Original unique tech based concept

So I have been kicking this idea around and wanted to see thoughts and opinions on it. I haven’t decided if I have the energy to bring a project like this to life and I think my decision is depending on what comes out of this thread. Now this idea is based on the CONCEPT of Ready Player One, not the story at all. For those of you who haven’t read the book I really suggest doing so. It was just an amazing story.

The basic concept is this, it’s several years into the future and technology has jumped leaps and bounds. A company (insert name here) has developed a technology that allows one to enter a virtual world through use of a synaptic interface headpiece. A ‘game’ is developed that takes things from every MMO published and merges them together into the most popular entertainment piece of this generation.

When you think of this ‘game’ (Again insert name here) its best to think of Eve meets The World of Warcraft meets Secondlife. The game is structured into worlds; each world is a server representing its own atmosphere. One world would be a giant night life city where the next would be a tropical paradise and another would be a zombie apocalypse. Players would their characters skills not levels, so separate skills for shooting, acrobatics, crafting, etc. ninety percent of the goods in the game would be player made. From starships used to get around to swords, wands and even magical items. Some items would be inserted by the game maker, special powerful artifacts that can be used as status symbols as well as combat or entertainment items.

While this game has grown popular the world had grown fairly bleak. Energy crisis, global warming and social strife run rampant. Life is uglier and uglier and people need to use this game to escape. It’s grown to the point where unless people are going to work they don’t leave there home. Want to go to a movie, log in. want to go on a date, log in.

So the question is how do you make this an RP board. Well my idea is to allow the player have a character and use them in both worlds. When you make a character you make your real world profile and you’re in game persona. Players can explore the bleakness of the real world and the beauty of the virtual world. We can explore the addiction of logging into this beautiful oasis and the drive to make yourself in one or both of these worlds.

I think of this as a very unique opportunity. We can cover people’s desires to role-play in completely different genres together and still interact. One character could be driving himself through an epic fantasy storyline while meeting his Space-smuggler best friend in a western style bar. The options are near limitless and would open up to a very unique role-playing board like none other.

Thoughts? Feedback? Of course this idea is a little rough and needs to be filled out and if there seems to be interest and desire I would love to do more with this world. Right now I’m looking to see if enough players would want to play on this and if so if some experienced people would be willing to help me set it up.

As I said in the "RPs I would like to see" thread, I would love to see this made! I think that it would provide a little bit of everything for everyone, almost like a multi-genre board with an overall plot.

Now to tackle the question of how to make this into a RP board. I agree with your way of handling characters. The player would have one character, who would have a real life and a in-game life. Also, I think that it would be interesting to allow the appearances between the real and in-game to be different. For instance, an older person wishes to return to his younger self and so, changes his in-game persona to match what he looked back when he was 20. Obviously history would be different between the real and in-game, interlacing at times.

Different boards could be different worlds, having different themes, settings and "monsters" of sorts. I think that there would have to be a universal type of money through the different type of worlds.

I would be willing to help, definitely! I haven't built a board before, but I do have a coding and HTML/CSS background. And I have done some staffing before.

Thank you, I would love any help you can offer. I'll shoot you a PM sometime tonight to start discussing.

Here is a bit more of what I have come up with so far for notes. Please give feedback and I hope this sparks more interest in this project.


A little more depth to my thoughts.

- User Groups would be slang terms for player groups. Farmers, Adventurers, Military, Socialites, etc.

NPC’s – like any other game this one would have NPC’s of one form or the other. Right now I see three kinds
- NPC(SI)- Simply Intelligence. These would be your bots put there for flavor or cannon fodder. The random bodies walking down the street in the city sim or the platoon of ‘red shirt’ soldiers deployed to lay cover fire down. There main purpose is to interactive with the environment, no so much the players.
- NPC(VI)- Virtual Intelligence. These NPC’s will show interest in the players and what they are doing. They develop a small simple memory and will deliver scripted lines to try to feign realism. These are popularly used as Bartenders and Shop keepers and can also be used when you need ‘smart soldiers’
- NPC(AI)- Artificial Intelligence. Long consider a myth and rumor these NPC’s can think talk and act for themselves. They can learn like humans and will do things without being asked or prompted. It’s rumored they walk around like any other player, questing, shopping, attending clubs and any other activity people com to ‘the game’ for.

Currency- The main currency in ‘the game’ is called a credit. Due to the popularity of this virtual world Credits are considered a real world currency with its own exchange rate. Due to the state of the world economy Credits are traded at a high desirable amount. Some players find it more financially practical to work in game and convert money to handle real world needs.

Avatars- When you first join the game (at this stage of its existence most people join at a very young age) they are given a generic avatar typically modeled after their own appearance. For the right price a player may go into a ‘parlor’ and buy any number of appearance changing modifications. You can truly make your avatar look like anything you want.

