Game for griefers
More coursework, this time just coming up with a game concept rather than a whole working game. Very good timing, as I had a move on, and I wouldn't have been up to a full design.
The concept was somewhat challenging: a game specifically to appeal to griefers.
Trappers
The ideas behind this are largely based on conversations I have had with Eve players. Eve as a game seems to support griefers as part of the game, and it has a "harden up" kind of attitude to those who don't like some of the harsher aspects of the game. Trappers is meant to be pitched specifically at the territorial, play prevention, kill your opponents aspects of game play.
Sample Play Experience
Bob wakes up, and decides to check on place in the Trappers instances he calls his own. Bob has been top of the charts for some time, so he is really just going to check his kills stats and make sure no one has made any attempts on his defensive structures. He connects to the first, loading, first look, five seconds in and the screen goes black. Not good.
"Do you want to review third party camera action?" Bob indicates yes, and watches his character appear on his logged out flag, and get neatly decapitated. 30 minutes of time lost, he logs in again, another trap! He checks each of the instances he plays on, some rival has guild has been busy tracking down his log off flags, dismantling his defences and erecting traps around him. He checks the forums, yep, the kills have only just happened, but there is already a discussion "The king is dead!" Videos of his deaths are starting to be thumbed up the charts.
There are a few instances he still has some hold on, but he has a lot of work to do, he calls in sick, and starts IMing his alliance. Time to harden up and get revenge.
Game Basics
Trappers is a three-D physics based game. There are several instances each being fairly small in play area. Each one resembled a very packed scrapyard. The scrap serves a variety of purposes, but by far the most common are building defences, traps and straight out hiding.
When a new player enters an instance they start with a basic avatar in a small safe zone. As soon as they are outside the safe
zone they cannot return to it. When they log off a small flag is left indicating their identity. They are invulnerable while logged off, but when they return to the instance, they will return to where their flag is. Players are limited to 2 hours online time in each instance.
There are several instances, new ones are added to allow new players a way to join the game, and to provide existing players new places to dominate. Old instances will be removed when they are so dominated by an alliance as to be completely forbidding to any other players.
When an Avatar is killed the player loses 30 minutes of login time, but are otherwise free to immediately try to log in.
Avatars can be bludgeoned by general scrapyard stuff, but in general it is more efficient to kill them with traps. The interface is set up to allow machines to be easily built. An avatar can easily move equipment and connect it together. Some sort of "snapping" is allowed for setting up pulleys, trip wires and other machine like elements. Structures and machines are built to (1) hide a players flag, (2) defend their flag and (3) kill other players as they move in the instance and (4) trap and/or kill an avatar as it pops into existence at its flag.
Players also have a supply of cameras they may place in the instance. These will record movement, and save files when an avatar dies in their vicinity. Any machine a player builds is recorded as theirs, and any kills made by that equipment are credited to them.
Support Infrastructure
As well as the instances, there is a certain amount of surrounding infrastructure devoted to the game. There is a portal for tracking which instances you have a presence in, and a means to join new ones.
There is place to post death videos, and vote of them. leader board of kills and days gone without being killed by instance. There is a forum to discuss the game.
Kinds of Fun
The main forms of fun is the griefing. Players are out to kill others, ideally in cool ways. The ideal is to prevent a player from even logging onto an instance, with a series of deaths as they attempt to.
A few other forms of fun manage to sneak in as well (I hope). There is the fun of creating the traps and defences, and alliances/guilds would work well, so there should be some sense of community. Given the territorial nature I imagine there would be a few competing alliances for most of the instances, with a few supporting solo players and ones who wish to form smaller groups.
It would not be an easy game to join, but the kind of players who enjoy the meanness of it would either have to learn fast on fresh instances, or make themselves known on the forums, and join some existing alliance.
While there is a leaderboard, no enforced terms of victory would really be offered. Players would hopefully make their own sense of trappers and revel in the coolness of the deaths, or pay attention to the territorial holdings of alliances.
