[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs

[Mike Rozak]

Michael Chui wrote:
> Will Wright and Spore have a decidedly advantageous position. Everyone
> is expecting miracles and wonders etc. One thing I want to focus on,
> however, is his coinage of "massively single-player": the idea that you
> are affected and effect everyone else who plays, but the game remains
> single-player in its essence. Spore implements this by uploading your
> creations to a central server and pushing it back out to people to be
> controlled by AI. And I wonder... will we start seeing ports of this
> concept to more traditional genres, like the Strategy, the FPS, the RPG?

I first heard "massively single player" w/regards to guild wars. No 
matter...

The meta-question is: A community develops around any game/genre. How much 
is that community allowed/encouraged to affect the gameplay? At one extreme 
is a highly PvP world, or Second Life. At the other is a single-player game 
with forums. Lots of stuff can happen in-between... and it isn't necessarily 
a linear spectrum either.

Some in-betweens include: WoW, user-created mini-worlds, the sims (offline), 
etc.