• 1) Freedom, as much of it as possible. In a real life sort of way. Freedom to build relationships, develop skills, gamble, craft, collect, gather, auction, explore, party, build. Which brings me to my next point (feel free to expand to this list, I just threw this **** out off the top of my head)

• 2) Building. What I'm thinking is very similar to The Sims system of building. Virtually total freedom to build whatever you want within a set of given materials. A very, very large set of materials with new stuff added constantly in updates...we don't want things to get stale in this department, as this is where most of a person's creativity will go to. Total freedom in this aspect like in Minecraft or Second Life could easily cause problems/griefing/abuse.

• 3) Socializing. Of course one of the largest aspects of a game of this nature. You want people to be able to connect and socialize effortlessly. Possibly even some sort of social media integration to give it a more personal feel (completely optional of course). Friend/Enemy List, Chat, PMs, etc. etc. I want to emphasize COMMUNITY here.

• 4)Graphics. Another Sims Influence here. It should look realistic yet slightly cartoonish as well. We want to be somewhere in the middle of these two. Maybe even say **** it and go cel shaded?

• 5)Sound FX, Music. I can handle this almost exclusively, and whatever audio I am not able to engineer, I know people who can already. I usually produce electronic music so there may be a slight influence of that in the music. Im thinking relaxing and/or happy classical/elevator type music with electronic undertones.

• 6)Gameplay. I want something like the sims have set up (select an action/multiple actions for your person to complete) but I dont want this to be a ripoff of what they did, or honestly anything relatable to it. Maybe simply the very core foundations of the sims gameplay. I would really like to hear what other people have to say about this section as it is one of the most important aspects of a simulation type game, and can be approached in very unique ways.

Originally posted by Vhaln
Worst thing about The Sims is the modern subrubia theme.  I can't even imagine anything more boring.  Take a game like that, put it in a fantasy or sci-fi context, and I think it'd be a much bigger hit.

I love the modern subrubia theme. I find that it's refreshing in a sea of Fantasy, and a lake of Sci-fi theamed MMOs. However in response to the origonal poster. I liked the idea of The Sims Online, however the game itself wasn't very good. You only controlled one Sim which wasn't a problem untill you realized that often you were just grinding craft skills in a house full of other people doing the same thing. This left you with one of two things to do while grinding. Read a book, or talk to the other people in the lot. The SIms Online could then be boiled down to an interactive chat room, not really a game.

In modern MMO'dom I'd say that The Sims Online was a early version of Second Life. Second Life has a lot of what the Sims Online was in it but even that "game" if you could call it that lacks a central purpose and driving reason to "play" it. If they did have a new Sims Online which would be awsome, I'd hope that they had some form of legacy system. You shouldn't control one sim but rather a whole family. Sims should age and die just like the single player version and you should be able to marry off sims to other players and recieve them from others as well. Kids that you can't take care of (or chose not to) should be taken and adopted to others. Think of the digital genetics you'd see. Family trees would grow massive and span whole servers.

Lastly for each family I'd say they'd need to have family goals akin to quests in other MMOs. Something to drive the player forward. These goals could unlock special objects, rare furniture, or uber saught after lots. It could even unlock special Sim traits like Vampires, Witchcraft, Plant Sims, Zombie Sims, and so many other cool things. Just some ideas to add to your own. I liked the Sims Online but I felt like it couldn't hold a candle to any of the single player versions.

Originally posted by LightHeretic

Originally posted by Vhaln
Worst thing about The Sims is the modern subrubia theme.  I can't even imagine anything more boring.  Take a game like that, put it in a fantasy or sci-fi context, and I think it'd be a much bigger hit.

I love the modern subrubia theme. I find that it's refreshing in a sea of Fantasy, and a lake of Sci-fi theamed MMOs. However in response to the origonal poster. I liked the idea of The Sims Online, however the game itself wasn't very good. You only controlled one Sim which wasn't a problem untill you realized that often you were just grinding craft skills in a house full of other people doing the same thing. This left you with one of two things to do while grinding. Read a book, or talk to the other people in the lot. The SIms Online could then be boiled down to an interactive chat room, not really a game.

