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This is one of those ideas that's being mulling about in the back of my head for years, but never saw the light of day because technologically it wasn't really possible to do. In a way, it can be done today, but not as perfectly as I wish.
Imagine a gameworld where you can be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and everytime you interract with that world you change it in some small way, anything from leaving footprints on a mud track to building a house to making a name for yourself in the local hero stakes. (Let's call the footprint-leaving housebuilding hero Hero1).
In a normal game, you could delete your save game file and start afresh. In this game you can't. Future technology has already written your deeds straight on to the CD-ROM and changed the game coding. So you start a new character anyway and go into the game, where you can now see the footprints someone left before them on a muddy track, you can see the house that your last hero built, and the NPCs relate tales of a hero that passed before.
Except this time you're not a nice guy and you're out for blood, so you proceed to gain power, build an army, take over the world and rule it with an iron fist. (Tyrant1). Until you get bored and decide to start again, this time as a trader perhaps.
So you start a new game, but this time your trader is dealing with a world under martial law. The NPCs are more cautious of strangers, and you hear rumours of rebellion and hopes for the return of Hero1 to defeat Tyrant1. Trader1 now passes through wastelands and battlefields in search of items to trade or refine into something new so that he can build up his trading empire and finally sets up shop in the main city of the world under the watchful eye of the local guard (who work for Tyrant1, who's mysteriously vanished).
A game like this that continually evolves according to your actions, and stays that way even after starting a new character, would be a bit like the everlasting match. It would need huge memory resources, but these are now becoming available. It would ideally use some kind of CD-RW technology, and consoles should be able to write data to disc within a generation or two. But perhaps publishers would be wary of producing such a title in the LATE genre because it would perhaps satisfy most gamers needs thereby affecting sales of future games.
LATE genre would mean that you could evolve your own game from the one you bought originally, and let your mates play in your environment whilst you could borrow their disc and try to change their worlds that they've created.
Adventure games are an easy genre to identify this kind of game-morphing with, but the idea could extend to racing games: (injured drivers replaced with rookies; crash barriers once dented stay dented; animosities between rivals develop and keep developing; new cars arrive in subsequent seasons); shooters: (respawned monsters 'remember' the tactics of the last guy that waded through them with a rail-gun and are more prepared; you can see bullet holes in the walls from a previous outing; the route you took last time is more heavily guarded forcing you to seek alternate paths); and so on.
I think game development is at the stage where AI programming is advanced enough to handle this kind of everchanging environment, it's just a matter of time before a developer takes the risk and goes ahead and develops such a title given the available technology.
Imagine a gameworld where you can be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and everytime you interract with that world you change it in some small way, anything from leaving footprints on a mud track to building a house to making a name for yourself in the local hero stakes. (Let's call the footprint-leaving housebuilding hero Hero1).
In a normal game, you could delete your save game file and start afresh. In this game you can't. Future technology has already written your deeds straight on to the CD-ROM and changed the game coding. So you start a new character anyway and go into the game, where you can now see the footprints someone left before them on a muddy track, you can see the house that your last hero built, and the NPCs relate tales of a hero that passed before.
Except this time you're not a nice guy and you're out for blood, so you proceed to gain power, build an army, take over the world and rule it with an iron fist. (Tyrant1). Until you get bored and decide to start again, this time as a trader perhaps.
So you start a new game, but this time your trader is dealing with a world under martial law. The NPCs are more cautious of strangers, and you hear rumours of rebellion and hopes for the return of Hero1 to defeat Tyrant1. Trader1 now passes through wastelands and battlefields in search of items to trade or refine into something new so that he can build up his trading empire and finally sets up shop in the main city of the world under the watchful eye of the local guard (who work for Tyrant1, who's mysteriously vanished).
