Trial/pre-purchase test.

[DarkKnight]

I dont know if this is viable, but maybe you could make the game a combination of Free to play, and Pay to Play.

I read this article, and came up with this suggestion:

You can download the game/a version of the game, where you can play... A MONSTER! Yes, a monster, for free!

Playing a monster has its drawbacks from playing a character, you can not level, you cant buy stuff, and not all monsters can talk to the normal players. However, this also has some pros, for example, you get to play the game for free =D, and that is not just it: Normal, paying players have intelligent enemies, cities can be attacked, enemies can gather while they would normally not, diplomacy can be done with monsters.
It gives better behavure to the monsters, without having to program the behavure.

Hunnenkoenig, please give your opinion about this (and the rest of you too =D)

[Hunnenkoenig]

 

It is a strange, but very cool idea.
But then, should monsters be able to communicate with eachother?

What can they do?
What stats they have?

etc.

So why would player want to play monsters beside the fact that it is free. What would them motivate to play for a longer time period?

[DarkKnight]

Depends on the complexity of the monster, if the creature would be able to communicate, than the player can aswel.

For example, you have 2 snails, played by players, snails dont communicate, so the players wont be able to communicate.
Example2, You have two goblins, they can only speak goblins, so the two players can communicate, but paying characters cant understand them.
Example3, You have two bandits, they speak a commonly used language, so the two players can communicate, and they can also communicate with paying characters.

They can basically do anything that the monster could do, which atleast means, attack, use the abillities the monsters can, perhaps some roleplaying features, such as eating perhaps, or sleeping. Though no crafting things, since they cannot possess items (or not use them, if you want the items to become loot).
They have exactly the same stats as any other monster basically.

And well, wouldnt it be awesome, to just put your mind to zero as a rhino, and charge in on a group of adventurers?
Also, paying players might even get to play other kinds of monsters, or they would get to choose what monster they play, and maybe even where.

But the biggest advantage for paying players would be, that they actually have worthy oponents in between the mindless mobs.
Communicating free-players could orginise raids on cities, or could create ambush locations, or just run around in circles.

It creates the oppertunity for there to be random events, that even the developers cant predict.

[Hunnenkoenig]

That sounds good.
It would be very unique.

When time comes, we will definbatelly think about it.

Now I think, I should delete this topic, so no "competitor" can read this very cool idea and implement it in a mediocore crap, before we can. 

[DarkKnight]

Lol XD, they could get it if they follow the mmorpg.com blogs >.>

[master]

its cool but i think that only specialised types of monsters. something like a world boss. it would be boring just sitting around in a certain area waiting for players. also population wise i doubt f everything would be able to be covered. also whats to stop players from getting their friends into a valuable loot sourse and then the friend allows them to kill easily.

another thing. there would have to be a leveling system. ie a player starts in  a worm and moves up to dragon. it would partially help the loot thing. maybe if a player doesnt \do well in a certain monster he coulkd drop back down a level. that would also help. but only partially as it wouled need to happen a couple of times before being dropped.

also maybe groups would need to be e formed for pack things. like werewolfs would need at least

[DarkKnight]

No, it is not boring to play a mob, these mobs are not bound to certain areas at all, if a player is a mob, he has complete freedom.
There would still be NPC mobs obviously, becouse else you wouldnt have enough creatures to hunt for I bet.
What could stop players from getting their friends valuable loot, is a certain system that I had thought up with Hunnenkoenig:

Every paying player, can vote for a creature-character who is playing their creature in a good, and enjoyable way, if the person gets enough votes, he will be able to play more advanced mobs (Perhaps beginning players cant even play mobs that can communicate with players through speech) then, on the other hand, to stop corruption, there would also be a report option, this allows you to report a player-monster that does not behave correctly (For example, lets other people kill him without a reason, is being personally-aimed rude, etc.

How it would go, if you have a free account, would be like this:

You log in with your unique username and password, and get to the main menu,
This gives you the basic options like start game, options, credits etc.

The player presses start, and gets a screen of lore about the monster he is about to play, this is completely random every time you log in.

