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

[Christopher Lloyd]

--- Peter Harkins <ph at malaprop.org> wrote:
> 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
 
I had a root around , and while I don't have an answer, phrases like,
"Massively Multiplayer", "Turn-Based Strategy" and "Online World
Simulation" seem to come up. If these games existed in the 90s (without
the heavy dependance on internet play), they're probably be labelled
"turn-based strategy games". 


> 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 don't know if anyone is familar with Cities. This is another game
that meets the listed criteria, but is most definately a MUD. There's
actually a wiki dedicated to it, created and maintained by the players.

In a way, these games are adding to/replacing Usenet forums. Usenet and
similar forums are the kind of thing you might log into once in the
morning or evening, check all the threads you've posted on, and post a
few replies. I'm assuming you're not one of those freaky users who
seems to be online 24/7, refreshing the page every minute as you wait
for a reply to a post you made, so that you can immediately follow
their post with "LOL. U n00b!!!!!!111one".

These games also seem to be natural developments of titles such as
Master of Orion, GalCiv and (maybe) the Battle Isle series. Again,
these are all turn-based games that you can spend an hour with in the
evening, just to get another turn or two done.

This brings me to a question: Are all these games, "laptop games"? The
older offline titles were frequently installed onto laptops, as the
kind of game you could take with you on a buisness trip, and play
quietly at the airport, on the plane or in a hotel - Not something you
could easily do with Doom II unless you packed a stereo headset, spare
mouse and extra-large battery or power supply. These bed-time games
seem to fill that niche. Okay, you can't play them on the plane, but
you can put in a few turns from the hotel or airport lounge, even with
a narrow bandwidth connection.

Chris Lloyd



-- 

Christopher Lloyd

Email: crl199 at alumni.soton.ac.uk
Tel:   +47 90 98 90 37 (Norway)