Virtual Community Game

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Posted in Proposals 2006

Author: Martin Webb

What NEED does this meet?

This is an attempt to discourage youngsters from hanging around in groups on street corners and vandalising other people’s property out of boredom. The youth need to be encouraged to respect their fellow man, and work together to build a better community. Kids today are looking for ways to vent their frustration and exercise their intellect. This idea addresses all of the above criteria.

What is the APPROACH?

The plan is to create an online game along the lines of World of Warcraft or Eve Online that has taken the online gaming community by storm. The Warcraft game attracts millions of players who reap the benefits of working together in groups to achieve a common goal.

I propose that our game be a complete multiplayer online event, played in real time. Players log in and download the game for free, and can play at their own pace, but within an online context.
The rewards for completing various quests within the game will translate to real life benefits, like free internet access for a year, or vouchers for CD’s, etc.

The game can be populated with advertisements (on walls or TV screens within the game, or as short interruptions to the game when in a safe area, for instance). This will help to pay for the running costs of the game.

Players will learn to work with others to achieve a goal.
The game will actively discourage fighting, abuse, or any sort of hierarchical or social bickering.

All activity will be monitored to avoid abuse, bullying or exploitation of the game.
The game will include a system whereby players can speak to each-other via headsets. This too will be monitored.

The game will be made available to all children and teenagers, who will have to create a valid account to ascertain who they are to avoid abuse of the system. Nobody over a certain age (18?) should be allowed to create an account.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

Parents will feel a lot more comfortable knowing where their children are on a Friday night – in the safety of their own home.
Children will benefit from learning to work together with other people and form friendships with like-minded people.

What is the COMPETITION?

There are currently many virtual spaces that children visit. Chat rooms and the MSN service, to name but two. Online communities are huge.
However, online games cost a fee for the game itself, and often a monthly subscription too.
If our game is free (paid for by advertising in-game) then this will encourage a lot more children to play. Also, if it is exclusively aimed at children with a guarantee that no adult will ever be online, it will enhance the feeling of security.
Adults will of course be online, but only as moderators and for technical support. This service will be in itself monitored by the game developers.

Many children need something to do, and easily become bored. This will give them something to look forward to on evenings and the weekends.

Advertisers within the game should include positive messages to eat healthily, promote sporting activities or become involved in world affairs.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

The initial building of the game will be the main source of budget allocation. Concept designers, writers and developers will have to use the latest computers to create the game.
Once the game is released, advertising within it should recoup the costs of running the servers to host the game, and the game could forseeably start accruing revenue for the developers.

9 Comments

  1. If the “youngsters … hanging around in groups on street corners and vandalising other people’s property out of boredom” had access to PCs they probably wouldn’t be bored. I think it is access to IT and other facilities that is the problem (not that hanging aournd on street corners is exactly a problem) and not the lack of a free game.

  2. I’m sure I read in the Daily Mail that computer cames were the cause of all the problems of the “youf”. Or was it rap music? Or films? I forget.

    Hmmmm…

    I think you might as well give all kids with ASBOs a copy of the complete worrks of Dickens and expect them all to ask to do their community service in a library.

    —

    “However, online games cost a fee for the game itself, and often a monthly subscription too.”

    Go to Neopets .. great fun and free. And far from unique either.

    —

    “Advertisers within the game should include positive messages to eat healthily, promote sporting activities or become involved in world affairs.”

    I don’t mean to be rude, but do you WATCH television?

    Which jolly corporate giant would you like to advertise?

    Sunny Delight? McDonalds? Nike?

    Or is this a fantasy game?

    Sorry, I know it’s easy to criticise. Your heart’s obviously in the right place, but I think you’re being a little optimisitc here at best.

  3. something like this is happening already…
    for example, i am trying to encourage the players of an open-source game to self-organise in such a way that we get 1,000,000 players in one year… if participants all pay £1 entry fee, the winning teams will win £16,000… that kind of thing… The game encourages co-operation… The game has to be good enough to attract a million players…
    Check out armagetron.net, download a copy of the game, see what is happening in the forums. This might be an example of what you are talking about… without big companies and advertising etc.

  5. Thanks for all the comments.
    You asked for my idea, that’s what you got. I realise that most kids who hang around on street corners don’t have a lot of cash and no access to PC’s (at least not their own – most public librarys have PC’s nowadays).
    When I lived in Scotland a few years ago, I went to the borough council on my own initiative and proposed an idea to them. This included setting up an entire hall full of free or cheap activities for kids. The halls would have kiosks all along the perimiter (not junk food, but sandwhich franchises like Pret-a-Manger, etc) and would have constant security. I won’t go too much into detail about the idea, suffice to say that I was unemployed myself at the time and wanted to do this for the community without remuneration. I drew up a very concise plan, taking up around 3 weeks of my time. The result? The council would ‘get back to me’. I’m still waiting. The government seems very reluctant to do anything positive for the youth. This is very discouraging for us who are trying to come up with positive ideas to encourage the youth forward in life.
    And maybe – just maybe – the youth need to do something for themselves. As stated, I was unemployed – so I visited libraries and learned various things, and got a job and now a PC. Everyone should at least try.

  7. No Mary, YOU are ‘StupiD’.
    You can’t even capitalise the first letter of your own name!
    So stupid AND lazy!

    And if you’re going to leave such a pathetic reply, how about saying why you think it’s stupid?
    Or did something fly into your ear and cause you to write that and now you’ve forgotten why?

    How about writing up your own idea? Let me guess: a wheel that’s circular?

    Thick as a plank, some people.