Nefarious Means

I'm up to no good. I want to get that out of the way right from the beginning, just so there are no questions later.

Author: madeux

I truly believe that this is what the MMO Genre needs.

Simply put, MMO's are just too expensive to make.  With the astronomical costs involved, the risks of innovating are likewise astronomical, which is why we keep seeing the same "clones" over and over.  The best we can hope for is the standard clone with a new arm, maybe some different hair, but anything past that just can't happen.

I was thinking back to the good old days of the Quake Mod (Yes, I'm old).  I don't know how many of you were aware of, or involved in, the Quake Mod community, but it's something I haven't seen since.

Quake was pretty cool as a game, but the mechanics behind it were phenomenal. id Software, in their infinite wisdom, opened up the game to modders and allowed us to essentially create our own games.  You could literally do anything you wanted and put it out there for everyone to play as long as you gave it away.  And for those who wanted to sell their creations, they made that easy as well.  Many people forget, or never knew, that Half-Life and Counterstrike were just glorified Quake Mods.

Why can't we have that with an MMO?  Let us create our own worlds, develop our own quest chains, and design our own leveling system.  Do you want full loot PvP?  No instances?  Skill based?  The ultimate sandbox? 

I'm not talking about simple tools that will let a bunch of morons put out a bunch of garbage.  I want the framework available so that people with some skills (programming, graphics, animation, music, etc) can come together and put together a niche game that would otherwise be impossible, and then see where it goes from there.