 

In modern MMO'dom I'd say that The Sims Online was a early version of Second Life. Second Life has a lot of what the Sims Online was in it but even that "game" if you could call it that lacks a central purpose and driving reason to "play" it. If they did have a new Sims Online which would be awsome, I'd hope that they had some form of legacy system. You shouldn't control one sim but rather a whole family. Sims should age and die just like the single player version and you should be able to marry off sims to other players and recieve them from others as well. Kids that you can't take care of (or chose not to) should be taken and adopted to others. Think of the digital genetics you'd see. Family trees would grow massive and span whole servers.

 

Lastly for each family I'd say they'd need to have family goals akin to quests in other MMOs. Something to drive the player forward. These goals could unlock special objects, rare furniture, or uber saught after lots. It could even unlock special Sim traits like Vampires, Witchcraft, Plant Sims, Zombie Sims, and so many other cool things. Just some ideas to add to your own. I liked the Sims Online but I felt like it couldn't hold a candle to any of the single player versions.

Wow, thanks a lot for that buddy.  I do agree here wholeheartedly, The Sims Online lacked a central purpose, but lets remember it was also one of the first sims games to be released.  With the aspiration/wishes/karma systems in the sims 3 it makes forming a purpose/goals much easier if something of the same concept was implemented.  Genetics are also a very awesome suggestion and if implemented correctly could change the whole way these "life sim" type games are played, but how would we choose who controls the offspring if two different player's sims were to marry and have children?  Im thinking maybe just a 50% chance for one person or the other to get control of the child. 

I would say that with some sort of aspiration/wish system each one you fulfill gives you points you can redeem for certain items/unlocks/etc.  I would like to have some sort of luck/chance system for more rare items, maybe like a breeding system for animals where a certain pair bred together have a chance of producing a rare type of offspring.  Same general idea for plants and gardening.  This would help build an economy as well.

Originally posted by muffins89
you can still play the Sims.  it's on facebook.  my sister plays it. 

True but it's not the same as an MMO, its a "social game" in the sence that you have to ask your friends for help but you don't truely interact with other players on a meaningful and active level.

Originally posted by LightHeretic

Originally posted by muffins89
you can still play the Sims.  it's on facebook.  my sister plays it. 

True but it's not the same as an MMO, its a "social game" in the sence that you have to ask your friends for help but you don't truely interact with other players on a meaningful and active level.

ah.  i've never played it myself. 

Although I do reference The Sims a lot, it will not relate to it in any way.  It will be its own game and chances are you won't even realize that it was inspired by The Sims.  It is just the only game franchise that I would be able to compare my idea to. 

I am currently looking for more people willing to devote some creative time to the project.  Depending on how much of a role you play (which is completely up to you) you may be paid and/or credited for your work. 

Send me a PM if you are interested, along with some general ideas you may have.

I've been playing The Sims 2 for years and still have it installed.  Finally got all EP's and SP's.  Gawd I love that game.  I think I don't do anything in it anymore but invite old man winter over so I can watch them all beat on tin cans and yell in the new year.  Just hate it when the cops show up and close it down (in game). 

Patterning an mmorpg after a simulation life has been a long time dream for me.  Only I love Final Fantasy settings.

Btw, all my sims have elf ears now that someone made a CAS replacement.  Only those that come with the game are human.  

My only beef is the setting.  You can go Medieval with custom content but the objects are boring and since a sim lives most of his/her existence in doors the dark brick walls get depressing.  Regular ordinary houses are fun for a bit but not enough escapism from reality for me.  Not enough is left of the mermaid cc to warrent underworld civilizations.  And I never really got into outer space tho I did a few houses like that for my aliens.  

ZONING IS A BEATCH!

But yeah, simulation life existence would be awesome TO INCORPORATE  in an mmo if done right.  I propose one bar to represent all needs instead of many single bars covering each (bladder, hunger, sleep, etc).  Then you could pick and choose what you char did to level the bar.  I'd say have it act like a stamina bar.  Have a wide variety things you could do to lift the stamina bar.  Note I also play Mabinogi so a lot of ideas also came from them.  If Mabinogi did not lag and d/c so much it would be as close to what you describe.

MOST IMPORTANT WOULD BE SIMULATION EXISTENCE IN WILDLIFE AND MOBS.  I want landscapes realistic.  Mobs need to breed and raise young or be killed into extinction.  Get rid of ridiculous spawning.  That is so unrealistic.  Get rid of rabbits and squirrels that can kick your askit.  Unrealistic.  Have farms where you could breed mobs and put them back in the environment.

