User Generated Content

RPG's. Should the users be able to modify your game?

Would that result in freedom and ultimate customization or in havoc and abusing the immersion in the game?

Give the players the ability to build houses, give the guild castles or let the players decide where to build whole cities?

Or maybe give the power to couple of them, or make a whole new level of ingame democracy for the masses to decide each move?

There are plenty of examples in online games which rarely work. But the concept sure is doable - games like Ultima have a whole player driven economy of both estates and goods.

 

Some level of building and upgrading is very cool if it fits into your story. Really makes the player feel like they are making a difference in the game world. An example of it being done well is the Suikoden series of games. At some point in the earlier games, you take over a fortress or castle that is broken down, and you can recruit people to come, and build up certain portions of the castle - adding stores, etc. Neverwinter Nights 2 also did this. Of course, it's not as deep as you are proposing, but the mechanic is there, and it's one thing that people like about the series.

In short, I think that as long as the game mechanic fits your game, that it is a very interesting and enjoyable part of RPG's.

 

Best way to get your game to have the most lasting power is mods and a good scripting API.

See: Any elder scrolls game, NWN shards still extremely popular, minecraft etc

Thanks to Unity giving us the power of .NET, implementing a scripting API is fairly easy.

 

Well mods and scripting are a cool way to add content which works perfectly fine as long as people like the product. Definitely a must for single player games ( I still play Oblivion sometimes, with high res textures, better models and a lot of eye candy and game mechanics on a 2006 game ), it could work on some multiplayer titles, too even though it's a bit harder.

But still modding the game is giving part of the users ( the ones who can code ) to modify the game. I'm talking of ingame possibilities.

NWN ( both 1 with 1000 addons and 2 ) had some of the most inspirational ideas I've seen in an RPG by definition, I liked how they've implemented that.

What do you think of the "Sims" style building?

 

The more customization and freedom the player can do the better imo. I think theme park style mmo's are starting to get old. There will probably be more games leaning more toward sandbox experience. ( I have not done a ton of research on this so its just off the top of my head).

 

Well there is something to it, otherwise minecraft wouldn't have gotten that popular.

But that approach as cool as it may be, becomes less and less powerful the more players get to mess with it.

 

how come?

 

Well the more people the bigger chance someone of them has a definition of fun that includes trolling or just destruction.

So unless there's a some sort of heavy set of regulations or a viable option to defend your property he could anytime pass by and ruin it.

And that may ruin the gameplay experience for a lot of people.

 

Anybody who played Star Wars Galaxies know how horrible a zone can become with user generated content
It's rude to say, but most people don't have the slightest conscience about how their creation can impact the overall surroundings. They just do their stuff, and don't care if it's ugly.

 

Your right, it can lead to alot of chaos if theres much freedom. It also matters what crowd your trying to appeal to. Casual gamers, hardcore gamers. Some people want a fair and even gaming experience (Wow players maybe?). While some want a rough, tense, and mischievous experience (eve online, Darkfall.) Chaos could be a good thing then.

I've played StarWars galaxies for a few years so I know what you mean. The worlds did have alot of buildings scatterd everywhere that did not look very interesting. Although there could have been a few things that would have made it better. Such as roads in cities. There was none at all. And the buildings such as the houses could have looked more like houses (driveways, backyards). You could not tell the difference between commercial buildings and houses. Espeically because people would place vendors in their home and sell things out of there house. There was no contrast between buildings or structure to cities. Having some npcs and landspeeders moving around the cities could have made them more lively. I know it would take alot of work not to mention performance issues but just pointing things out.