This is basically just a thought experiment; don't read too much into this.

If you had the ability to create a computer RPG without having to worry about marketability, what kind of game would it be? What sort of things have you seen in other games you've played that really got your motor running, or that really turned you off of the game? What would the scope of the game be (epic save-the-world vs Harvest Moon style very localized gameplay)? How important are plot and story vs open-ended gameplay?

2d sprites, somewhat terrible engrish translation, Keiji Inafune for character creation, and comes out for the Virtual Console.

Hey - wait a minute! That's describing a 2d Breath of Fire VI game! *slaps forehead*

(totally not because I've been playing BoF II for the last two weeks)

I want a game where I can design clothes for my avatars, chat with people around the world, have an underground market set up for illegal porn actions.

Oh, right. IMVU

-Chrysalis

Mass-Effect-style Shadowrun, with a mobile campaign playing in a limited number of cities, based on SR4 rules.

Definitely an MMO in order to engage in the social and player economics that come about when playing with other people. I'd also want to have the ability to affect the game world plot. To me, that is very engaging and gives a lot of motivation to play when I feel that when I do stuff in game affects the world...so, a lot of free will in the game, which obviously could go either way, from a success standpoint.

And I wouldn't mind some innovative ui controls. I'm tired of click-click-click.

I'd have it be an extremely open-ended game with nearly no scripted events : the whole game would start with an initial situation and all the NPC would react accordingly to what happens around them. It'd have a start and an end, but everything in between would be up to the player (and the end would also depend on what the player did). A NPC won't tell the PC to meet them in this bar because it is scripted so, but because he thinks it's good for him if he meets the PC about it. A group of NPC won't attack the bar because it is scripted so but because they were told that the PC would meet the NPC there and they think it's good for him if the PC and/or the NPC is dead.
I guess you'd just have to add some rules to make sure what happens to the PC is interesting.

This way it'd be a perfect mix between open-endedness and plot/story!

I would love a game where even though I new that my actions didn't really change the game, I could still see the effect that me and my friends had on the overall game. What I mean about this is in the beta test for Battletech Online (a game that sadly never made it to production), you were viewed with a map of the Inner Sphere and you can see the flow of the war and how good your faction was doing by the way the boarders changed. You felt that your actions had meaning (even though you could never singly handily take down another faction). Your actions though did allow your faction to wind a planet here or there.
I would also love a game with no levels. I want my budy who just joined to be able to play with me. I still want my character to get better over time but I want new players and casual players to be able to be useful right off the bat. I would suggest a gernalization model of development. Characters start off highly specialised in one area, over time they can go one of two paths. The first path is to generalise their skills making them good at everything. The second path is to perfect their specialised skills so that they are Gods in one area.

I had a couple of ideas for some cool MMORPG (any game companies out there feel free to steal any of these).
* Grand Theft Auto: Online (You would start as part of a gang or syndicate and do jobs to gain respect, and money. Every so often though a turf war would start and you have to help out your faction either gain or defend their turf. As you get up in the ranks you have more control of when a turf war starts)
* Shadowrun MMORPG (A direct 1-1 translation of the rules (right down to equipment costs and stats). Missions would be broken down into 4 types (mainly physical (ie Merc/SS), mainly magical (ie magic users), mainly matrix (ie hacker/Technomancer), and mainly driving (ie rigger)). Missions would be given by different corps (A-AAA rating) and each mission would increase or decrease a corps influence in the sprawl. Each server would be named after a specific sprawl and have a different look and feel to it. Characters would be able to move from one sprawl to anther if they wanted (given they can get a ticket (ie the server is not full).
* Battletech Online (You choose a faction and start off as a grunt. Each kill you make gains you a number of points you can use later on. You also gain points if you survive a battle, take objective points, and if your side wins the planet. You fight in a battle till your character is dead or all the characters on the enemy force is dead. At the start of each battle you can spend points to buy better equipment (better guns, battle armour, vehicle, tank, aerospace fighter, or mech). As a planet is gained or lost the overall map changes to reflect it so you can see how your factions is doing overall.)

