This is how i feel these days

[straydogstrut]

Mumbling...
So if all three players are trapped in separate rooms, which have an array of controls for each, some of which control a larger contraption, the repairing of which is the primary goal of the game, while others have specific functions inside different rooms or even across all rooms, so that players could help or accidentally hinder and harm one another. Players could communicate via a single text-based chat console located in each room, as well as sound ques that are audible to all rooms, so that if player A causes player B to come into danger, player B can send out a game-wide distress signal to get attention of other players...

Hmmmmm...

+1 Get to work!

On a serious note, that's the sort of approach that comes to my mind when people mention multiplayer adventures. I like the 'actions in your room affecting your teammates' idea. There could be a lot of [sadistic] fun with that.

If the player characters were together on screen, the dynamic would be different. I think there could be some interesting two-player puzzles if it was well thought-out. Maybe each character has a different range of skills (physical, powers etc) like PuzzleBots - PuzzleBots MP Or it could just be contraptions that need to be worked together - Oddworld style. You'd also have to consider what happens when one player wants to leave the room. This could be very interesting if they were allowed to do so at will: the players could go off exploring on their own - maybe they each have their own path with puzzles - and return to a hub or hub points where the story naturally leads them to cross paths. Inventory items could be share, either all the time, or only when they meet up. Perhaps that in itself could be a puzzle: how to share inventory items when they're seperated by [that thing that seperates them]

I'd like to see a multiplayer adventure game, it could be very interesting, but I think the potentially large scope involved is the main factor keeping such projects from getting off the ground. I like that adventure games are already social, it's very easy for people watching over your shoulder to get involved and offer suggestions, but how well that would translate to playing together i'm not sure. What happens when you have no-one to play with? :'(

[Construed]

Just because point'n'click games lend themselves to being solved by multiple people behind one screen (friends and family typically), it unfortunately doesn't mean they're suitable for actual multiplayer gameplay. I haven't heard of The Secret World, I don't believe they can pull off what they promise according to you, Grim, (ie. puzzles that are solved by many different people over the course of weeks) - I really can't imagine how that would work at all. I will, of course, keep my eyes open and see what they can indeed come up with!

But this entire discussion a.) has been done before and b.) is ultimately pointless because nobody here using AGS or any other engine would actually be able to make an MMO style game. It's simply not possible unless you have a large team of highly-trained professionals and experts...

My game is mmo

[Eric]

Isn't there going to be a massive problem when someone solves the puzzle and posts the solution online? - You don't have to look at it, but someone in your group might, and then they'd spoil it for everyone else.

The best way to do an MMO-Pn'C like this is if you ran it Alternate Reality Game-style, where the gameplay takes place once, during a specific period of time. In a lot of ways ARGs are essentially adventure games brought into the real world anyway. Seems like it would be expensive to run a video game like this, though, as ARGs have the benefit of utilizing extant media to tell their stories across.

However, I've seen what the Scandinavians can get up to with their roleplaying games, and if anyone can pull it off....

[Wyz]

We;; since playing a adventure game with more people in front of the same screen, why not make a adventure game that can be controlled by more people. Simply have two or more mouse cursors and have voice chat. You could easily synchronise what each player sees on the screen. This is actually an idea Peder made me think of. It's not that hard to create this; if only I had time.

[Construed]

Yea, I've been doing a lot of that, however being can hold 40+ people i dont want to do multiple cursers cause the screen would get covered LOL.
But what i am doing is making shared events like doors opening, drinking beer, battling, walking/running, casting etc... using your plugin of course

[Stupot]

I like the idea of multiplayer adventure games, but I can see where the problems would lie.  But then again, who says that 'multiplayer' has to mean 'co-operative'?  Most multiplayer games are competitive anyway, so why can't adventures be any different?

For example, why not have it so that you can be playing the same game at the same time, but your co-player appears as a ghost on your screen and you just have to try to see who can solve the puzzles more quickly.  This would work better if the game were more linear and made up of consecutive puzzles, rather than wandering around aving conversations with people. I think it would be a fun experiment.

[Tabata]

It would be such  a cool fun to meet live (like in the AGS Ceremony) and to solve some puzzles alone and some in a team.
Maybe you get a special ability when logging in, first have to realize, what kind it is and then have to find some others with differend abilities.
So you can chat and play and meet for competitions ...  and we could live the AGS family adventure  ...
... sooo much possibilities ...

[Victor6]

Having put a little thought into it. A simple example of how it could work would be DOTT. Each person controls a character simultaneously. The cast of DOTT don't directly interact except at the very end, however they do depend on the actions of the other 2 in order to progress.

[Snarky]

I described an idea for a cooperative/competitive multiplayer adventure game system here. With the AGSIRC plugin, I think it would be totally possible to make something like this; I just haven't had the time or any good ideas for a parser-driven adventure.

[Construed]

Yea the parser is great, I would have gone that route but theres no way i'll have time to configure and populate it with all the huge obstacles in my path...