[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs

[ghovs at plex.nl]

Michael Chui wrote:
> The other is a kind of PBEM/Hotseat Civilization-type of approach,
> wherein there are periodic updates of changes. For instance, consider a
> game of Battlefield played across a couple dozen sessions of
> Counterstrike, each session involving different groups of related and
> allied persons. You'd have specific missions: essentially, "Capture this
> point." and the outcome would be saved and the next group to play would
> have to deal with it thusly.
>   
While I don't think this is such a terrible idea, play-wise, I can't 
help but think... couldn't you do almost this with instanced events in a 
current MMO?

Besides that, there's the massive issue of having a local service send 
authoritative data ("they won", or "they got the loot") after having 
itself resolved something through gameplay, or not. Cheaters would have 
a field day after the few hours it would take them to figure out your 
super secret protocol that they agreed to not investigate at all as per 
your EULA.

The only reason this would work well for Spore, is that it deals with 
creative content, and not game state.

rgds,
ghovs