"The game will be an Epic Fantasy, and the scales shall be massive, not just of threats but the eventual power the players may have in this world!" You've prepared nice slides to back up your points, but you can see there is some anticipation in your employees' faces. As if there's something else they're waiting for. What could it be-
"I can't take it anymore!" Nicky shouts, startling all of you. "Can we see it?"
"It?" You ask.
"You know, IT. The thing. Your…" Nicky waves their hand around as if to get you to fill in the blanks. Eventually, you do.
"Oh. You want to see him?" You remark. Nodding, you disconnect the laptop with your slides on it and connect the 'other laptop'. With a few clicks, the text based program is on the projector.
"Everyone, meet SADOS, the AI that will help run our game." You point at the screen. You give them each a chance to type and talk with the AI, which is very responsive, hard to tell it's not a person.
"O. M. G." Nicky said in awe. "This is so cool. I'd heard they were developing AI that could develop video games. There's one in Georgia that can make new Mario levels but this? This is a whole nother level-pun so not intended."
"You sure this ain't a trick?" WHAM asks surpisously. "How you know this ain't some secret chat with a guy pretending to be an AI?"
"Because for as long as I've had this computer, it's had no internet connection." You explain. "I had someone from IT look it over, and the part of the latop that receives and emits wifi signals has been ripped out. It literally cannot receive input from the outside world."
"Well at least there's some good news." Penny says sullenly. "It can't cause doomsday without internet access." You raise an eyebrow at her.
"Why would it do that?" You ask.
"It's an AI, built by an unknown person or group, and it wants to play a game. I'm sorry, but I've read too many sci-fi books and watched too much movies to ignore a red flag like this." She crosses her arms. "Besides I'm not confident an AI can replicate a well written story-I saw what happened when an AI tried to make a sci-fi script, and it wasn't exactly Blade Runner."
"I never liked Blade Runner. Too much talking." Nicky speaks up.
"Shut your mouth you little punk!" Penny looks like she might hit Nicky, and Wham stands up between them.
"Hey hey, let's calm down children." He says to both of them. "Look, Blade Runner has got good points and bad-it's not everyone's cup of tea. I prefer my Ford Solo'ed, not Deckkered, but they're both good." Penny backs down.
How do you respond? (your choice may affect her satisfaction level)
[] Tell Penny to get over herself-she needs to get used to the AI asap.
[] Tell Penny you understand her concerns, and she doesn't have to use the AI if she doesn't want to (lose the AI's +5% bonus to engagement)
[] Put off the conversation with Penny until later to be done in private
[] Try to persuade her to accept SADOS (Write-in required)
After that, you move onto the next part of the presentation.
"So next we will be discussing the game's genre." WHAM raises his hand-well he sticks up the devil horns/rock on gesture but you see it for what it is.
"Genres? I thought all MMOs were RPGs." Before you could answer Nicky speaks up.
"Actually there's all kinds of MMOs. Most have been RPGs like Wow, Star Trek Online and Secret World, there've been others. Destiny and Destiny 2 are FPS MMOs while Elite Dangerous and Eve Online are Simulator Games. I've seen some MMORTS, like on mobile with Clash of Clans, but there's also Boom Beach and Throne Kingdom at War. You could even argue that mobile fighting games where you play against players all over the world, like Power Rangers Legacy War, are MMO-Fighting games."
"Good points Nicky. Our game specifically will be-" You begin but then Nicky continues.
"Course, not all games are just one genre. Some mix genres, take elements from one and add it to their own. Look at Fallout New Vegas and Destiny. Fallout is an RPG with FPS elements, while Destiny's strongest points are it's FPS, with a smaller focus on RPG elements like classes and levels. They know their strengths and stick to it.
"Look at the sequels, Destiny 2 increased it's RPG story strength and others. Fallout 4 however increased the focus on extra elements like crafting and FPS, which meant less focus on it's strength of an RPG. And the less said about Fallout 4 the better." Nicky looks like they haven't let that game go.
"I agree." Morticia speaks up. "Sometimes adding too much of another genre can be a boon, but too much focus on a secondary genre's features, to the detriment of your primary genre can be detrimental to the game's flow."
"And when you add too much of everything, you just make an 'action-adventure game' which is what developers call a game with too much shit they can't recognise it anymore." WHAM notes. "Which can be fun in it's own way occasionally. Think Shadow of Mordor was one of those-stole from every game, but did it so well we didn't mind, cause it helped the main feature of the game, the Nemesis system."
You take all that in (typing away what's being said to SADOS so they can feel involved), and wonder about your genre choices. What genre is your game gonna be?
The Primary Genre is going to be (choose 1):
[] MMO-RPG: Why mess with what works? MMOs and RPGs are synonymous with each other, it's the obvious choice.
[] MMO-FPS: Can you imagine how immersive shooting a gun is in first person with VR will be! We've got to stress this element, even if it's crossbows and not guns. We can even expand it to melee weapons like For Honor and Chivalry tried to do, really stress the visceral elements. Or even magic!
[] MMO-RTS: These games are having some degree of success, so you could make it work. Total War shows that can work but being a leader, either from the front or the backseat general, could be kinda cool.
[] MMO-Racer: Look, it's a bit of a risk, but people love mounts right? People love Dragons right? You could make a Dragon Racing game! Or even not just dragons-lots of magical creatures to race!
[] MMO-Political Strategy: An Epic Political fantasy, perhaps with player grown kingdoms overthrowing the status quo, or enticing it! Imagine a game where everyone tries to be Littlefinger-it would be glorious.
[] MMO-Pet Raising simulator: Look there's nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of people got into games because of Pokemon. You were clearly one of them. But if Nintendo won't man up and give us that damn MMO, well then you will give the people what they need. Not sure how it will fit your genre-maybe if you call it Spirit Allies or something, people will think you're ripping off the Nasuverse instead. That's…better somehow?
Of course, you don't have to have just a primary genre. Do you want a secondary genre too to complement the primary one?
[] Yes I do!
-[] Select one of the top options
-[] Choose an option not listed, like Dating Sim etc.
[] No, I want to focus on just the primary genre.
[] Screw it, I want everything. All the features!
-[] List as many genres as you want.
OOC: Sorry for the wait. Hope you guys enjoy your options. We're getting to the nitty gritty. And if you're wondering why satisfaction levels aren't written on the employee sheets yet, there's a good reason for that.
...
Anyway, if you have any questions, please ask!
