Kotaku, by way of Games Radar has a snippet from the latest issue of EDGE magazine (the European answer to American gaming print journalism), in which Hideo Kojima, developer of the Metal Gear series, and close, personal friend of mine, goes into great detail about his ideas for a game centered on undead hordes; aka zombies. Here's a quote:
"The zombie idea I have is a bit different," Kojima told Edge magazine during an interview published in this month's issue, explaining that he's "less interested in the idea of the living dead than the fact you can turn people just by biting them". Perhaps a new idea for any third-party peripheral makers looking for the next big Wii gadget?
Kojima goes on to explore his idea, stressing that he'd like to offer a "truly online version" of the zombocalypse. "Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can't control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles." So far, so very, very Kojima.
"They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch!" Koj continues. "The only way they could end it is by opening another account, hunting themselves down and killing themselves. Of course, the problem is that your second character can get bitten as well."
Highbrow art-gaming? Check.
Shambling undead hordes? Check.
Necrotic cannibalism? Check and double-check.
If Kojima ever gets around to making this game, I will give him my child. Not just make him a godparent, no, I will actually mail my daughter to him. If he wants to eat her, that's his business. Anyone who can make me a zombie game like that deserves a delicious baby from time to time.
Contest:
5:41 AM on 02.16.2007
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Now I can pay money for it too!!
K0j!m4: lol
F4nb0y5000: wtf? my walletz!
K0j!m4; pwnt!
This is a flawed idea...heart is in the right place though.
Kojima thinks his shit does not stink...well i have news for him...
You wouldn't have to open another account and kill the zombie to stop paying. You would just cancel the account. There is no way they can keep charging you if you don't want to pay.
Kojima is a brilliant game designer. He's right up there behind Shiggy, but: "They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch!" What a dick.
You're trying to survive from the zombies, right? Well, treat it as such. Put a large survival element in there, give 'em the Dead Rising capacity of zombies in the maps.
The twist? When you go zombie, instead of losing control, you need to be impaired in some way. And not just a uncontrolled character. I think the zombie's field of view needs to be either masked or altered in such a way to where the zombies CANNOT see the humans as anything other than food. Put it under some sort of rudimentary heat vision or something, but it could be worked out. And give incentive other than just watching to play as a zombie.
Unfortunately, as a game character, the zombie is as disposable as they come. Imagine you get in a really intense fight, you die, succumb to the zombie you, and then 2 seconds later, Frank plows into you with a red convertible, along with 300 other people. Not as much fun anymore eh? I think an online component to a zombie game is good. We've seen Land of the Dead incorporate small scale war well with zombies, I don't see why that would be a bad thing. I'd do some UT-styled Assault missions to get from checkpoint A to B through a horde of zombies.
I was thinking the same thing as the image issues. Maybe they see just a plain body, or something. Don't know if that would be too hard. Maybe have their vision be impared as in you can only see so far and you can't see everyone. Perhaps a lock on feature that you pretty much zone everyone else out but althoughs you to drag along a little quicker and have more attack power?
Also to eliminate the death, perhaps have a ton of zombies and you can start as a zombie but make it able that when you die you can control one of the other zombies around?
the game would get increasingly more difficult, as more accounts have turned in to zombies.
whats the differnece between your character getting bit and losing control over losing your last life in any other game? you put the quarter in, and try again. at least you get to see what your 'dead' character is up to, which has its own novelty.
but this all depends on the pricing model, if it was expesnive to open an account, then its a pretty lousy idea. if its no different than a quarter in an arcade machine, whats the big deal? maybe $3 a life or something...
it would also have to have no rpg elements, leveling up your character just to lose it indefinately blows. losing a couple dollars or weapons, but being able to start on fairly even footing as everyone else could be amazing.
imagine cooperating with a bunch of people and pretty much reenacting the bus scene from dawn of the dead. awsome.
Yeah I could understand if it is $3 a life...but do you really think they would do it for cheap? I would say the lowest price they would dare to do would be at LEAST $10.
But I think you have the general idea of how it could be well done. I'd pay $3 for a life to run around and play around with a group of ppl but it would suck if you did horribly and just kept dying, I would be PISSED!
But I think another issue is that some people will probably want to play as a zombie.
its all in how the game is presented, i don't see where the appeal would be in playing as a zombie if the game is a zombie hunting game. the play mechanics that can be applied to zombie players are so limited. maybe a stripped feature set as novelty, like someone said earlier, with restricted view and control, but if the emphasis is on zombie hunting, this could defiantely work.
i am not too familiar w/ pricing models of online games, but don't you buy the disc, then pay monthly fees on games like warcraft?
maybe you could buy the disc for like $40, and it would come with 5 lives or so, then you could be additional lives for $5 or less.. that seems fair.
Also, if you're mates were playing, they could kill you so you get your account back. I think it all sounds pretty badass. They could reset the game every now and then anyway.
Kojima has disappeared up his own poop shoot!
You make a badass zombie hunter and then your zombie hunter becomes a zombie by accident or on purpose. Then you go and make another zombie hunter to kill your former badass zombie hunter.
The concept itself, unused in gaming today, is just cool. Plus, we need more Zombie MMOs.
We have Zombie MMOs to start with?
WHERE? I want!
Zombies suck.
No more fucking zombies!
Anyway,
A) If it's all on one account, just different profiles, I could see it working.
B) I need Dead Rising.
C) Urban Dead's the shit, even though I was dead by the second time I logged in.
D) The Japanese are fucking nuts, and I love it. Look at Katamari Damacy.