Originally posted by Ozmodan

Mosf of these posters don't seem to get it, once someone solves something the solution will be on the net within hours.  So that precludes using solving mysteries as a way to advance your character, those that look things up will always be miles ahead of you.  Even introducing randomness won't help much, just more solutions posted.

While single player mysteries work well as you are playing against the computer, they just collapse when it comes to a MMO setting.

I have not read one suggestion in this thread that works for a game like this in a MMO setting. 

Something that no one has pointed out about Clue is that you play as one of the suspects, but even you don't know if you did it until the end of the game. While you know it's going to be one of these 6 people with one of these 6 weapons done in one of these 9 rooms, you don't know which particular combination it is for that instance.

But I don't think a Clue-style game would make a good MMO.  It would rapidly get repetitive and tedious as you figure out which of the 324 instances you're in. Could definitely be done as an online game, but just in an online gaming parlor.

I do like the idea of a mystery MMORPG. I'd play it, for sure.

I could see it being a skill-based system with a few affiliations instead of classes. Maybe cop, private eye, and reporter. Each affiliation would be part of your character's back story and give you access to different resources. Maybe as a cop you'd have access to a crime lab and as a PI you'd have better connections to the underworld. As you solve cases, you get skill points to go towards diplomacy or intimdation or "eyesight." And maybe you start getting bigger cases, promotions, stories, pay offs...

For team situations, you could get points based on your contributions to solving the case. Everybody gets something once the case is solved, but you get a bonus for finding evidence or scaring off an intruder before he commits another theft/murder.

The big hurdle would be creating new content and foiling spoilers as much as possible.

There is only one game that I know of that has really given this idea a go.  Myst online or Uru.   It failed though with a huge fan base still but I think Myst Online's problem was the character models and the UI.  They were just too off the norm of the MMORPG standard and it made the game feel sticky and difficult to control.   The character models were rather plane looking and had horrible hair and customizing was limited.   Then Cyan Worlds ran into money problems and as far as I know still can not afford to bring the game back though they did manage to regain the rights out of a pretty bad deal.   Right now I think the company is living off its phone game versions of its older games.   I really loved the Myst story, its too bad it did not work out.

It is a good idea [the article]  but to pull it off its going to have to be a really polished piece of work.   Just look at all these comments and you see you have to convince people that the way things are is not how they have to be.   Typical humans.

I just want to ask two questions about this Mystery MMO idea and perhaps to answer them as well:

1. Why a mystery MMO would be a good one?

I think beacause it's something new, something different. We all see that today's MMOs share same features of game mechanics, like: creating a character, level advancement, item hunting, raids, crafting, PvP (unbalanced and sometimes that is close to balance).

1.1 The name is the key
Mystery is something that is lacking in the MMOs! There is no mystery, no single player experience, no secrets. Still, I believe that this is something that can be achieved, if the game world is creating in instances (as Dana said) but not for many people ... 5 maybe 6. If there is no need to create a character, then the players will depend only on their intellect and cunningness. But if there is a character selection and every character has a specific predifined skills, could be more interesting and if there is more than one way to solve a mystery ... well that's a different story! Maybe that's the point, maybe this would be the funniest part, that everyone knows how the mystery can be solved but the combinations to do that are many! Well, this is the hardest thing of developing such game and it's not about numbers, balance of classes and skills ... it's about clever mind games, interessting puzzels with more than one options (if you understand what I mean:))

Well, for me, mystery is a one man experience. I can't share that kind of feeling with noone else, even the closest ones ... but that is just me. The other people have different point of view, different needs.:)

1.2 The Feeling
That's something that can be achieved with good level design, sounds and music and hell yeah, they are very important for a mystery.

1.3 The Setting
For me, a real mystery is an alien planet, ocean depths, or even the human body. Traveling through time is something new for the MMOs too. And please, let there be a new setting, no Star Wars, no Star Trek, no Stargate, no Conan, no DnD, no WoD, no WoW!!! "There is only one salvation - our own imagination"

2. Why a mystery MMO would be a bad one?

My answer is this: There is now action, no competition! Everyone needs a good gameplay, as developers like to say for each game: Easy to learn, hard do master ... I may add: Easy to promise, hard to implement. I bet, most of the forum users here and gamers all over the world like to see a really good gameplay, instead of amazing graphics.

... Still there could be a competition like ranking points according to number of successful missions/quests/mysteries and depending this ranking points a new instances for the player would be available.

So, that is my opinion! :)