Ideas for a perfect Christian game

[Gottservant]

I love Rpgs

[...]

the Lords appearing in Glory.... yay

That is such a brilliant idea!

Non-Christians could play for the anti-Christ and witness the Church's faithful testimony to Christ through death (no matter what the evil side did they would lose, but they might learn something).

 

[morningstar2651]

Obvious evangelism is likely to get the same response as obvious in-game advertising, which is the exact opposite of the goal of evangelism.

The best way to evangelize through a game is to exploit the suspension of disbelief. When we play video games, we willfully suspend our disbelief for the sake of enjoying the game.

The first goal of a good game should be to be fun...even if it's an educational game or a religious game. If the player doesn't enjoy the experience, they won't keep playing the game.

How does this idea sound? Instead of a standard death in a game, what if the player is judged according to their actions?

 

[Gottservant]

What about a game where you simply played Christ?

Bonus points for doing miracles for more people.

Game over if you fail to die on the cross.

 

[Psalms34]

Oh, lets see, what to saaaay mmorpg, not really an evangelism tool but more meaty in content geared more for Christian adults. Heavy on questing, lots of story and all mostly bible centered in some way. Not really a “real-life” setting, but something more fantasy like how Pilgrims Progress is, but it’s own world and story. Combat with swords and stuff, but also well infused with spiritual powers/gifts, like Elijah calling down fire type stuff , as well as like laying on of hands and other such things. This and that, here and there etc etc etc. Of course I always plug my website at this point, you can find the link in my profile, look under Project X at the humble devlog site. Eventually I'll get around to giving it it's own website and with it's name, pretty soon.

 

[morningstar2651]

Oh, lets see, what to saaaay mmorpg, not really an evangelism tool but more meaty in content geared more for Christian adults. Heavy on questing, lots of story and all mostly bible centered in some way. Not really a “real-life” setting, but something more fantasy like how Pilgrims Progress is, but it’s own world and story. Combat with swords and stuff, but also well infused with spiritual powers/gifts, like Elijah calling down fire type stuff , as well as like laying on of hands and other such things. This and that, here and there etc etc etc. Of course I always plug my website at this point, you can find the link in my profile, look under Project X at the humble devlog site. Eventually I'll get around to giving it it's own website and with it's name, pretty soon.

A free-to-play MMO would be a great social environment.

The problem with an MMO is that it opens the community to griefers. However, if someone is going to play a Christian MMO long enough to pick on newbies, they're either enjoying the game long enough to get strong, or just have way too much time on their hands.

 

[Psalms34]

A free-to-play MMO would be a great social environment.

The problem with an MMO is that it opens the community to griefers. However, if someone is going to play a Christian MMO long enough to pick on newbies, they're either enjoying the game long enough to get strong, or just have way too much time on their hands.

f2p? Nah, I don't like f2p games. I prefer the typical American style billing system where you pay a flat fee by the month or in blocks of 3+ months at a discount.

A few points on that.
Griefing is a problem, yes I agree.
Other thing is it throws off player balance, I mean there really are no "free" games (other than a few crummy games in perpetual beta) and what they do is sell in-game content to raise money to support the servers and staff. But what this does, if other than a "solo" type game... which makes no sense for an mmog, is that when party groups form, often some players will be nerfed because they don't have the uber equipment that the other players bought. So if you think about it, that means those players are lagging the party and bringing down those that pay for that equipment, taking away from their game experience.

Another point, most of the f2p games are isometric. Isometric takes more bandwidth to operate than a classic MUD, but far less than a full 3D environment, and bandwidth costs. Many that do f2p in a 3D environment rely heavily on instancing, and I dislike instancing for the most part. I much prefer the classic style mmog were it has little or no instancing and players are actually emerged in a perpetual game world.

Another thing, not really so much regarding f2p, I don't like expansions you pay for, but just added zone/world content to all accounts so everyone has access to everything. I'm really big on player balance (non-pvp), so having players unable to get to content I feel throws that all off. Most AAA titles don't do that since they want to publish a expansion box so to have it on a store shelf, but it messes up the game world imo. There are some AAA's that have been doing it the way I just mentioned though, like CoH to name one, I mean as far as just publishing new content w/o fees, though they fall short with so much instancing as not being the perfect model for an mmog of imo.

 

[Theogonia]

Non-Christians could play for the anti-Christ and witness the Church's faithful testimony to Christ through death (no matter what the evil side did they would lose, but they might learn something).

LOL

These ideas are atrocious.

