[General Discussion] The Need For Speed (future video game concept) (long)

I've been kicking this concept around for a few months now, and it's finally started to take some form so that I could ably describe it to people. Given where technology is today and given where most people see technology going in the not-too-distant future, I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't already in the pipelines.

The game (which I'm calling The Need For Speed), will obviously be an Electronic Arts title, and will be a next-gen game, if not a next-next-gen game. It will be a massively-multiplayer online DRIVING game, and the concept is one that few games have ever touched on: normal, everyday driving with underlying racing elements. By the time this game would be released, technology will already have advanced far enough that all the world's roads and geography will be able to be loaded onto a single disc, or streamed from a central server (cluster). Your driveway, the unpaved mountain roads of Bolivia, and the German Autobahn are just a few examples of roads you can instantly travel to and drive on.

Upon first registering the game, your avatar is dropped into a construct of sorts (think The Matrix) and up out of the ground sprouts thousands of vehicles. Hopping on a Segway, you get to ride around to any vehicle you wish (sorted alphabetically by car make, then model, then year, then class) and pick out your car...as long as it is street-legal in the country you wish to play in. It is bare-bones at the moment; not even the optional stuff is included. Colors are limited, external parts are limited, even the stuff inside the car are limited. But you can upgrade it later. And, the more you drive, eventually you may be able to take even the cars that aren't street-legal out for a spin.

Being an MMODG, your world is populated with both the most intelligent (or dumbest, depending) driving AI and the other players around the world. From the construct you are dropped into the world in your own driveway, and you can drive freely around from there if you want. This would be the wisest thing to do to get a feel for the controls, of course, but you may want to get moving and collecting and unlocking things. There are a variety of time trials, but short and long, that are immediately available to you, and you may want to set some time aside for some of the longer ones. The gameplay and driving are about as accurate to real life as it gets, so distances travelled and speeds driven may force you to play for a while. A handy pausing mechanic, just in case you need it, will allow you to step away from the game. (Though I can't decide if I'd rather you be able to immediately do a rolling pause, or have to pull over in order to pause.)

Of course, the ultimate purpose of this game would be racing. But real-world "racing" is not sanctioned or legal for the most part, and this is what you have to deal with. You'll get in-game money for completing tasks, but you'll have to keep an eye out for state and local policeout to make sure you obey the law. Like in real life, they may be everywhere, or they may be sparse. They may come after you, they may come after someone else. And if you think this is like previous NFS iterations where you lose a "life", you're wrong. Real-world laws apply here, and you may be suspended (or banned, if the terminology makes more sense) from the game for serious infractions. You'll have to learn, just like regular drivers, how to bend the laws and when you can break them...or use others to your advantage.

Just like in previous NFS games, sometimes you can take control of the lesser appreciated aspects of the vehicular world for "regular" drivers. Bonus driving sessions will allow you to drive limos, taxis, big rigs and, as usual, emergency vehicles and maintenance crews as you can even go and help resolve accidents and pile-ups and get traffic moving again. Special conditions will allow you to take part in these missions, and certain unlockables will only be made available by completing these missions. It's all very standard stuff for both RPGs and driving games, but when combined it makes for an experience which applies more to the average person than slaying monsters to get gear that everyone else has.

The big point of having a Need For Speed game as an MMO is the community. Buy/download custom made graphics. Real-time leaderboards to compare your times. Voice chat with people you're driving along with (a la CB radio) or use your "cell phone" to chat with your online friends. (Maybe they can help you find out where the cops are?) Drivers clubs. Your friends can come with you while you both try to take out those long accomplishments/road trips.

Now, you may be asking: why would anyone want to simulate driving? It can be boring, and you could just do it in real life, and the long drives may not be worth it. Well, that all depends on your point-of-view. I seem to remember playing some instances in World of Warcraft for a couple of hours...and people have played some instances and dungeons for much longer. If fantasy isn't your thing, I also remember the hour-long downhill race in SSX3 at the end of the game. The point is that, given enough time and enough incentive, people will be willing to do something for a long time if you give them the opportunity.