A game like this that continually evolves according to your actions, and stays that way even after starting a new character, would be a bit like the everlasting match. It would need huge memory resources, but these are now becoming available. It would ideally use some kind of CD-RW technology, and consoles should be able to write data to disc within a generation or two. But perhaps publishers would be wary of producing such a title in the LATE genre because it would perhaps satisfy most gamers needs thereby affecting sales of future games.
LATE genre would mean that you could evolve your own game from the one you bought originally, and let your mates play in your environment whilst you could borrow their disc and try to change their worlds that they've created.
Adventure games are an easy genre to identify this kind of game-morphing with, but the idea could extend to racing games: (injured drivers replaced with rookies; crash barriers once dented stay dented; animosities between rivals develop and keep developing; new cars arrive in subsequent seasons); shooters: (respawned monsters 'remember' the tactics of the last guy that waded through them with a rail-gun and are more prepared; you can see bullet holes in the walls from a previous outing; the route you took last time is more heavily guarded forcing you to seek alternate paths); and so on.
I think game development is at the stage where AI programming is advanced enough to handle this kind of everchanging environment, it's just a matter of time before a developer takes the risk and goes ahead and develops such a title given the available technology.
So you change the world and then play through it again through another perspective. FANTASTIC idea.
What would also be good is if there could be several "players" at the same time. For example through splitscreen/link up, player 1 could be the hero while the other would be the trader.
Their paths might cross once in a while (although perhaps a bit too often if they know where each other are all the time.)
Making it online would be a good idea with a database holding the world which is continually changing from the influence of it's players.
Definately the sort of revolutionary idea that's going to crop up sometime in the future.
By the way, seeing as you're back in the forums, there's a new FoG story in Prime if you're interested...
What would also be good is if there could be several "players" at the same time. For example through splitscreen/link up, player 1 could be the hero while the other would be the trader.
Their paths might cross once in a while (although perhaps a bit too often if they know where each other are all the time.)
Making it online would be a good idea with a database holding the world which is continually changing from the influence of it's players.
Definately the sort of revolutionary idea that's going to crop up sometime in the future.
By the way, seeing as you're back in the forums, there's a new FoG story in Prime if you're interested...
I think it was a mixture of playing games that were too linear in the past combined with minor faults in longevity that I have with the games today. The main inspiration would have been the lack of respawn rates in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2, the seemingly open endedness of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, and old PC game called Betrayal at Krondor which was so free roaming it was very easy to get lost or killed if you went the wrong way.
Strangely, I don't have any niggles with FFX :)
Strangely, I don't have any niggles with FFX :)
Nice idea, might be hard to do though I would have thought but apparently not. Heh. I wonder though, aren't things similar to this already been done through online games? Can't be sure though as I don't play games online.
No doubt this would work brilliantly in an RPG world, Final Fantasy style.
No doubt you we're playing an FF or at least an RPG game when this idea was born? :0)
No doubt this would work brilliantly in an RPG world, Final Fantasy style.
No doubt you we're playing an FF or at least an RPG game when this idea was born? :0)
This is one of those ideas that's being mulling about in the back of my head for years, but never saw the light of day because technologically it wasn't really possible to do. In a way, it can be done today, but not as perfectly as I wish.
Imagine a gameworld where you can be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and everytime you interract with that world you change it in some small way, anything from leaving footprints on a mud track to building a house to making a name for yourself in the local hero stakes. (Let's call the footprint-leaving housebuilding hero Hero1).
In a normal game, you could delete your save game file and start afresh. In this game you can't. Future technology has already written your deeds straight on to the CD-ROM and changed the game coding. So you start a new character anyway and go into the game, where you can now see the footprints someone left before them on a muddy track, you can see the house that your last hero built, and the NPCs relate tales of a hero that passed before.
Except this time you're not a nice guy and you're out for blood, so you proceed to gain power, build an army, take over the world and rule it with an iron fist. (Tyrant1). Until you get bored and decide to start again, this time as a trader perhaps.