The concept was somewhat challenging: a game specifically to appeal to griefers.
Trappers
The ideas behind this are largely based on conversations I have had with Eve players. Eve as a game seems to support griefers as part of the game, and it has a "harden up" kind of attitude to those who don't like some of the harsher aspects of the game. Trappers is meant to be pitched specifically at the territorial, play prevention, kill your opponents aspects of game play.
Sample Play Experience
Bob wakes up, and decides to check on place in the Trappers instances he calls his own. Bob has been top of the charts for some time, so he is really just going to check his kills stats and make sure no one has made any attempts on his defensive structures. He connects to the first, loading, first look, five seconds in and the screen goes black. Not good.
"Do you want to review third party camera action?" Bob indicates yes, and watches his character appear on his logged out flag, and get neatly decapitated. 30 minutes of time lost, he logs in again, another trap! He checks each of the instances he plays on, some rival has guild has been busy tracking down his log off flags, dismantling his defences and erecting traps around him. He checks the forums, yep, the kills have only just happened, but there is already a discussion "The king is dead!" Videos of his deaths are starting to be thumbed up the charts.
There are a few instances he still has some hold on, but he has a lot of work to do, he calls in sick, and starts IMing his alliance. Time to harden up and get revenge.
Game Basics
Trappers is a three-D physics based game. There are several instances each being fairly small in play area. Each one resembled a very packed scrapyard. The scrap serves a variety of purposes, but by far the most common are building defences, traps and straight out hiding.
When a new player enters an instance they start with a basic avatar in a small safe zone. As soon as they are outside the safe
zone they cannot return to it. When they log off a small flag is left indicating their identity. They are invulnerable while logged off, but when they return to the instance, they will return to where their flag is. Players are limited to 2 hours online time in each instance.
There are several instances, new ones are added to allow new players a way to join the game, and to provide existing players new places to dominate. Old instances will be removed when they are so dominated by an alliance as to be completely forbidding to any other players.
When an Avatar is killed the player loses 30 minutes of login time, but are otherwise free to immediately try to log in.
Avatars can be bludgeoned by general scrapyard stuff, but in general it is more efficient to kill them with traps. The interface is set up to allow machines to be easily built. An avatar can easily move equipment and connect it together. Some sort of "snapping" is allowed for setting up pulleys, trip wires and other machine like elements. Structures and machines are built to (1) hide a players flag, (2) defend their flag and (3) kill other players as they move in the instance and (4) trap and/or kill an avatar as it pops into existence at its flag.
Players also have a supply of cameras they may place in the instance. These will record movement, and save files when an avatar dies in their vicinity. Any machine a player builds is recorded as theirs, and any kills made by that equipment are credited to them.
Support Infrastructure
As well as the instances, there is a certain amount of surrounding infrastructure devoted to the game. There is a portal for tracking which instances you have a presence in, and a means to join new ones.
There is place to post death videos, and vote of them. leader board of kills and days gone without being killed by instance. There is a forum to discuss the game.
Kinds of Fun
The main forms of fun is the griefing. Players are out to kill others, ideally in cool ways. The ideal is to prevent a player from even logging onto an instance, with a series of deaths as they attempt to.
A few other forms of fun manage to sneak in as well (I hope). There is the fun of creating the traps and defences, and alliances/guilds would work well, so there should be some sense of community. Given the territorial nature I imagine there would be a few competing alliances for most of the instances, with a few supporting solo players and ones who wish to form smaller groups.
It would not be an easy game to join, but the kind of players who enjoy the meanness of it would either have to learn fast on fresh instances, or make themselves known on the forums, and join some existing alliance.
While there is a leaderboard, no enforced terms of victory would really be offered. Players would hopefully make their own sense of trappers and revel in the coolness of the deaths, or pay attention to the territorial holdings of alliances.