AND PET BREEDING!  OMG WE NEED PET BREEDING!  I want a game full of pets you can breed and dragon mounts you can breed and the colors come out different every time!!!!!!

Of course you MUST take care of some MMO issues first before this can be done.  PvP vs. PvE at the top of the list.  I don't see why games cannot release and run two versions of themselves to satisfy this rather than bothering with multiple servers.  That way PvP rogue/archer stats will not reflect on PvE rogue/archer stats, etc.

Plus other issues like beautiful world but able to run on low end PC's.  Game makers have got to stop building their games using super computers.  If they used an old PC to build the game they'd know if it ran on an old PC.

Originally posted by ozmono
I'm not very interested in another sims online but I would be very interested in seeing some Sims like mechanics make there way into a more traditional MMORPG.

I thought about that as well, and I think it should be mainly a life sim but still have lots of RPG aspects, e.g you can go out into the wilderness and fight monsters, level up, explore, get gear/items etc. but you still have needs you must keep met (so you would need to bring food/water and such) and you still have the ability to get a lot and build a house or whatever you'd like from scratch on it.  This would also help it cater to a larger audience.  I'm also thinking about instances - but a limit on how frequently you can do them.  Say you do an instance - once you finish you are not allowed to go back for a day or so, that way we stay away from just sitting around doing instances over and over to progress.  I've got a day off from work today so I'm going to try and get the Think Tank finished and opened up to the public as well as compile the brainstorming that has already been done that I feel would go with what im looking for. 

This is a long term project, as in 2-4 years long so if anyone is interested in getting in on the ground floor now is the time to do it.  We have the ability to make this something great, especially not having a publisher breathing down our necks or telling us what needs to be added.  This is a total community game, even though the team will have the final say we want to incorporate stuff that people actually WANT and not what *we* think people would like/want in a game.  Which is why im so open to suggestions right now.

I would play a SIMS type game if it was more like EVE. Instead of fleets of ships you control armies of SIMS or armies of characters.

Closest game to this is Granado Espada which is being relaunched again in 2013.

If you want to create a game, then it would be good to start by saying what you can contribute to the project.  If you're a skilled programmer or artist or musician or whatever, then say so.

But if all you have is ideas and will have to rely on others to do all of the real work, then even if you could organize a team, why wouldn't they just ignore you and make the game they want to make, not the one you want them to make?

Originally posted by Quizzical

If you want to create a game, then it would be good to start by saying what you can contribute to the project.  If you're a skilled programmer or artist or musician or whatever, then say so.

But if all you have is ideas and will have to rely on others to do all of the real work, then even if you could organize a team, why wouldn't they just ignore you and make the game they want to make, not the one you want them to make?

either because he has the money (unlikely) or because he has the intelectual property (also unlikely).

but usually the team leader also figures out the finances usually, doesnt he?

Originally posted by Robokapp

Originally posted by Quizzical

If you want to create a game, then it would be good to start by saying what you can contribute to the project.  If you're a skilled programmer or artist or musician or whatever, then say so.

But if all you have is ideas and will have to rely on others to do all of the real work, then even if you could organize a team, why wouldn't they just ignore you and make the game they want to make, not the one you want them to make?

either because he has the money (unlikely) or because he has the intelectual property (also unlikely).

but usually the team leader also figures out the finances usually, doesnt he?

If he has money or a needed IP, then that's what he can contribute.  There are a lot of things that someone could conceivably contribute to a game project, but ideas aren't one of them.  If you want people to care about your ideas, you have to have something else to contribute.

Originally posted by CodeMath
As stated in the original post, I am a musical composer and will be handling all soundtrack/sound FX for the video game.  I will also be taking care of all funding needed, and oversee all development.  Although I haven't done much Foley I know *how* to do it, and other than a microphone which I will be purchasing soon for this specific project I have a sufficient studio for composing both the soundtrack and the foley(sound fx). 

I wouldn't call relying on a kickstarter campaign "taking care of all funding needed". I would credit that, if it happens, to the community. Other than that sounds like you have something to contribute to me. Ideas still count for something in my book too but I agree it's a good thing you can do more than that.