funny, I have an engine simulating engine already thank you very much, along with my source code to the Matrix.
Hehe cool. Post the code when you have the time.