Hi,
My name is Michael and I am really interested in your project.
I would love to participate as a writer/storyteller.
I've never written for a video game but I wrote and sold a few
screenplays. Right now, I am just finishing a novelization for
teenagers of the myth of Samson, which will be published in Februray
next year.
I tend to agree with the fact that if the gamer's goal is to simply
hack website, it seems a bit dry.
That is how he will play the game. But the story around it should be a
little "sexier".
An idea that I had was that the game would start with a simple mission
where an AI would contact the player. At first, it's very much a
simulation game. You would hack websites to help your AI grow. And at
first, your AI would just appear as different windows on your computer
screen. But depending on the websites you hack, it would get some sort
of appearance. Little animals, punk features, and the more websites
you hack, the more elaborate the AI representation would get.
Then, once you've helped your AI to pass a level or two, you'd realize
that it did'nt contact you by chance. It has informations on your
avatar. Depending you choose to play an average Joe guy or a
politician or a rock star, the AI would launch at you - without
knowing exactly what it means - informations that clearly indicate you
are in trouble. From a colleague that wants to get you fired to your
manager hiring a contract killer to get rid of you, you are in
trouble. And at the same time, if you want the AI to keep on helping
you (to get all the informations and how you can retaliate, you need
to help it too.
That could be your missions. This way, there would be a clear goal
with some kind of "ticking clock" for the player to keep him/her on
his/her toes.
(The informations could also show something good is about to happen:
you will get an award... except, when you start to enjoy it, you're
about to get corrupted or manipulated...)
And then as a bigger picture, when the multiplayers mode starts, you
get to find out that all those little plot are part of a bigger plot,
somebody is trying to get rid of the AIs... because they are not easy
to control... as the player will find out. The AIs have their own
logic, AI's logic, and they don't really interprete "helpful" the same
way humans do from time to time.
So you could have 4 different positions:
- hardcore conservative: strong, forceful AI hunters
- hardcore liberal: strong, forceful AI protectors and counterAI hunters
- moderate conservative: would try to pass laws and regulations to
control AIs
- moderate liberal: ... you get the picture ;)
And of course, the hardcore stance would be the more appealing, except
it would be the more sensitive because when you would loose a
"battle", you would loose big, for instance.
And the control of the Internet would become a political battle...
because it could mean controlling/rewriting history, ideas, religion,
the monetary system...
And at first it would appear the humans are leading this struggle,
while in fact it would actually be the act of the original AI, the
first one that is still struggling between helping the humanity to
florish or destroying it, because it cannot foresee its evolution but
depending on the day, and the leading mentality of the moment, its
point of view keeps on changing... it's not exactly a god... but it's
the closest thing to it Mankind created, ruling our virtual world now
means ruling the material world... Except nothing is written in stone
and the balance can still be tilted.
And a bit like the ending of Angel season 4, taking it down can be a
good or a bad thing, the player would have to decide for him/herself.
And some could try to support it...
That is the gist of the idea I got after reading what you are aiming at.
Can't wait to get your feedback.
Michael
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