If I could create a CRPG game it would be from whole cloth. No licensed, pre-existing properties that are translated into a digital format. So no Shadowrun, Star Wars, Cyberpunk 2020, etc. for me.

Set in the present day or the very near future the game would revolve around politics, organized crime, clandestine warfare and espionage. Players would serve as spies for their home nations but what format that would take would depend upon the career path the character chooses. PCs could be ambassadors and negotiate treaties with PCs from other nations (all the while undermining each other), undercover agents working to disrupt international crime rings, your Solid-Snake-one-man-army-types with gunz and brass balls, corrupt double agents in the pocket of big business and more. "Charisma" type skills would be emphasized as heavily as combat-related ones and if violence was used in some assignments, the player would automatically fail.

Player advancement would depend heavily upon the successful completion of goals (or even online tests) rather than some D&D-based Experience Point system that involves killing x-number of baddies. Players would receive "salaries" dependent upon the game's economy which would allow them to customize their living spaces, purchase personal equipment and vehicles... rent a call girl, order a pizza. One part Spycraft, one part The Sims.

Naturally the game would be open-ended with new storylines introduced by a team of writers and programmers on a regular basis. It would be very free flow so if a player simply wanted to drive or walk around the playable world he could do so or he could check in with his handlers for a new job. I'd want to encourage actual role-playing in the game so I'd need to figure out a way to avoid gibberish chat without having to use conversation trees.

1)Highly customizable characters
2)No Grinding, no character levels.


A Deus Ex style First/Third Person Shooter/Slasher RPG based loosely on the Book of Revelations.

In the dystopian cyberpunk world of twenty minutes into the future, Jesus Christ awakens from two thousand years of slumber. With nothing but an old sword and the clothes on his back, he journeys into a future that he doesn't understand, from the pristine yet soulless highrise arcologies to the grimy slums filled with crushing poverty and hopelessness. He fights men and demons alike, uniting warring street gangs into a revolutionary army and to bring down the corrupt megacorps that rule the world. Along the way, he has the option to have limbs removed and illegal cybernetics installed at black market "chop-shops" and to infuse his weapons with the souls of his most devout followers to enhance his supernatural abilities. In the end, he confronts his counterpart at the top of the world, and is faced with a diabolical choice, one that the player will decide in the mostly this non-linear open sandbox style adventure. Motorcycles and miniguns will be involved somehow.

And as a bonus you'll be rolling in that tall Conservative Christian money. It's gotta be better than the Left Behind: Eternal Forces MMORPG.

What's the point of the game? From what I gather it is just a game that is good to give your kids.

Kill or convert heathens. Even Jack "Asshat" Thompson hated the game and broke his affiliation with the Left Behind publishers.

Can I also get an unlimited budget and time as well as some of the worlds best CG artists? Actually one of the reasons I am doing Community Games on XBox 360 is so I don't have to worry about marketability, but even at that there are still limits...

I would create a side scroller with incredibly customizable characters and levels ranging from ancient temples, post apocalypse cities, alien planets, space battles, and limit breaks. Chracters would range from aliens, knights, gangers, superheroes, and anything else generally accepted as awesome. I have no idea what I would call it but I play it into the ground.

Something like Red Faction Guerilla where you need to sabotage the enemy bases, but add a stealth mechanic, and not on Mars. Actually, I think I'd basically make a sandbox-style Shadowrun game with destructible buildings....but y'know, it would BE shadowrun, not that lame excuse for a shadowrun game on the xbox 360....

Either that or I'd make a First Person Shooter based off of the Worms IP. Hehe....sheep cannon....

When I first thought about a Shadowrun MMO I thought of GTA. Missions points would be your contacts and I think you would need random missions. You need the living AI dynamic you see in games like Assassin's Creed and have each character with a reputation and notoriety level to reflect it.