This is all pretty much a wish list for a future Need For Speed game, which I regret isn't all too likely. Electronic Arts has rarely shown they have the cojones to spend their money to make a major, innovative game. It isn't like a game like this couldn't be made now if they really wanted to try it, but it will take a lot of time and a lot of foresight for a game like this to be made.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

By the time this game would be released, technology will already have advanced far enough that all the world's roads and geography will be able to be loaded onto a single disc, or streamed from a central server (cluster). Your driveway, the unpaved mountain roads of Bolivia, and the German Autobahn are just a few examples of roads you can instantly travel to and drive on.

Do you have any idea how unrealistic this is? Like, at all? Because seriously. Let's render a whole fucking planet. Sure, we'll GET RIGHT ON THAT.

Also, there are a multitude of problems with this concept alone. Mentioning realism along with concepts of actually getting your in game ride confiscated permanently by cops for infractions leads to a pretty fucking terrible game model were risk outweighs reward by a large margin. Who's gonna wanna risk whatever in game content and their many hours of fucking work if they can lose something permanently?

Many other ideas here are laughable at best, and would make a horrible game. Fine concept, I suppose, but this isn't really well thought out from a design standpoint.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I just want a new Need for Speed game that's an actual Need for Speed game, been stuck with years of this eternal rainy night Fast and the Furious bullshit. Oh wait no, now Pro Street's a sleeping pill type racer. And the official Fast and the Furious arcade game plays just like San Francisco Rush what is this insanity, the next Pac-Man game will probably play like water polo.

You should give Test Drive Unlimited a crack, Dope! Well, the 360 or PC versions, since the PS2 and PSP ones are smelly elephant anus loaded with zoo keepers. It's like a MMORPG, set in Hawaii. With many of Hawaii's landmarks missing, but ssh shhh, it's Hawaii. You can also buy a house and go to the shops to dress up your virtual... person thing. Because it's important to look trendy when you're driving a thirty billion dollar sports car into the side of a pie truck. You start country ho-down's with other racers on the road by flashing your lights at them!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It's not really MMOish though. TDU has a certain number of people limited to each instance of the game world. Often times they are off doing their own thing, instead of interacting with each other. It's the beginning of a great concept, but the integration and focus on PVP which Dope suggests (and would be admittedly neat if done properly) doesn't really exist as it stands.

Plus, does anyone even play TDU anymore? A quick check on a source says 130 people played it yesterday. Even if that's just out of registered users on the site and 10 times that many played it, that's still a really really small population. For this idea to work you'd need a constant supply of players. The more, the better.

Also seconding the notion of an NFS game being back like Hot Pursuit. HP3 or something, now with cops that drive firetrucks with rocket engines attached, since the lambos JUST WEREN'T FAST ENOUGH.

How ya doing, buddy?

I dunno, it's been ages since I've played it. I don't think I even have it installed anymore. ;_; With the explosion of onriiine releases lately (I swear there's like three new games released every half an hour lately) I'm not surprised nobody's touching it. But yeah it was pretty limited, but it was a start! I wonder if Atari will survive long enough to publish the sequel.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yeah I agree with Skills, some of your concepts are workable but others are just illogical and boring.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Mentioning realism along with concepts of actually getting your in game ride confiscated permanently by cops for infractions leads to a pretty fucking terrible game model were risk outweighs reward by a large margin. Who's gonna wanna risk whatever in game content and their many hours of fucking work if they can lose something permanently?

The point was to merge the driving genre and the MMORPG genre. (Think {Gran Turismo 4 + Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit or Carbon} + World of Warcraft.) Looking at what you see in, say, Need For Speed Underground: Carbon, where if you get nailed by the police, which does happen, you lose one of up to five cars you possess. Then, if you look at World of Warcraft, if you break the rules there, you can get your account suspended for X amount of days, and also the world is huge. Combine all that with the real-world looks and real driving mechanics of Gran Turismo 4. Pairing the three ideas may sound terrible, especially if there is a monthly fee you have to pay, etc., and you have to worry about losing your vehicle and your ability to play, but I based this idea on what's currently expected in both genres and how the three would play together.

