f13.net forums - Sport + MMO = money printing machine?

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April 19, 2024, 03:46:31 AM

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So, after playing some football manager and thinking about how popular sport titles are, I started to think about how to bring them over to the MMO market. I here present a basic design for something which I
think could become a very popular formula.

Footballer Online

You play as ONE player, you're taking the role as a player in a large online football community. Due to this we don't want to use regular football, it's to slow and there's to many players, I advocate street football instead, smaller teams with a small field and lots of action. 1 keeper and 4 players per team sounds just about right. Players host games, or at least set up games, I'm guessing this wouldn't be so stressfull serverside so it's probably a good idea to let the company who run the game servers host. This way there's more controll and better possibilities to prevent cheating etc.

Basically, you start out with creating your character. It's fairly important that this step is done right, we want to make the players be able to create something that look a lot like themselves, that is beside the physique.

After you're done with creating a character you're thrown in to a lobby system, this could a little virtual 3d hub system. Hosting games would work like most strategy games do, you start a game and wait until both teams are filled up with players before you let the action commence.

The gameplay will most likely be the most challenging part to get right. It needs to be fast and action filled and involve all the players. We don't want the players to sit around and wait for the ball to come near them. We also want to reward team play and keep it tactical.

Players can create teams ( more like clans in FPS than guilds in MMOs ). Teams sign up for league play, which are maintained server side. There's a need for a somewhat flexible system here so that matches can be scheduled at times when players can play. If you let teams be larger than the players needed for a match, then it shouldn't be so hard for a semi causal team to show up with a full team. League play would be a lot of lower divisions and a single "super league" on top, advancement through the system would work as in the real world. If we split the player base regionally depending on where they live there could be a really cool system where the best players of their region could get selected for national teams. There can then be virtual world cups etc played. This also has the benefit of low ping times. The option to play with foreign players should of course still be available.

Character development can be present in form of player stats and player moves. If you let the company who runs the game host the games then you can use a "smart" system which tailors your stats according to your playstyle. If you just run around the field and doesn't pass, then you get good stamina but bad passing abilities. A move unlocking mechanism can be present in the same way that weapon unlocking works in for example BF2. When you've grinded enough you unlock a new dribble, or perhaps a new tackle.

There's room for a manager type of game here as well if we introduce currency, stadiums etc. This would probably best be left to the team part of the game. Perhaps teams can have an optionaly assigned "manager" player which handles this part. We don't want to force this onto players who just want to play. It could create a very cool dimension to the game, especialy if you're into manager games.

At this point I'm just throwing ideas around and haven't really thought much through in a deeper sense, but the I think there's a lot of potential for a game of this type. Of course it doesn't have to be football, the concept can be applied to most sports.

EDIT: Added some more

American Football would be a bad idea. Everyone would want to be QB.

There's Ultimate Baseball Online.

I remember hearing about this ages ago, but I never thought it actually launched.

Quote from: Velorath on December 23, 2006, 10:03:27 AM

American Football would be a bad idea. Everyone would want to be QB.

I'm pretty sure he means non-American football.

Yeah that does look a lot like the concept I was thinking about. To bad I don't know shit about baseball or I'd give it a whirl hehe.

Yupp, as CmdrSlack said, I meant non-american football, should probably use the term soccer in the future :-D

If you're just after a money hat generator, I'd see it working better by having a player running a whole team, you trade with other teams for athletes with better/worse stats, and for coaches who can improve athlete stats.

Gameplay would be in the form of fixed period tournaments (lasting a few hours), or more casual leagues (with a few hundred players, run over a month or so, with random matchmaking), these tournaments win/lose you ranking points and game-money, which promote/relegate you up or down the 'levels'. Levels give you access to different tournaments, make it easier to convince better athletes to join your team, and attract a bigger fan base which again translates into game money.

There's your money printing machine.

Quote from: eldaec on December 23, 2006, 02:03:03 PM

I don't have any numbers to support it, but I'm pretty sure that sports games where you're playing the sport is way more popular than manager games. Also, there's already a lot of online manager games where you trade players etc. http://www.hattrick.org/ & http://www.managerzone.com/ comes to mind, which both are very popular.

I mean with the player playing the matches fifa style.

But, at least over here, championship manager and football manager print money just as effectively as EA's fifa.

Quote from: eldaec on December 23, 2006, 03:35:25 PM

I mean with the player playing the matches fifa style.

But, at least over here, championship manager and football manager print money just as effectively as EA's fifa.

Ah, yeah, that would probably be popular as well. I think the team play aspect would work really well in the layout I presented though. Like how team play really highten the experience when you're playing FPS games online. I also think it's easier for a player to associate with a single online persona instead of an entire team. Controlling a single team all by yourself of course has its own set of advantages, you're always at where the action actually is happening, around the ball.

I think it's intresting to design / discuss games which wouldn't just cater to myself, since making money hat games is what has the highest chance of actually getting made

One advantage to having a single player control an entire team (beyond being more exciting) is that even if you have a small playerbase, you can still have people playing matches. It'd kind of suck to be "just one of the guys" on the team and have to wait for others to join in, or play with a team of AIs.

Quote from: CmdrSlack on December 23, 2006, 05:07:54 PM

That would only be true if it flops, most RTS which uses pretty much the same system have no serious troubles of gathering players for games decently fast.

What's next, world of starcraft online? :-D

I had this idea for a basketball game, a long time ago. It's way more appealing to the mainstream than a fantasy type game is. I figured you could have leagues and pickup play. You could amass a fortune and fame, customize your house and your car, get endorsements, etc. Should make for a GREAT pvp game.

Baseball Stars Online. Need I say more? (Maybe update the graphics a tad cheesy

)

I posted something to freestyle online which is made by sierra in the mmog section. It's basically a microtransaction type game.

Im actually been thinking of adding sports as part of the diversions / gamesin my MMO design. For those times when, you know, you're not in the mood to do quests but you still want to interact with the world?

Since my game is post-apoc / cyberpunk mix, the cities would have frag type sports (DeathBall, Counterstrike) that are run like leagues, as well as something like basketball.

Out in the wastelands I thought it might be kind of fun to find a run-down golf course and some ramshackle clubs. :)

Anyone noticed the crazy thread view count for this? Proof positive that people are searching google for just such a game?

Perhaps. It's currently #6 on Google if you search on "MMO" and "money printing machine".

What scares me is the number of views our DJ Max thread has gotten. It's in the top 10 most view threads just below Useless Videos. It's #1 on Google if you search on "DJ Max" and "tutorial".