Inventory- Players can only carry what they could as if they are in the normal world. You can’t just pull a helicopter out of your pocket. As such crafters have developed several storage solutions. These techniques are considered essential to any player.
- Bags of holding- players have learned to craft enchanted bags which hold more items then they should typically these are found in pouch to backpack sizes and are used for items that you would normally just pull out of your pocket like a PDA, cell phone or weapon.
- ‘Blades’ - Blades is the term used to describe storage units in the game. The general size and shape of a playing card and about as thick as a piece of cardboard they are used to store data for everything from a car or truck to a platoon of NPC soldiers. It is the preferred storage tool for anything that can’t jut be pulled out of a persons pocket, or inventory. To use a Blade all you have to do is hold down the activating button for 2-3 seconds and then throw it to the ground. On impact the stored item will appear.


Items- Officially there are only two general types of items. Players however have come up with slang dividing it into 4 types.
- Grey- (slang) Grey items are considered trash. They are very common and have no special traits. Typically in ‘adventuring’ worlds these are dropped off of mobs and used to be sold to vendors for small amounts of money.
- Common- Common items are either found throughout the worlds or can be crafted simply. They can be enchanted or modified but typically it’s not worth it.
- Artifacts- These are special, stronger items. Either already modded or enchanted and easily. The majority of these are manufactured by players.
- Legendary- (slang) a sub set of artifacts these are one of a kind items found at the end of hard dungeons. These are coveted and can go for large amounts of money at auction.

Crafting- One of the biggest driving forces of ‘the games’ economy is player made goods. Like in most traditional MMO’s items are made using raw materials found on various worlds. What is unique to this game is the player devices his or her own blueprints by basing them off previously made items. This has led to goods growing in quality as time goes by. Master craftsman can make items of legendary quality.

Militaries- War is considered a sport in ‘the game’ and Armies and Navies have grown to be sponsored by Real world corporations. Funded by these companies they are tasked with fighting for unclaimed worlds and control of resource planets.

PVP arenas- Pvp arenas have become a well loved past time. Like the gladiators of old fighters can make wealth and fame within the ring. The more popular fights are shown across the game and are even broadcasted on TV in the Real World.

HUD- Like in any video game when in world a player will have a simple HUD (heads up display). The basic version will have player health (when on a PVP or Adventure world) as well as a basic mini map. Modded versions carry more information.

Travel- There is two main forms of Travel around and between worlds.
- Portals can be found on every planet in almost every major area. By entering a portal you select your destination, pay a fee and your whisked away to wherever you want to be. The farther your traveling the more expensive it is.
- Ships- While considerably more expensive then a portal jump Ships are a very popular way of getting around. Owning a ship is a sign of wealth and prosperity and players love to show off these treasured items.

Worlds- The main draw of this virtual universe each world is different and unique. Some are owned by ‘the company’ itself others have been licensed out by other video game publishing companies. Each world has a basic rule set.
- PVP- Worlds with PVP toggled on will allow each player to attack each other wherever and whenever. Some world will choose to only turn on certain sections to PVP.
- Adventure- These worlds are like separate games themselves. Here players can quest and fight mobs and NPCs.
- Pleasure- Pleasure worlds are meant to cater to those looking for more fun and less fight. From night clubs to strip joints and city size malls these pleasure planets become social hubs throughout the universe.

The focus of The Conduit (possible name being thrown around) is to focus on the characters life in game. Its to focus on this retreat and how its shaping the population of our little planet. While the ‘real world’ will be available for brief posts the player should come in expecting to send most of there posts in game. With this in mind while it is optional to pick a PB for both your characters RL looks and in game avatar, the only mandatory one will be the in game avatar. Right now I am open to both Celebrity PB’s as well as artistic PB’s (with the exception of no anime and if a real person they must be famous in one way or another.) By taking the focus off the ‘real world’ every character can truly be from anywhere in the world. It would allow for a complete diverse pool of characters.

Currently the time for this board is looking to be about 2035 ish, but this may be subject to change. I want to portray a world that is slowly killing itself and the people have fled it intellectually using this game rather then trying to make it work. It allows us to paint this unique and beautiful environment where people can do nearly anything they want to while exploring a dark ‘rot’ behind the scenes. Addiction and attempting to escape reality are huge factors in this story.

Sleeping- Because of the way a player ‘jacks into’ the game, it is possible to play while sleeping. This way no hour of the day is ‘wasted’ without any entertaining stimuli. Many people begin to log in at bed time, playing while they sleep and logging out only to get up and go to work. By doing this they become slowly addicted to a point where they can’t sleep unless they are logged in. People who drive themselves to this point would be given the slang nickname of ‘Sleepers’. The societal negative stereo type of sleepers is fairly quickly eroding away at the start of this RP board.