So you start a new game, but this time your trader is dealing with a world under martial law. The NPCs are more cautious of strangers, and you hear rumours of rebellion and hopes for the return of Hero1 to defeat Tyrant1. Trader1 now passes through wastelands and battlefields in search of items to trade or refine into something new so that he can build up his trading empire and finally sets up shop in the main city of the world under the watchful eye of the local guard (who work for Tyrant1, who's mysteriously vanished).
A game like this that continually evolves according to your actions, and stays that way even after starting a new character, would be a bit like the everlasting match. It would need huge memory resources, but these are now becoming available. It would ideally use some kind of CD-RW technology, and consoles should be able to write data to disc within a generation or two. But perhaps publishers would be wary of producing such a title in the LATE genre because it would perhaps satisfy most gamers needs thereby affecting sales of future games.
LATE genre would mean that you could evolve your own game from the one you bought originally, and let your mates play in your environment whilst you could borrow their disc and try to change their worlds that they've created.
Adventure games are an easy genre to identify this kind of game-morphing with, but the idea could extend to racing games: (injured drivers replaced with rookies; crash barriers once dented stay dented; animosities between rivals develop and keep developing; new cars arrive in subsequent seasons); shooters: (respawned monsters 'remember' the tactics of the last guy that waded through them with a rail-gun and are more prepared; you can see bullet holes in the walls from a previous outing; the route you took last time is more heavily guarded forcing you to seek alternate paths); and so on.
I think game development is at the stage where AI programming is advanced enough to handle this kind of everchanging environment, it's just a matter of time before a developer takes the risk and goes ahead and develops such a title given the available technology.
Imagine a gameworld where you can be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and everytime you interract with that world you change it in some small way, anything from leaving footprints on a mud track to building a house to making a name for yourself in the local hero stakes. (Let's call the footprint-leaving housebuilding hero Hero1).
In a normal game, you could delete your save game file and start afresh. In this game you can't. Future technology has already written your deeds straight on to the CD-ROM and changed the game coding. So you start a new character anyway and go into the game, where you can now see the footprints someone left before them on a muddy track, you can see the house that your last hero built, and the NPCs relate tales of a hero that passed before.
Except this time you're not a nice guy and you're out for blood, so you proceed to gain power, build an army, take over the world and rule it with an iron fist. (Tyrant1). Until you get bored and decide to start again, this time as a trader perhaps.
So you start a new game, but this time your trader is dealing with a world under martial law. The NPCs are more cautious of strangers, and you hear rumours of rebellion and hopes for the return of Hero1 to defeat Tyrant1. Trader1 now passes through wastelands and battlefields in search of items to trade or refine into something new so that he can build up his trading empire and finally sets up shop in the main city of the world under the watchful eye of the local guard (who work for Tyrant1, who's mysteriously vanished).
A game like this that continually evolves according to your actions, and stays that way even after starting a new character, would be a bit like the everlasting match. It would need huge memory resources, but these are now becoming available. It would ideally use some kind of CD-RW technology, and consoles should be able to write data to disc within a generation or two. But perhaps publishers would be wary of producing such a title in the LATE genre because it would perhaps satisfy most gamers needs thereby affecting sales of future games.
LATE genre would mean that you could evolve your own game from the one you bought originally, and let your mates play in your environment whilst you could borrow their disc and try to change their worlds that they've created.
Adventure games are an easy genre to identify this kind of game-morphing with, but the idea could extend to racing games: (injured drivers replaced with rookies; crash barriers once dented stay dented; animosities between rivals develop and keep developing; new cars arrive in subsequent seasons); shooters: (respawned monsters 'remember' the tactics of the last guy that waded through them with a rail-gun and are more prepared; you can see bullet holes in the walls from a previous outing; the route you took last time is more heavily guarded forcing you to seek alternate paths); and so on.
I think game development is at the stage where AI programming is advanced enough to handle this kind of everchanging environment, it's just a matter of time before a developer takes the risk and goes ahead and develops such a title given the available technology.