Multiplayer Online Game design: Themes

Multiplayer Online Game design: Themes

Graphical and text based multiplayer online virtual adventure gaming has become very popular. There are virtually thousands of MOG’s (multiplayer online games) on the net now. Yet only a handful of these games are based on Christian themes. If you were to play or design a Christian based multiplayer online game, what theme would most interest you?

Beyond voting for the few themes I have provided in this post, are there other themes that may interest you more? You may also discuss the themes provided and provide your opinion on them in regards to content of any particular theme whether listed in the poll or not. Please stay on topic regarding the design or use of these types of games and refrain from voicing your opinion on the dislike of these games in general, if that is your view.

Multiplayer on-line games (MOG’s) also known as Multi User Dungeons (MUD’S which are usually text based in nature) also range to Graphical Multi User Dungeons, and also consist of Massively Multiplayer online games (MMOG’s) or Massively Multiplayer online Role-playing Games (MMORPG’s). It is an elaborately designed virtual game world which runs on a server in which tens to tens of thousands of users (players) simultaneously log into with their computer by means of telnet or a game client. Once connected to these game servers the user is amerced into a quasi-virtual reality world where they can interact with the designed environment as well as other users that are simultaneously connected to the server.


-Tribulation theme. Based on eschatology. A world set during the seven year tribulation where players will encounter situations regarding the times of the great tribulation after the rapture of the church and before the second coming of Christ.

-Medieval theme. Fantasy based. Enter the world of Dragons and Elves where the battle between good and evil is prominent and Christian values and teachings empowers the player to victory.

-Modern-day theme. From cyber-culture to street witnessing, this world reflects situations that deal with our current society.

-Allegorical theme. Based purely on metaphors. To sum this up, did you ever read pilgrims progress?

RazorX said:

Definetly a medieval theme, I can't see how a tribulation or modern-day theme would work.

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True true, Medieval theme would be the easiest to design. The gaming world is completly saturated with multiplayer medieval games to draw ideas from.
What do you think of the left behind series? Though I have only read little of the series, the theme is compelling as an idea. I think it would be possible yet it is untested ground. That’s not always a bad thing though.

tinkerbell said:

If the purpose of the game is to point people to Christ, the best choice would be modern day, because it would be more relevant to them.

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True, yet the book Pilgrims Progress is relevant to us today as it was when it was written. The book is an excellent faith-building tool yet it was not designed to reflect the times in which it was written. Very true though, a game designed as a tool for learning the gospel that deals with some aspect of modern times would be fun to play.

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Thanks for the votes and replies so far. I enjoy online gaming very much and this is a topic that deserves some of my attention I feel. I’d like to hear what you think of Christian multiplayer games. Thx

How would a combat system be implemented with any of these themes? I’m guessing that drawing a longsword in a modern theme would be out of place. My thoughts are beyond physical battles though. Can spiritual battles be represented in a fun and meaningful way? Many games use magic along with physical combat or purely one or the other, yet is that all there is? Would it require just doing or saying the right thing to be successful? And if there was a fun way to implement a spiritual combat system how would it fit in with any given theme that appeals to you?

RazorX said:

That's one of the reasons I thought a modern-day theme wouldn't work very well. I have read the Left-Behind series and I think their great but it wouldn't work well as a game.


The only way a Christian medieval game could work IMO would have to be like you originarly said, which was a world with dragons and elves. A spiritual combat system would be cool but I can't see how it would be done.

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Actually I recently found a great article on “left Behind” after you posted this. I was curious what the opinion of others were on this and what they thought could be done regarding game development. To my surprise I found a great article at cbn.com about the emerging Christian game industry and it even mentioned a “Left Behind” game in development. It’s a really good article and can be found at: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/030617a.asp You can also find the game web site at: http://www.leftbehindgames.com/

I hear that Frank Peretti had a good demonstration of a spiritual warfare model in a book he wrote called This Present Darkness. I haven’t read the book yet but it makes me curious for sure. Hey well if Wizards can blow out fire balls I don’t see why a solid Christian based warfare system cant be created that has no resemblance to the dark art of magic. I have some ideas but this is something that will take time to develop in a meaningful way.

Actually I think all four worlds in the poll can be created. I put a fair amount of thought into each before I posted these four. I think the only limitation in creating games is in the limit of the developer’s imagination. There were many types of world settings that I left out in the poll but these are just four that interest me most.

With only 6 voters at this point, this topic does not seem to be very popular here at CF gaming forum. What do you guys think of Christian games in general? Are video games of the Devil or just online gaming? Hehe (as mentioned in the article). Anyway if you have not voted yet, please do. I have a personal favorite of the four but I’ll post why in detail later.

Oops, sorry haven't had much time to get a reply in lately. I'll make up for it and write a long one lol.

I do like Mechs and have spent alot of time on an old Mech real-time sim some time back. You are referring to a classic turn-base RPG type of mech system which is so much more easily coded than creating a physics system for a MOG/SIM system.