(What I would ask you, Skills, is whether or not you play any MMORPGs {or Diablo II Hardcore mode} and if you ever worry about doing something that would make you lose your character forever. I would also ask if there is anything specific about the concept you don't like, or disagree with.)

But I think the future of video games will lead not so much to outrageous and fantastic experiences but games that will push the limits of technology and the line between what's real and what's not. That's why when I suggested:

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Do you have any idea how unrealistic this is? Like, at all? Because seriously. Let's render a whole fucking planet. Sure, we'll GET RIGHT ON THAT.

I'm sure you and I could both agree that someday technology will have the capacity and the power to fully render very, very large sections of Earth.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

(What I would ask you, Skills, is whether or not you play any MMORPGs {or Diablo II Hardcore mode} and if you ever worry about doing something that would make you lose your character forever. I would also ask if there is anything specific about the concept you don't like, or disagree with.)

I should elaborate. I was speaking from the perspective of the general populace. In order for your design to work well for everyone, you're going to need a lot of players. Do you think the average joe would be cool with the possibility of getting banned from a game permanently, not because they broke a TOS or any rules, but because the thing is trying to emulate real life? I ain't so sure about that. The risk/reward isn't there. What's fun for one person will not necessarily be fun for another, and what you've gotta realize from a game standpoint such as any MMOG, is that you've gotta appeal to a wide audience. Especially with a project as ambitious as this.

Quote:

I'm sure you and I could both agree that someday technology will have the capacity and the power to fully render very, very large sections of Earth.

Sure, but not "next-gen", or even "next-next-gen" is a total no-no. Storage and rendering ability are only one problem with this, the other is the actual creation of the geometry, or heaven forbid, the acquisition of an entire planet's worth of assets. The scale you're talking about here is freakin' bonkers.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'd play it if I could drive the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile or the Batmobile.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Your idea of banning people from a game for playing how it's supposed to be reminded me of one day of this ancient column on GameSpy called Daily Victim (I don't even think it's been updated in five years). That day's was a joke about a guy giving his idea for this fantastic mod for Half Life. He wanted to call it Real Life and it was a game that played just like normal deathmatch Half Life. However, when you died, the game shut down, uninstalled HL, formatted your computer, and then overheated your CPU so it would fry. In this, he wanted to do his best to make the game as realistic as possible.

Also, while it's quite possible to map all the roads in the world into a database, it would be next to impossible to do such with all of the 3d geographical information in every area. Perhaps if they just loaded the roads with topographical info and randomly generated scenery it could be possible, but then the point of driving on real roads when the scenery is random kinda defeats the purpose.

For some reason your explanation of why people will play this game reminds me of an exchange on Seinfeld.

Quote:

SUSAN: What's the premise?

JERRY: ..Well, as I was saying, I would play myself, and, as a comedian, living in New York, I have a friend, a neighbor, and an ex-girlfriend, which is all true.

GEORGE: Yeah, but nothing happens on the show. You see, it's just like life. You know, you eat, you go shopping, you read.. You eat, you read, You go shopping.

RUSSELL: You read? You read on the show?

JERRY: Well, I don't know about the reading.. We didn't discuss the reading.

RUSSELL: All right, tell me, tell me about the stories. What kind of stories?

GEORGE: Oh, no. No stories.

RUSSELL: No stories? So, what is it?

GEORGE: (Showing an example) What'd you do today?

RUSSELL: I got up and came to work.

GEORGE: There's a show. That's a show.

RUSSELL: (Confused) How is that a show?

JERRY: Well, uh, maybe something happens on the way to work.

GEORGE: No, no, no. Nothing happens.

JERRY: Well, something happens.

RUSSELL: Well, why am I watching it?

GEORGE: Because it's on TV.

RUSSELL: (Threatening) Not yet.

How ya doing, buddy?