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Virtual Identity
Author
How great would it be, if a player can design a character and use that character for a wide span of games online?
In the mood for some sports? Hop right in to the next football game. In the mood for some fragging? Another Quake game is just about to start. Want to meet some friends in a cosy inn? Go visit that fantasy structure and be sure to equip yourself with some swords.
This might be a little too much all at once (as all the games would have to be constructed in a way that the character design functions perfectly -meaning, that if for example the player designs a strong character, that character''s strenght would reflect in all games, from sports to shoot''m''up to rpg) but I can imagine an online community where players design a character and then for example let him/her compete in all sorts of different sports.
Any thoughts about using one type of character design for multiple games?
That, my friend, is an excellent idea. The idea of being able to have the same identity has amazing implications. I personally would love to see such a system. I''m a fan of RPGs, and I fell in love with some of my characters (believe it or not, it''s actually fun if you find other roleplayers 
). I grew attached to them, and am now placing them into my RPG that I''m about to begin work on. If someone could actually carry these characters around the net with them, they would truly gain an attachment to them.
The idea, though a bit radical, is excellent. Great work!
ArtemisX
). I grew attached to them, and am now placing them into my RPG that I''m about to begin work on. If someone could actually carry these characters around the net with them, they would truly gain an attachment to them.The idea, though a bit radical, is excellent. Great work!
ArtemisX
IIRC, some of the old school RPGs had this feature. Wizardry (I, II, III) and Bard''s Tale could exchange some data about a common set of players, even thought they were made by different companies.
I''d guess an XML implementation might work.
I''d guess an XML implementation might work.
I like it... I think that some of my XT games Phantasie and Phantasie III had this feature (don''t know if there was a Phantasie II ). Anyway. I think that it may be a little difficult, because you would have to have character porting tools and some info might be lost.
I like the general idea though
.
Maybe a sort of thing like the old BBS games had, IGMs for Door Games
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
). Anyway. I think that it may be a little difficult, because you would have to have character porting tools and some info might be lost.I like the general idea though
.Maybe a sort of thing like the old BBS games had, IGMs for Door Games
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
If there was an open avatar standard, it would make hacking a lot easier - which is not a good thing. At least in the current proprietary form, you have to put some effort in to learning the formats.
"Yes, I''ll be level 999 now, thank you"
-R
"Yes, I''ll be level 999 now, thank you"
-R
Sounds like a very good idea to me...
I guess one way of doing this would be to have a "character file" that is shared through out the games, the format of this file would have to be agreed by all the games makers (obviously)...
As the player introduces his character to different sorts of games, e.g. his RPG Wizard to the 100m sprint, then only the relevant attributes are extracted from the file by the game (to prevent lots of unrequired guff hanging about in memory) if any attributes are missing then the game gives the player the chance to add them in...
Personally I dont think there is any reason why this cant be done... all it requires is a bit of co-operation between game makers on the file format, and data set information, etc. It is a little restritive in some areas though, in order not to confuse the player from one RPG to the next (or whatever) the stats systems (and by stats I mean any number that effects the characters performance, e.g. lockpicking skill) would have to mean pritty much the same sort of thing in all of them, which may to some degree be a bit limiting on some games...
The only problem in this age of 3D is costume''s... Take for example an RPG Wizard character, dressed up in his long robes, ok some people may want to leave him like that, but he is going to look very out of place running the 100m Sprint besides which those robes are going to trip him...
I guess one way of doing this would be to have a "character file" that is shared through out the games, the format of this file would have to be agreed by all the games makers (obviously)...
As the player introduces his character to different sorts of games, e.g. his RPG Wizard to the 100m sprint, then only the relevant attributes are extracted from the file by the game (to prevent lots of unrequired guff hanging about in memory) if any attributes are missing then the game gives the player the chance to add them in...
Personally I dont think there is any reason why this cant be done... all it requires is a bit of co-operation between game makers on the file format, and data set information, etc. It is a little restritive in some areas though, in order not to confuse the player from one RPG to the next (or whatever) the stats systems (and by stats I mean any number that effects the characters performance, e.g. lockpicking skill) would have to mean pritty much the same sort of thing in all of them, which may to some degree be a bit limiting on some games...
The only problem in this age of 3D is costume''s... Take for example an RPG Wizard character, dressed up in his long robes, ok some people may want to leave him like that, but he is going to look very out of place running the 100m Sprint besides which those robes are going to trip him...
You say ''all this would take is co-operation of game developers'' like that is a simple thing. BZZT - business sides of the game corp. will NOT allow such a thing. Give in to a competitors wishes? NEVER! Even if it would benefit them more 
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
Author
Well, why use more than one company?
I mean, to really be able to create a believable character that can perform in all the different settings, you''d almost have to have one and the same company design all the different games.
I really think that the field of sports would be an excellent start. We''ve all played those Summer/Winter games (or something like it) where you could perform in multiple sport events.
The thing to do, would be to create games that could almost match (or even outdo) regular stand-alone games, give the player the opportunity (or even force the player?) to use one and the same character throughout all the games.
You could even throw in some character-development, so that players could build up strenghts and weaknesses for their characters throughout their career.
(as far as hacking is concerned: store serverside)
I mean, to really be able to create a believable character that can perform in all the different settings, you''d almost have to have one and the same company design all the different games.
I really think that the field of sports would be an excellent start. We''ve all played those Summer/Winter games (or something like it) where you could perform in multiple sport events.
The thing to do, would be to create games that could almost match (or even outdo) regular stand-alone games, give the player the opportunity (or even force the player?) to use one and the same character throughout all the games.
You could even throw in some character-development, so that players could build up strenghts and weaknesses for their characters throughout their career.
(as far as hacking is concerned: store serverside)
Very true.
Are you saying, have a specific character model company that stores all the available info on a character, and the other companies outsource thier character parts to that company, or are we talking that one company makes all the games and keeps the characters standard.
The second is already done, and the CSB (Character Standards Board) could be made, though I don''t know how many people would use it.
Additionally, what about NPC''s going cross-world too? That would be cool now wouldn''t it? You still remember Bob from his original position in Game X, but since then, he travelled and is now in Game Y... You can still remember about Bob''s past too
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
Are you saying, have a specific character model company that stores all the available info on a character, and the other companies outsource thier character parts to that company, or are we talking that one company makes all the games and keeps the characters standard.
The second is already done, and the CSB (Character Standards Board
) could be made, though I don''t know how many people would use it.Additionally, what about NPC''s going cross-world too? That would be cool now wouldn''t it? You still remember Bob from his original position in Game X, but since then, he travelled and is now in Game Y... You can still remember about Bob''s past too
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
This idea is kind of like the one already mentioned, but I''ll say it anyway. If people playing different games (Such as Q3A, Unreal Tournament, and Half-Life) could all play against each other in one level without having to all run the same game. You could have a mixture of the characters and weapons of each game (the players could either be able to only use the weapons from the character''s game or be able to use other game''s weapons) and have the players all fighting each other with the different aspects of each game mixed. If the weapons the players could use were limited, it would probably encourage the player to buy the other game to have access to those weapons. The games could check to see which games the player had on his/her computer, and it would let them use the attributes from each game they had (that were compatible with this multi-game arena) and use them in the game. If this idea completely sucks, let me know. Personally, I think it could be cool to be able to play Unreal Tournament and play players in Q3A or some other game. Of course this idea could be spread past FPS games.
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