Text-Based Role Playing Games
Role playing games are one of the biggest hits on the internet. Every day a new free message board site pops up giving people of all ages the chance to setup their very own role playing site. Hundreds spend their free time creating their own characters, developing their personality, and joining the community of a large group that enjoy playing out their own stories.
But there is a major downside to role playing. Things get out of hand, people try to talk or play as your character, updating weather and moderating posts is a huge hassle. This is the year 2008, where the Internet is in almost every house and cafe in town, you can watch movies online, and download them with the click of a button. Why are text-based role playing games still in the dark ages?!?
The evolution of role playing games is here! I’m proposing an eRPG, an automated role playing game system that solves the hassles of traditional role playing. Essentially removing the problems we find in RPG games through programming.
So, what defines an eRPG, what separates it from a normal text-based RPG? In an eRPG your role playing is more structured and fluid so that you don’t get the random hassle and out of place posts that are common in RPG. Your characters age, get injured and die all based on the underlying structure of the game. Although the structure may vary from eRPG to eRPG they all have a common thread — automation. The behind the scenes programming creates a framework for players to build their own story line but stay within its restrictions at the same time.
Features include:
Weather. Characters are effected by this change in the weather, and so is your gameplay.
Hierarchy structure. Characters are ranked by how often they play, how well they play, and how much other characters interact with them and respect them.
Self-Moderation. In an eRPG everyone is in charge of everyone else. With its unique moderation system members higher in the hierarchy structure have more say, and everyone has the ability to kick or ban anyone else from the game.
Actions. As you role play it SHOULD effect your character. That means if you go to the bathroom then your character’s bathroom meter goes down because its needs have been satisfied. If you eat something then your hunger meter goes down because you’re not as hungry as you were before.
Effects. However, even though there are actions there are effects to those actions. If you eat too many things then you get fat. If you don’t go to the bathroom then you embarass yourself in public.
Goal. Although an eRPG is never ending there has to be some kind of goals to work for. Items you can get to help your characters along the way, or responsibilities you must complete to keep your character’s rank in the hierarchy. Something!
This, in a nutshell, is an eRPG. The evolution of role playing games.
