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Have you ever ever felt the need to find a game that sattisfies all of your niches? Have you ever thought you found the game of your dreams but then finding out that it's not what you made it out to be or the game simply doesn't fulfill your terribly specific expectations? I bet you've been in this situation countless times and even if you DID find a game you adore, you know you can't call it the all mighty "GOYD" (Game of your Dreams) because there's this minimal, small and crazy detail/mechanic/design choice you think doesn't make sense or somehow doesn't fit into the game at all. We've all been there.

Either terribly dissapointed by a game cover (come on, we've all been fooled by this at least once.) or mildly upset by a game mechanic that makes no sense, I think we can all come together and chant rhythmically on a chorus about how there are great games that exist in this time but how that all-mighty, powerful, immaculate and perfect "GOYD" doesn't exist yet... And that's exactly the reason why @archdruid is creating this contest for the Steemit Gaming Community, for us. They want to hear our thoughts and listen to what many great (Crazy) ideas we got under our sleeve, so let's start with mine!

Remember this is @volderhein writing to you, a guy who hasn't written in more than a month! So he's betting and duking it all out on this post as his comeback into steemit! (Why am I speaking in 3rd person, what?)

The most Immersive VR-RPG you'll ever read about. (probably)

Alright, i'll be sectioning all of my thoughts by different subtitles so it all doesn't become some random gibberish (Although great) you can't get your mind into. Here it goes.

The Sword Art Online premise

If you haven't heard of SAO or Sword Art Online hear me out closely. If you have, HEAR ME OUT EVEN CLOSER, OKAY?

The SAO premise defined by my own words consists a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG. yeah, bear with me.) set in a Medieval/Fantasy setting. Now, does that sound enticing or not? But here's where i'll like to expand in.

"It's a Virtual World but even knowing that, I feel more alive in here than in the real world."

Imagine the setting. Imagine a world, an universe as deep as something like The elder Scrolls or even World of Warcraft. Now imagine you can hear the noises and sounds you are used to whenever the game plays on your computer and through your headphones. Now you can hear them with your own ears. You feel the gentle and soothing sound of birds chirping, people talking and murmuring, footsteps and the general ramble of a town or city. You decide to open your eyes then and you are treated with a soft but warm gleam over your hands, it feels nice, they're not cold anymore. You can move them and feel your articulations, you can feel the cloth of your gloves tightening over them, ensuring protection but also a tight grip over your weapon whenever you're fighting (or giving handshakes) But then you realize. You remember how you downloaded and waited for the game to install. You also remember double clicking the icon of the game and then putting your VR headset on. Now you're here. It feels reassuring to know this is not a dream or that you've apparently somehow died. It feels really good to know you're in this by your own choice and the fact that no one can take you away from this experience. It feels really good. But as soon as you're done taking your first breath of Virtual Reality, someone grabs your right shoulder. It's your buddy who's been waiting for you to log in. You smile back to him and then you turn your head, grinning in a daringly way to this newfound world you're in, ready to grab by the horns any challenge it has prepared to throw you.

The sheer premise of a Virtual Reality - Role Playing Game as deep as other games like Skyrim, The Witcher or many others is ultra mega exciting to say the least. Even if you decide taking out the MMO/ONLINE part of the game out of the context, it still holds up as a very promising project. (Not like Skyrim VR does, tho. Ugh.)

Just imagine the crazy amount of hours you already put into skyrim (You know you did.) because of the worldbuilding it manages to create. Now imagine seeing that with your own eyes and not from your monitor screen. To even think about it baffles me and makes my creativity and curiosity daydream like if I was a little kid again. But daydreaming about a concept is all good and well but let's get the specifics on next. What this VR-MMORPG really needs for success and what makes the real difference.

Getting into the specifics of the VR-MMO-RPG

Worldbuilding and Setting

For this project to really thrive in the market it needs a real world. And by real world I'm not saying this game should take place in chicago or whatever, i'm saying it needs to be believable, it needs to make the players want to visit and stay there for what it's offering to them. A world which you can be part of as well but without eliminating much of the same world building and foundation it already posseses, the player should be an addition to this world but not the center of it. Like just any other inhabitant.