I didn't directly consider a Mech game but they easily fit into a futuristic sci-fi theme (me big fan) that I wrestled with a bit and found lacking for what would make for a good Christian based on-line rpg game. I'm sure it's possible in a pure fantasy sense, but I ,for myself, just can't see how a Mech game (or sci-fi) which is so very combat oriented could have a Christian storyline/s that would take center stage in the virtual world.

Okay so I'll tell ya what I voted for and why. I voted for Allegorical theme (someone needed to ) since it is pretty open for interpretation on what the contents of such a world could contain. To be purely a world of metaphors is of course overboard, but having alot of representations of things and events in a fantasy setting gives a lot of room to work and create in a development sense.

I would think one good source to draw from, but not directly for copyright reasons, would be pilgrim's progress. I very much like how the characters are presented in that story and how building NPC's in such a fashion could make room for a lot of content. Another good story to draw a little from would be Alice in Wonderland for the sheer imagination of the world setting. And of course the best resource for creating content for a game would be from Christian scriptures. I'm sure you can guess my favorite apostle is John hehe.

My second choice is the medieval setting. Though many things such as aspects concerning combat could be added into my first choice (not much physical combat really though), I would much prefer to stay away from mainstream pagan aspects of medieval gaming of the day. I just cant imagine Jesus sitting down to play a game involving the casting of enchantments standing over a pentagram with bloody goat heads encircled around a sacrificial alter guarded by his characters pet imp.

Sure I could point to a story like LOTR as an example. But the problem with creating a medieval fantasy world such as that is that this is a game and not a well drawn out book to start from. I could easily imagine how much of such a story could be easily misinterpreted as pagan in design especially if it was reinvented as a game. Some would even say that the books are really pagan in design (I heard it allot) when much of the story was allegorical (Tolkiens own description of the works) concerning biblical imagery. Yet since he at times walked a fine line in some aspects it makes something like that hard to translate to movie/game without loosing the true meaning of the stories. A meaning of course that is not really at the forfront of it's design but just an element not easily seen to the untrained eye.

No, no... I'd like to see something much more directly biblical based really. I'm not to thrilled about adding some switch that can be thrown by the player to output the syntax of casting to prayer. Though it looks more appealing it still resembles the majority of spell casting architectures used by all the pagan games. It has been done by one Christian on-line game as far as I know, but I still don't get that feeling of a full break from magic. A prayer system would be one good feature for combat of course but it needs to be built from scratch. I've been going over mountains of code trying to incorporate something and I'm getting ever closer to what seems right. Cohesive architecture takes time of course and I'm in no rush.

So why am I working this thread as I have been doing? Well I was looking for insight from the CF community on how a Christian based game should be designed. I've been programming since 1982 and I'm looking for something to work/develop on to get my c/c++ programming skills up since I've mainly only been programming manufacturing machines for the past seven years. I'm more of a hobby PC programmer but I've had formal training and I hope I have more time for more formal training in the future. I'm also into UNIX based server administration (what game servers run on) and was formally trained as a computer technition. Oh hehe and I've been addicted to video games since the late 70's.

I'm currently looking at two commercial engines as my choice for server/client. They are still in development but they look extremely promissing. Time will tell though concerning the strengths or weaknesses of those systems. It's not just that though since I needed to come up with an affordable business model (once again) to get any project up, running and sustained. I've pretty much worked all that out though.

Pick a team, any team? nah I got time since the servers I want are a year or more to go in development. For now though I get to build some parts of the project to get it pointed in the right direction. I was tempted in starting a game development company that was purely internet based but for the most part I've ruled that out except for smaller specialized tasks. One good reason is I often get the impression that communication over the internet (like I am now) often gets missunderstood. Yet of course I've been around long enough to see my share of Trolls and just plain rude people that are because they think they can do so behind their key board. Recently a Christian text based online game was shut down over a long distance dispute and that's a crying shame. Luckily I get to learn from others mistakes I suppose.

...In conclusion... heh we need more Christian based games. Not just bible tract games but fun games with depth for mature Christians to play. Not a compromise to try to draw in the unsaved but games that edify, teach and entertain God's people. I hope that in the coming years I may see such a thing in the gaming world.

Thanks to those who participated in this thread and or the poll.
Peace

Wow thanks for the link. I haven’t heard of that one. There are literally over 100 graphical mmorpg’s operating on the net right now and so many more being developed. I though you were referring to this one being a Christian mmorpg but I didn’t see any hint of it on their site. Their goals seem very impressive nonetheless.

Yes I’m very aware of MEO. I’m not quite sure if I’m going to try it when it comes out. I may wait for the reviews. MEO is going to run on the same engine that powers AC2 (which was a ttl failure) and I know from first hand experience that this engine is a basket case. If Vivindi pours enough money into the project and does not try to sell off the franchise once again, or just vaporware it, then it may have a chance.

If you are looking for a Christian online game to play right now (and for free ) and you like to read hehe then you may want to check out AOTC and LOJ