Right now my plan is that upon opening the ‘worlds’ made available will be limited. The thought is to the have the following:
- Zombie Apocalypse
- Medieval fantasy
- A ‘nightlife’ world full of bars, clubs, restaurants and more seedy establishments. This would also have a continent size shopping mall.
- ‘paradise’ where players can enjoy a tropical oasis, a crisp fall ‘small town’, A skier dream place and various other pristine areas focusing on simple natural beauty. This would be a vacation planet many visit and few have the money to ‘live’ on.
- A cyberpunk like world modeled after Coruscant.
- Space would be forum section allowing players to harvest raw material from asteroids, hang out on there pimped out space ride or duke it out Star Wars style.
I am of course, as I am with everything here, open to suggestions on planets that people would want to see offered. As our population grew site wide I would roll out new planets, places our players want to visit. This would be done with both existing planets that are in the RP world as well as new ‘expansions’ to the game.

Ships- As said a main mode of transportation around this universe will be starships. While players don’t need to participate in this if they don’t want to it will allow those who do the chance to play out a more sci-fi aspect. I would allow ships taken from popular shows, movies, etc. as long as its credited correctly. Moving around in space is done at NEAR speed of light, and to jump farther you would you ‘stargate’ like structures laid in convenient locations. Use of these, like most things in game, will incur a charge. Fuel will also become a factor in running a ship as it should be seen as a more luxury item.

Income- A popular drive for many players will be the desire to make there money while they play. To be able to quit there real world jobs and devote there entire life in the game. While the majority of people can’t seem to make this happen a small but growing minority are able to. Either by selling in game good and services or by constantly questing and selling off artifacts found in there travels an elite few are ‘living the dream’. They are envied by many younger players, and older players see them as a sign of the time.

Player organizations- In this worlds lore (something being written up) The Conduit would have started off with no preconceived organizations or factions. These would be made and run by the player base. To mirror that when the board is set up it would start with a few general factions labels and would be expanded as the players form there own armies, clubs, cults or whatever else they want to play with.

GM’s- Something I have seen on another site, and an idea I think I can adapt to this site, is the thought of a GM or Game Moderator. These would be similar to a DM (Dungeon Master) in concept and would be tasked in starting and leading a group of players through a story. The thought I had was to have at steady intervals story lines, either provided by a player, a GM or a staff member, where a group of players would get together (most likely about 4-5) and do a plot around some predetermined goal or conflict. This would typically be used for in –game questing where the environment becomes a factor, whether it’s a zombie riddled city or an aging enchanted dungeon.
The concept would be that a posting order would be established and at the end of each round the GM would post moving the story along and basically acting as the environments around the players. He or she would spring traps or through enemy NPC’s and begin happenings the players would then need to respond to. In turn the players would then respond to what is happening around them and attempting to solve the conflict, bearing in mind a complete avoidance of god modeing and stepping on anyone’s feet.
While this could become a difficult and maybe headache inducing process I think the benefits would be immense. It allows the player to actually act out there character, responding to an outside stimuli without having to follow a predetermined script. Now of course this would be labor heavy and not something you would see don in EVERY thread. I would limit these to small groups and allow a player to participate in one at a time. These would be used for large scope storylines and would most likely reward unique items to each in game character. Basically the prize would equal the cost.
I would start this on a test basis and see how well it goes. If it works great, great. If not it can be canned and the community would move on. I just think it would be a nice unique way of doing special stories and having fun with a bit of unknown.

The more I brainstorm and write down ideas the more I fall in love with this project and the more I’m encouraging myself to make this happen. Right now I intend to make this site, and with the right help I know I can make it a realty. I am going to continue to post my planned outline and basically updated thoughts in hopes it entices others to join me as well as act as a sounding board.

Oh I love this idea, why not make it so this game is 'reality', if people are inducted so young, why not have the game simply be called 'The Life', and have everyone play it have it be a place where jobs exist ect, and everyone across the globe plays?

This is sound ing like the in-universe explination for Star Ocean:Tille the End of time

Anyway, I love the depth and though being given to this game.

Reminds me of Sword Art Online, which is rather good. Good luck with this!

Keep it up I'd love to see it!

We are in the process of finishing up our graphics and the straightening out the little bugs and trip-ups that come with starting anything new. We'll definitely keep you all informed with our progress!

This sounds like an amazing board, good luck Maverichero

Consider me interested, please PM me when you open it up to the public.

Yeah. PM me too, feel interested to seeing this.

Well I would like to say we have put together a board and have started a closed Beta. This is giving us a chance to get some posts down as well as working out the kinks before we open up the site to everyone. I"m hoping to submit the site to the Directory by the end of next week!