He then gets to play this monster. If he plays well (for example, playing a puma) by for example, sneaking up on the targets, showing typical puma behavures etc. Then people will probably vote that that person was doing a good job.

But, as just about every mob, the player-monsters puma eventually dies by the sword of a brave adventurer.

Now a new piece of lore about another monster shows up, the monster he is about to play.
The player is lucky, becouse he had enough votes to get a better monster, one that can talk to paying players, namely a goblin.

He then meets a group of adventurers, and starts to advertise his own web-site.
This is not appreciated, and he gets reported. A GM will then look into the logs of this person, and notice he has been advertising as a mob, therefor, he gets degraded back to non-communicating mobs. But he still has the oppertunity to get back, if he earns enough votes again.

I hope this is clear enough for you.

(Also, many species have their own language that only they can understand, this allows for team-work between player monsters. Perhaps there could be an option of someone playing the leader of a group of NPC mobs, that he would be able to give out orders and stuff.)

[astro7001]

Sounds kinda like Rune Scape

[DarkKnight]

No it doesnt, becouse here you dont get a part of the gameplay, you get special gameplay that is actually usefull to the paying players, I feel offended now >.>

[astro7001]

thats why i said "kinda". in general terms it is still kinda the same. in rune scape you get to play play for free, but you are still limited(but still can be useful to paying players). And paying players get full advantage of the game options and areas you can visit.

[master]

the vote system might work. but im not sure about complete reliability though. if players dont know about it then how can  they report it. ande votes to advance. maybe votes could speed up the process, but i think there should be at least a basic mechanic which governs it and the votes could work to fastforward the process.

also would mobs be npc until a plazyer takes it over. or would mobs spawn as players log in. also would players get different types of mobs then the npc ones, i think that would work best lorewise. unless there is a demonic possesion type of thing in the game.

[DarkKnight]

Every species has a few smart ones, or odd ones in them, and the player would just take over an NPC, also, a system that indicates if a player is being killed without doing anything himself too oftenly, would get a GM visit (Under cover), offcourse they could still take profit from it, but hey, killing a small worm for free loot is not going to be all that usefull =D. And, playing monsters is not about advancing, see it as playing a first person shooter, you are just a character with a set amount of stats, and you have to make the best of it, while the paying players can advance without the need of others, the voting is just to let the trusted players have better creatures.

And creatures can act one way, and change to the other =3, unless you are a biologist, looking at the behavure of all monsters you wont notice all that much change in behavure of an individual I bet.

[master]

what i meant about advancing is gainin better monsters. and ive though of something against a pure vot system. some players may not vote for an upgrade due to pite. i really think it should be auto raise for monsters. it would just be easier. though as i said before votes could speed it up.

i dont have any knowledge of this sort of thing but wouldnt it be easier to design mos solely for players then haveing them switch. though i could be wrong.

[DarkKnight]

The interresting thing about it, is that it are ordinary mobs, that suddenly become more intelligent, you realy musnt see the monster-players as characters, but as somewhat more intelligent mobs, also, if you make mobs that are specially made for people to play, some might be dissapointed that they cant play their favorite mob.

Still, advancing through monsters is an added feature, it is not a goal to achieve the best monster, it is a reward by the people, to the free players. And you must have done something wrong if someone dislikes you to not vote for you, if you are good enough, there will be more than enough people willing to vote for you, perhaps you could have the vote-button pop up right after you have beaten the monster, or left its vicinity, to prevent laziness (Becouse I have noticed, with Beta-testing for example, I would love to submit a bug, however I had to minimilise the game, go to the site, go to the forums, search around on the forums, make a seperate account name on the forums, search if there wasnt that bug already, and post it... that is just too much work for a small bug for me, and for most people, this would also apply to voting for a mob, but even quicker) so, the easier it is to vote, the more likely they will vote.

And I have to admit, that I have played several pirated servers myself (only me and 3-5 friends), and noticed that you could, with a simple use of code, change into a mob, with all that mobs abillities etc. So it shouldnt be all that hard.