Back in 1999, I worked for a small local engineering firm. A software engineer for the company had left maybe a week before I started- small time contractual 3D data manipulation. During the three months I was working there, one of the other engineers showed me what the software guy had left to do- a 3D Space-based MMO. So, when I found Star Sonata, I took a look for the somewhat-nostalgic feeling of "Maybe I sorta knew someone who kinda did one of these things once, possibly."
Jump to 2006. I was introduced to a text MMO called Nation States (link in the sidebar for The Rogue Nation of Sunuvabitch). Nation States is a government simulation, with a hugely active community around it. It was inspired by Max Berry's Jennifer Government. Mostly, it is a whimsical, sarcastic, dystopian view of how solving an issue will always cause something bad to happen. There's not a lot to the game itself. Design a country- name, flag, starting governmental type, currency, and national animal- pick the government's position on issues- gas taxes, environmental impact, freedom of speech, the press, religion, and the citizenry. Initially, your country is a few paragraphs that detail the stuff you picked and the underlying game mechanics- such as crime rate, tax rate, leading economic sectors (Computer Chips, Drugs, Weapons, etc). As positions are chosen- there's always the option to purposefully ignore an issue- witty sentences are added to the last paragraph of the country's description. On an issue such as "Crime is out of control in our nation's schools!", picking one option of the five presented ("Get 'em early and make them behave, OR ELSE!") might result in a new addition to the country's description: "Lines of frightened, dreary, preschoolers and their heavily armed guard/protectors are common sights at the nation's military run schools." There's no direct, head-to-head, competition in the game; but it has the never-ending quality of all MMOs. For more head-to-head aspects, look to games like Cyber Nations.
Jump to 2008. Myspace adds "Apps", games regress to 1995! I remember using my computer's 2400 baud modem (That slowness of yesteryear is total 'net-cred today, bay-be!) to directly connect to other computers and access their BBS's. These BBS had mostly text- interspersed with ASCII art of varying qualities- games that could be played by anyone on the Board. Limiting factors replenished daily at midnight, or whenever else the daily maintenance was scheduled. If you've played MOBSTERS, MAFIA WARS, or any of their clones (DRAGON WARS, etc) on Myspace, imagine the graphics sucked and you'd know almost EXACTLY what those old BBS games were like. Except, it must be said, several of the old BBS games were WAY better. (Red Dragon Inn, Lands of Devastation, and Trade Wars specifically).
Consider, also, Second Life, any of the main- stream MMORPGs (EQ, EQ2, WoW, DAC, UO, SWG, FF:XI, etc). There are a significant number of people playing these games, and a large amount of cash in the industry. Which is why there are games like Star Sonata, and many more, out there. It's like what Penn Jillette supposedly said: "[Y]ou'd think with 300 million people in the country, you don't even have to please 1% to be phenomenally successful." And that's the key: people.
Enter Institute for the Future and their SUPERSTRUCT GAME. I'll let the game describe itself:
What's the point?
[From the FAQ]:
The Ten Year Forecast team at the Institute for the Future will analyze the player-created game content. We'll prepare an official Superstruct Report featuring our top collective insights about the year 2019, and the best tactics for superstructing society. Highlights from the report will be emailed to all registered Superstruct players in April 2009. Meanwhile, the Superstruct site will stay live and open to the public as an immersive archive, so you can continue to show your friends, family and colleagues the future you helped invent.
In other words, nuts who think the world might actually end have co-opted MMOs to help develop solutions. Never mind that the world isn't going to end, that the current financial problems will pass, and that little or nothing will come from the game. The point is, it shows that smart (though, completely misguided) people are taking gaming- specifically MMOs- to a new level.
Charlie Stross's vision of the near future of 2018 is looking more real than ever.
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