I've thoroughly deliberated a multiplayer Hunger Games adaption before, as a multiplayer game initially seems like the most obvious route to take given the premise of the Games. I've come up with two reasons as to why I don't believe it can work:
- The stakes. In the Games, if you die, you're out for good. Unless you're an extremely dedicated kind of player or the games were really short, this would not be fun.
- Glorifying the killing. The stories are meant to make you not want to kill, and while I can imagine a game promoting the option of teamwork, it would probably come across as contrived and everyone would just kill everyone anyway because unlike real-life, your objective would be to win, and it would reward you for doing so. If it didn't, then it would be boring.
However, I think that if constructed well enough, it can be done, but it would require full dedication from beginning to end during each game. I sort of envision twelve people being invited into a room with twelve separate cubicles, in which they cannot interact with any other players for the duration of the game, and if they choose to quit out, their character will die. There would be two breaks, each half an hour long, one every two hours. It's the kind of game where if you want an accurate simulation, it cannot be casual.
The Game would last a maximum of six hours. If you die, then you're done. If you are the last one standing, then you're done. If time runs out, you're done. There could be a variety of different 'maps' to choose from, each a different kind of environment, randomly-generated; not entirely random though, there would be preset intelligent environmental formations that the engine could choose from and modify to its liking, in tandem with true random generation. It would really be quite simple in concept: a massive array of different ways to survive, the constant deliberation of who you should and shouldn't trust, and perhaps even an engine that allows you to dynamically mix and construct different materials depending on what you find and how you choose to put it together. Surely quite a unique and complicated system to implement, but I feel it can be done. Since these games would be run manually and not via generated servers like previously stated, the Game operators, like in the story, would be able to modify the world and send in little nodes.
The combat would not be very complicated, and it would probably be more of a one-or-two-hit-kill kind of thing, with the chance of maybe being able to block one, or two (if you're both lucky and very skilled) of your opponent's attacks. If someone hits you in the leg for instance, you won't die right there, but you probably will die as a result of the injury later. The same would apply for long-ranged weaponry. Even if you don't die from a head or chest shot, you're pretty much fucked if you get hit in the arm or leg, as if you're hit in the arm, you won't be able to really climb or use a weapon properly, and if you get hit in the leg, you would hardly be able to move at all afterward. These wounds could perchance be healed, however, if a long enough time has passed and you can treat it the proper way. If you don't, then you'll probably bleed out or be killed very easily.
In addition, the implementation of Oculus Rift would be awesome, but I don't know if everyone would be able to handle that for six hours, even with breaks.
jurebj wrote:I would like to see Assassins Creed.
That's already being done.
