[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Design challenge: Bed-time game

[Peter Harkins]

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 11:14:36AM -0600, Acius wrote:
> One style of game that seems appropriate is the Ikariam/Travian style of  
> web-based empire building.

On a tangent, does anyone know of a nice name for this class of games?
Think of games like:

* Earth 2025
* Ikariam
* Jennifer Government
* Planetarion
* Simcountry
* Trade Wars
* Travian
* Utopia

The common features seem to be:

* Turn-based, usually turns granted every X hours
* But events happen in real-time, like an army taking 2h to march
* Almost exclusively PVP
* Players are usually countries/companies/planets rather than individuals
* Multiplayer, dozens to tens of thousands per server
* Often several games running at different timescales
* Often very stat-heavy, few or no graphics on top of them
* Rarely commercial, but when they are, commercialization is:
  - Subscription to reach pay-only server
  - Unlock late-game content
  - Virtual currency to buy items/bonuses

I admit completely they're not muds, but they share a lot of features.
I'm continously surprised by how large some of the crude games get. They
feel to me a lot like muds of the early 90s: hobbyists running world
games with a slowly rising trend of commercial products. I've got a few
browser game designs I've been considering building, I just don't even
know what to call the genre. Thoughts?

--
Peter Harkins  -  http://push.cx  -  http://NearbyGamers.com