I've was looking at picture of some F2P game and the angle made me question if the game was a sideways platformer on rails, and it made me interested... sadly I saw more pics, and it was just the camera angle. Though this gave me a bunch of ideas on how to handle an online game on rails, but then I have these feelings that perhaps it's just pipedream.

I'd like to get some opinions on a few styles "renovated" for MMO use.

1. Sideways/Vertical Platformer

God I have so many examples of how this was done well. Super Metroid, being the best example of a 2d game with a fully explorable world (Maple Story does it currently too), Shadow Complex doing the 3d changeover of the style, and (my fav) Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Goemon) that did [everything] at once; i'm talking the platforming styles of Double Dragon (sideways, w/ up/down axis), Ghouls and ghosts (pure 2d with jumping emphasis), and Jackal (the vertical progression). God NES days were the shit!

Anyway, what about an giant MMO world with the traditional planes of movement from these old games with new graphics? If you ever played the newer ones like Valkyrie Profile 2, you can see how lush the graphics can get (I am a Vanillaware fan though). I feel it would bring something new to the table, kinda retro in a sense, but man it has a lot of limitations and tend to make the world feel much smaller. I would assume that you can make the game as big as you want, but you would need to adopt a new stance on linearity - ya can't be running through the same long-ass path, like in the old days, over and over again.

2. First-Person view on Rails

Only example I can conjure is the Umbrella Chronicles for Wii, but I remember this [badass] arcade game with a swivel "gauntlet" style joystick to make melee swings with that inspired me to no end growing up. I ran across it once in a casino arcade as a kid, and I'll fed-ex a cookie to whoever can remind me what the hell that game was. It was glorious. You basically walk along a one way path and things come out and attack you, then you swing at them with the gauntlet-controls and they drop loot and you can upgrade with at towns you stop at. Was amazing for an arcade game to have that, but then again, it had timers everywhere to force you into the next area. Buy quickly.

On to how I think it could work - two ways; motion controls and light guns.

Why have why given up such awesome gimmicks? I still own the guncons and every game ever made that uses them (ps2). Maybe this is a step we are not ready for, but with all the current tech in these areas - the home MMO is not that far away. Movement is just a matter of going forward or backwards while jumping over pits or dealing with obstacles; think first-person Crash Bandicoot. Your basically on a reel and just need to make inputs as needed, and if the scenery is gorgeous enough (and you can pan the cam) then you found a niche. Like a Myst online, well original Myst. The combat could be in motion controls for melee, and light guns on targets for range, plenty of ways to do random attacks on a reel - but the setting and options to take different directions is key here. You should be able to break off and take different routes, and when people pass by they will be on the same pathing as you (you can see each other), but depending the situation the models can move around each other (and have no collision). Melee would be interesting with movement in mind, I think I need to ponder that longer, but the rest is pretty nice so far as a basis.

I can't conjure any ideas on how to do this with common peripherals though, this kind of game [requires] a manufacturing deal with people that make this kind of stuff and proper marketing - could be huge if pulled off though. Has the potential to be "cinematic" in all forms.

Originally posted by GTwander

Only example I can conjure is the Umbrella Chronicles for Wii, but I remember this [badass] arcade game with a swivel "gauntlet" style joystick to make melee swings with that inspired me to no end growing up. I ran across it once in a casino arcade as a kid, and I'll fed-ex a cookie to whoever can remind me what the hell that game was.

If you can find it in here, do I get the cookie?

I had a short lived concept for this sort of thing as well, except it was inspired more by fighting games.

2d fighting games are in general, an incredible experience. There are multiple levels of play, from just being "good" at the game, to being incredible at the game through thorough understanding. (Frames and the like.)

So I thought it would be interesting to allow people to create a 2d character (or maaaaybe even 3d, in a 2d world (can't say I like SF4 too much)) and encounter eachother as you move from zone to zone.

There wasn't much more thought to it than that, aside from running around and beating eachother up.

...but whatever.

Originally posted by Plasuma!!!

Originally posted by GTwander

Only example I can conjure is the Umbrella Chronicles for Wii, but I remember this [badass] arcade game with a swivel "gauntlet" style joystick to make melee swings with that inspired me to no end growing up. I ran across it once in a casino arcade as a kid, and I'll fed-ex a cookie to whoever can remind me what the hell that game was.

 

If you can find it in here, do I get the cookie?

No cookie for you, but the controls on the cabinet were way similar to "Title Fight" on that list, which was also awesome. The game was about knights tho. I think it was an SNK game on thier typically multigame arcade setups or something, fairly sure.

Hmmm, MMO on rails... that thought makes me think of thems arcade games, like Time Crisis - or alternatively, the N64 game Pokemon Snap. I could imagine an MMO that runs a bit like either of those games, I suppose - proper gameplay and reason to go into these "missions" or "instances" or whatever they'd end up being, however, is a big ol' monster that I don't even want to touch.

What, would players meet in a sort of "safe area" or something, some sort of central hub for the game, and be able to compete in these missions? Would be more of an online arcade rather than an MMO... hmmm...

Makes me wonder if there's a market for that sort of thing? You could call it "shooter training - ONLINE!" and just make it similar to Time Crisis' style of gameplay, with a big central hub where players' avatars meet up and talk about how they finished the whole thing in one life, or whatever.

...And here I was expecting a MMO topic about Ruby on Rails....

Oh, well

Originally posted by Barrikor

...And here I was expecting a MMO topic about Ruby on Rails....

Oh, well

haha, same