VastPark developer zone

Thanks for the post. I can say I like something that is all 3. This is why we are working on our project, to create a immersive multi-player expererience, where they can learn, socialize and have fun.

The opportunity that Vastpark has before them is to be able to build and develop a very powerful platform that can allow a professional developer and someone right of the street that has a lot of drive and creative "gumption" to have the tools they need right off the bat. This way they can just dive in and start creating.

By making it easy, you make it possible to grow--and quickly.

A lot of people forget how making something easy does that and as a result not just a few people will use Vastpark but a lot.

A

toddel123 - 12-02-2009 04:08:14
bq. I have started this thread because I am interested in learning what others find are the most important features of a good MMO, Virtual World/Community or Multi-Player game? What do you think would make these types of 3D experiences the most successful? I will start by giving my own opinion. In these examples I will assume that any of these games/world are stable and functional because if it doesn't work or constantly crashes no one is going to want to play it anyways. I will also assume that these games have state of the art graphics and models created by professionals.
MMOs
I think the most important feature for a massively multi-player on line-blah is immersion. By this I mean you want the experience to be so tight knit and smooth that the play is never reminded that he is sitting at his computer, only that he is a participant the MMO world. I would rate expanse the second most important thing in an MMO. By expanse I mean MMOs are supposed to be massive. You should be able to get lost in them. They should not feel crowded and confined. I would choose diversity as the next most important thing. Diversity means as you roam the world you don't encounter an endless number of cloned objects, you see new landscape, new monsters and NPCs, and find a good variety of items to stash in your inventory. Next would be interaction and functional objects. Players should be able to interact with things in the world and use objects. As an example most MMOs these days have some kind of profession system where the player can go out and collect A and B put it together and make C. Another example might be usable doors, drawers or vaults that open. I know many die-hard MMOers who are fed up with walking around MMOs where most of the buildings are just eye candy.
Virtual World/Community
I think that most of the things mentioned in MMOs also apply to Virtual Worlds/Communities however there are some additions. There are a vast number of people who enjoy VR Worlds that they can create and build on themselves; people are smart and like to build. So the ability to build in-world is a very important aspect if you want to keep up with the most popular VR Worlds like SL. The thing you have to watch out for if you are creating one of these worlds is quality control; new users sign up, then want to try their hand at building and soon the grid is cluttered with half-finished objects and poor architecture. Next, if you want to keep them in your virtual world you really have to offer some kind of entertainment. These people are not coming for the same reasons as the MMOers or Multi-Player shooter crowed, they are coming to socialize with their friends, so you have to offer the ability to play media. If you REALLY want to keep them in the world then why not replace their web browser with the Imp? Allow them to browse the web, send email, play all of their media including full-screened movies, etc... and they will no have a reason to go elsewhere. Lastly, make your VR World sexy; sexy sells.
Multi-Player Games
Most of the same things apply here as with the MMO examples; except great AI is at the top of the list. To have an award winning Multi-Player game you really have to push the graphics, and dispatch with the static objects that cant be kicked around or destroyed. Great AI, movable and destructible objects makes for intense combat and interesting puzzles.
All in all the best 3D world will be a conglomeration of all these concepts; a place to play games, be a part of a scenario, tests your wits in player-vs-player combat, then kick back on a virtual couch and watch movies with your friends while reading email your sister sent you.

Well all of the points are significant when building an MMO.
I would like to point out the importance of learning curve, and the feeling of constantly founding out something new at least in the beginning.

Also although it is said that people come for the game and stay for the society, it should be taken with a grain of salt, as people tend to play with others in MMO not so much, but the visibility of their progress in other people's eyes means a lot (Nick Yee has some nice research about the issue).

Other than that it is very important that the world runs smoothly, overloading a world with unnecessary technical details which would ruin performance at minimal gain is unwise (look at the example of WoW and shadows).