A world like this is also there to be explored. What would Skyrim or The Witcher be without exploration? Exactly. There should be mysteries and regions which are still undocumented and it's up to the players to find out what those places hold. The balance of what already exists and what is discovered by the players should be somewhat similar to each other, giving background but also intrigue.

Races, cultures, weapons, spells and factions must be part of this worldbuilding as well, what would Skyrim be without the conflict between the Empire and the Stormcloaks? (LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE) or what would World of Warcraft be without the conflict between The Alliance and The Horde? Arguments, characters and conflicts like these makes it easy for the players to immerse into the game, that feeling of belonging to exist there as well.

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How the gameplay would work

An amazing game is not only graphics and story, right? (Looking at you, The last of us.) but hear me out, this idea wouldn't be complete without some top notch mechanics and gameplay that'd go together as good as butter on popcorn.

If the players are gonna be handling arms and the like in tough but lightning quick situations , be it either swords, maces or halberds, there's a need for special skills to exist besides normal hits. Swinging your blade be it curvy or pointy will get you nowhere in the immersion of the game at some point since it'll turn out boring after the first 100+ hits. Players need special moves and they need to be flashy. Extravagant and powerful but not at all hard to use. We don't want players going throug a clunky menu or doing an overly weird move just to kill something faster, it needs to be simple and easy to understand.

What I think would be excellent is requiring players to put their weapon in a certain pose and then letting the system recognize the skill by making your weapon gleam with a certain color and then executing it. And just Woosh! You're using your newly acquired skill against a badass monster just as easy as if you were spreading peanut butter on a toast, Yummy!

Tenor.com

Jolly Cooperation

Now here's where the MMO part takes place. I think I've set up a fair and believable enough scenario for you guys to imagine through. But now on top of that, add a couple hundreds of other players like you who are experiencing this adventure alongside. Imagine how much other people you can actually meet and share this game with! Can you see yourself just trekking along the border of a mountain because you can't climb it with your party of 4 to 6 players. And then, you hear a mightyful doomed roar coming out of the sky. You and your party turn around with swords, magic and axes in hand, only for your gaze to be met with a huge winged reptilian figure coming at your direction. You guys set up a quick plan to defend against the initial assault of the wyvern while also thinking of a counter attack measure to obtain the amazing loot it must carry with it. Before you know it, the reptilian's shadow is already over your group and you have no other choice but to look for cover while think of a better plan than being eaten or burned alive.

The rush these countless situations can create is adrenaline pumping to say the least, but what really makes me feel butterflies in the stomach is the posibilities each player has to help in taking down the threat in their own each way. You might have powerful spells but you damn well know you can't hang around the wyvern's mouth too long before it eats you whole. That's when cooperation really comes into play, playing together, debuffing, tanking, healing and attacking BUT IN VR!!! If this is already exciting just from playing from your couch or your pc chair, imagine actually (almost) being there. Again, the idea of this concept just makes me daydream like a little kid.

"The guy on front of the crowd had been there three days before the launch!"

Conclusion

To finish this magistral essay, in a short explanation what I really really want is a Virtual Reality Fantasy/Medieval Online RPG experience done right. A game as deep and immersive as Skyrim and The Witcher but also mixing concepts from all of the great predecessors of RPGs and as accessible and socially easy to play with as World of Warcraft or any other online MMO. Something that makes you literally forget about anything else you're dealing with because it immerses in it's deep and believable lore, story and setting, basically.

It might not be time for this idea to be implemented in some way by the industry yet, but someday, maybe someday with the jumps Virtual Reality is seeing in the market, it'll be a dream come true in maybe 10 to 15 years or maybe even less, who knows?!

If you really liked this view of a dream game, and want to maybe know more or watch a so-so direct adaptation, I invite you to watch this anime called Sword Art Online from which this idea is kindof inspired. Let me know what you think in the comments because I'd really like to know what are your opinions on this one!

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All of the images which don't have a source, were taken as screenshots of the Sword Art Online anime series while I was rewatching the first 2 episodes.

(Also, Hi to everyone, it's been more than a month since I last posted. <3 It's good to finally be back, it feels great!)

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