{"id":158,"date":"2018-01-17T21:19:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T03:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/natkale.com\/?p=158"},"modified":"2018-01-17T21:19:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T03:19:57","slug":"a-multiplayer-game-i-would-actually-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/?p=158","title":{"rendered":"A multiplayer game I would actually play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I would love to play a multiplayer Railroad Tycoon style game, with seasons of 1-3 months, shards with 6-12 players, and balanced for 15 minutes to an hour of play each day.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot packed in there, so why each of these elements?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Multiplayer<\/strong>: I like the idea of playing games with other people.\u00a0 In practice, other people are often jerks.\u00a0 I think if you structure the game right, you can bring out better things in people (or drive away the worst people), and make a fun and engaging experience.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.puzzlepirates.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Puzzle Pirates<\/a> is my go-to example here &#8211; very positive culture, if rather kid-oriented, despite lots of opportunity for competition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Railroad Tycoon<\/strong>: There just aren&#8217;t enough games out there that don&#8217;t in some way revolve around killing people (computer games specifically; board games are another story).\u00a0 Maybe I&#8217;m getting soft in my old age, but I find more and more that violence feels shoehorned in and detracts from the game I&#8217;m playing (Bioshock Infinite, I&#8217;m looking at you).\u00a0 A game like RT lets players be competitive, but by barring direct attacks on other players, it opens up lots more strategies.\u00a0 Maybe another player just built a factory in a town, and you can make money by supplying it with goods, yet at the same time attempt a hostile takeover of their company.\u00a0 The relationships between players become more complex.Plus, I really like watching little virtual goods make their way around little virtual cities.\u00a0 Slap some cutesy graphics on a game like RT3 and you&#8217;ve got a fun game with broad appeal &#8211; or at least appeal to me.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Seasons<\/strong>: I&#8217;ve been playing a lot of Diablo 3. (Yes, that does contradict what I just said about violence.\u00a0 Too bad.)\u00a0 Seasons are the feature that keeps me coming back.\u00a0 New goals to shoot for and achievements to collect make the game rewarding again, even if the actual gameplay is pretty much identical.\u00a0 Seasons would be a great match for a strategy game, because it would keep players from reaching the peak and getting bored.\u00a0 Every few month you tally up who won the game, then start over with a new set of players on a new map &#8211; viola, the game becomes fun again!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shards<\/strong>: A strategy game works best when you can understand your options in every situation.\u00a0 Maybe not *know* every possible option, but at least comprehend the scope.\u00a0 If a small number of people are competing on a constrained map, a la Civilization and RT, it&#8217;s easier to make strategic choices without feeling overwhelmed.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also easier to get to know the other people in the game. Also, different shards would let the developer play with win conditions.\u00a0 You might compete against the people in your shard to have the most money, or you might compete against the whole world for company value on leaderboards.\u00a0 On the other hand, the developer might award achievements and in-game valuables for being the shard with the greatest overall value, encouraging cooperation rather than competition.\u00a0 Shards both make the game more approachable and more flexible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>15 minutes &#8211; 1 hour per day<\/strong>: Obviously this should not be a hard limit on time, but rather a tweaking of the game mechanics.\u00a0 15 minutes per day should be sufficient time for a player to be competitive, and actions taken after about an hour should be unlikely to have much impact.\u00a0 It would be a challenge to make the game work that way, particularly for a strategy game where options tend to increase along with time spent in the game.\u00a0 It would be worth it, though, because it would allow relatively casual gamers like me to enjoy the experience.\u00a0 Gamers interested in investing more time could join other shards during the same season (only once per shard, though; wouldn&#8217;t want people gaming the system by setting up multiple accounts in a single shard).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think the company that created this game could gain a lot of fans.\u00a0 And possibly make a lot of money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I would love to play a multiplayer Railroad Tycoon style game, with seasons of 1-3 months, shards with 6-12 players, and balanced for 15 minutes to an hour of play each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natkale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}