 

[morningstar2651]

f2p? Nah, I don't like f2p games. I prefer the typical American style billing system where you pay a flat fee by the month or in blocks of 3+ months at a discount.

A few points on that.
Griefing is a problem, yes I agree.
Other thing is it throws off player balance, I mean there really are no "free" games (other than a few crummy games in perpetual beta) and what they do is sell in-game content to raise money to support the servers and staff. But what this does, if other than a "solo" type game... which makes no sense for an mmog, is that when party groups form, often some players will be nerfed because they don't have the uber equipment that the other players bought. So if you think about it, that means those players are lagging the party and bringing down those that pay for that equipment, taking away from their game experience.

Another point, most of the f2p games are isometric. Isometric takes more bandwidth to operate than a classic MUD, but far less than a full 3D environment, and bandwidth costs. Many that do f2p in a 3D environment rely heavily on instancing, and I dislike instancing for the most part. I much prefer the classic style mmog were it has little or no instancing and players are actually emerged in a perpetual game world.

Another thing, not really so much regarding f2p, I don't like expansions you pay for, but just added zone/world content to all accounts so everyone has access to everything. I'm really big on player balance (non-pvp), so having players unable to get to content I feel throws that all off. Most AAA titles don't do that since they want to publish a expansion box so to have it on a store shelf, but it messes up the game world imo. There are some AAA's that have been doing it the way I just mentioned though, like CoH to name one, I mean as far as just publishing new content w/o fees, though they fall short with so much instancing as not being the perfect model for an mmog of imo.

Great observations!

I'm actually leading a team developing a free to play survival-horror MMO. We're in pre-alpha right now. The game is free to download & play. I don't plan on breaking even -- I'm taking a loss to create this game.

We're using Multiverse. If you're interested in taking this idea beyond pre-production, Multiverse is your best bet for creating a Christian MMO with a small budget.

Also, the game doesn't need to be free to play, but that serves as a barrier to entry and would more or less limit the playerbase to Christians and those seriously interested in Christianity. If the target audience is non-Christian, then free would be the best model.

 

[Psalms34]

Great observations!

eh thanks, been at it for some time, I'm well know in indie game development communities and have some of my freelance content in quite a few games.

I'm actually leading a team developing a free to play survival-horror MMO. We're in pre-alpha right now. The game is free to download & play. I don't plan on breaking even -- I'm taking a loss to create this game.

We're using Multiverse. If you're interested in taking this idea beyond pre-production, Multiverse is your best bet for creating a Christian MMO with a small budget.

Also, the game doesn't need to be free to play, but that serves as a barrier to entry and would more or less limit the playerbase to Christians and those seriously interested in Christianity. If the target audience is non-Christian, then free would be the best model.

heh well actually pre-production was years ago, I mentioned a plug for my developers log in my first post on this thread.

MV is an interesting choice, I have a developers account with them, have had it for a long time. Was just checking it out though, my engine is a non-fixed-pipeline shader based engine, like the technology used in AoC and LotRO... not to mention Vanguard ...but they didn't do a good job with that one. We are still working on the engine, it's nearly done, but have a good chunk of the content for the game done.

Still all pretty much secret in a sense, all wrapped up tight in NDA's for the time being, until I'm ready to publish info along with the website on the net (waiting on a couple things). Final release won't be ready until 2009 at the earliest though, but I have a different publish coming out later this year, at least I hope that one will be done by then. Though I do have early production screen shots up at the devlog of my Christian mmog, though that was a very early version of the game engine and looks nothing like it does now. Shots of the new terrain system up there though, but that too is still being developed.

Watch, you'll hear of it, it'll be on the cover of various Christian mags and sites one day something about "best Christian game ever released!" ..then I'll be in trouble, too much traffic all at once

 

[JDFU]

I wouldn't mind a board game actually. Though how I'd plan it out...I don't know! XD

 

[DarkManX1]

Well to blatantly rip off some other gaming titles:

Church Tycoon
-Choose your faith
-Design your church
-Choose your marketing campaign
-Try to convert people
-etc. etc. etc.

Instead of The Sims, we have...
The Christians!
-Make your Christ loving family
-Get the kids up in time to make them go to church
-Get a job in a religious field
-Try to control the entertainment shown in the house.
-Throw prayer meeting in the living room
-yada, yada, yada

And finally after the explosion of World of Warcraft...
World of Faith!
-Create your person choosing from many different races, religious affiliations, and occupation
-Basically WoW with Christian aspects, I think you get the idea...I'm tired of typing.